Krzysztof Maniak ‘30 Seconds of Hanging from a Tree Branch Before It Broke’ — exhibition within project ‘Reservation’
Krzysztof Maniak likes his daily lonely walks in the area of Tuchów. He sets about to portray the melancholy landscape of the Polish hinterland, without concern for the simplicity of the theme. The lack of exoticism in monotonous dry grass, pine woods, blackthorns and grey patches of melting snow does not seem to weary him. He bravely forces his way through thick bushes and scrub, letting thistles stick into his clothing. There is consistency in his attempts to become domiciled. He differentiates various types of nesting habits, such as pressing down grass, stretching one's body to measure distance between tree trunks or becoming part of the geometrical constellations created by twigs and piles of stones.
In front of the camera, he puts on performances that are a kind of a simulated communication with the wilderness, which takes place under certain conditions and at a specific time. These regular training sessions in hard areas and scrambling-through-shrubs workshops are supposed to bring him into contact with the wildlife sanctuary. What Krzysztof Maniak does is reverse the process of colonisation. He is looking for nature that he could grapple with and mark on a map. He tries to blend in with the landscape, balancing on one leg in an awkward costume made from dry bush or hanging from a tree branch that is going to break soon. His figure leaves the frame, what remains is nature itself. Yet it is still the artist who allows this visual domination of nature to happen in the groomed form of landscape, which viewers are served with for contemplation.
Maniak's subsequent recordings reveal a change in his contact with nature. There is less and less bustle in his botanical procedure and we can hear the sensitivity akin to that of a legendary performer Bas Jan Ader, with his passion for melancholy, farewells and possible failure. The artist has become famous for his documentation of his own failures, which include a free fall from a roof of his house, riding a bike deep into a river or setting up traps for himself. One of his works featured his clothes strewn all over the roof of his house, as if someone had left them and gone swimming. Finally, equipped in a camera and a tape recorder, he left Cape Cod in a small boat with the aim of crossing the Atlantic, and vanished into the blue. His body has never been found, which triggered many speculations regarding his fate.
When looking at the thicket, Maniak succumbed to the temptation of escape. His most recent videos reveal preparations for his own vanishing. Instead of resorting to spectacular effects, he opts for humble Polish countryside. His fantasies revolve around sinking into rotten tree trunks, stepping into velvety conifers and dry, cracking twigs, or burying himself under dry leaf mould, Is there anything more picturesque than fabulous vanishing in a woods — this most primordial shelter and simplest hideaway?
