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Where does the escape route lead from a dead-end situation?

The United States, in the second half of 2002. The convergence point of two economic cycles, the beginning of the economic recovery following the bursting of the dot-com bubble, and the crisis, whose course became a blueprint for all those that followed. The system, blinded by the pursuit of speculative profits, fails to learn from its own mistakes and, in order to survive, begins another cycle – like Ouroboros, endlessly consuming itself.

Echoing through the winding corridors of capitalism are the words spoken back in the 1980s by Margaret Thatcher: “There is no alternative.” The need for evacuation grows – a final departure from the suffocating confines of the surrounding environment.

The dreamlike, liminal spaces of a glitched-out office building, somewhere on the border between the real corporate system and a virtual operating system, serve as the backdrop for an attempt at escape, the outcome of which offers no clear answers.

The installation attempts to explore the extreme mental and physical states of the individual within the office space, treated as the result of systemic control mechanisms and constant pressure leading to a disruption of life’s balance. If, to quote Jonathan Crary, “Sleep is a radical interruption of capitalism’s theft of our time,” then the most effective form of struggle to preserve autonomy seems to be any manifestation of refusal to participate within its framework.

The narrative is built around a critical analysis of the state of the capitalist system and a definition of the individual’s position within a corporate context, based on three key themes: the system’s critical flaw, the evacuation plan, and capitulation.

The temporal distance from the story allows for a cooler assessment of the situation, leaving room to reflect on the relevance of capitalism’s oppressive tactics and to identify their entirely new forms.

Bartek Walczak – a visual artist, situation creator, and DIY enthusiast who enjoys working with existing spaces. His work revolves around speculative approaches to describing the surrounding world, nostalgic analog aesthetics, and the desire for a simpler life. He constructs his projects as immersive experiences, based on objects and video installations set within precisely designed scenography.

Selection committee members: Lena Peplińska, Rafał Żarski, Piotr Bosacki, Dagmara Domagała, Zuzanna Jaworska