Agnieszka Polska’s: The Demon’s Brain was the standout piece for me in Berlin, I sat there for ages in her installation, mesmerised by the film projected around me. The monotonous voice lulled me into a kind of trance that I could not break away from. In this process I managed to lose my friends as they had gotten up and walked off.

It was something about this enormous dark space, the cavernous room which was only lit by the screens, where you could lie down on the foam seating and become so small compared to it all. You were also surrounded by the screens, everywhere around you her work was projected onto these huge screens where you had to lie back to get the full effect and take it all in. The multiple pieces of audio playing created a constant atmosphere, where a small part of it could stand out to you and would catch your ear and you would be drawn to a new screen. But when I was watching each one, especially the one with the ravens it was like everything around me disappeared and my attention was focused solely on this, again it was like I was in a trance and almost hallucinating. The nature of her video was foreboding and had a darker side to it but one had a more childish and playful element to it which is something I am interested in, the contrast between childish elements and a darker side. A quote which stood out to me which I wrote down at the time from one video (a still from this is below) was; ‘misery is the condition for growth’ Thinking on this quote it is true, if we live in misery and experience this then there is the potential that we will want to change this and develop and attempt to come away from this. I am not sure about this but I would like to look more into this concept of growth from misery, since growth doesn’t just come about, it needs a catalyst. It is a more human kind of growth, of course we evolve and develop and grow within certain parameters but misery is a human emotion and causes growth of us emotionally and the social side of our existence. I don’t really know where I am going with this thought but I would definitely like to consider it more.

Back to Polska’s installation, on the museum website it says that it is to do with ‘the ethical question of how individuals can assume social responsibility amid the overwhelming demands of the present moment’. The videos consist of a rider delivering letters who gets lost and then experiences a demon who’s dialogue mixes together old beliefs and the modern issue with material consumption, the environment and developing AI. Salt, one of the main ideas within the story since it was a valuable commodity from the time it was set. It deals with issues which are from a long time ago in Poland but are very relevant to today, the mining of salt became a drain on resources and an expensive and dangerous liability on society and people. This is an issue which is very poignant today.

The installation also consists of a wall of texts which discuss ways which we can potentially remove ourselves from the void of darkness which we are slipping into. However for me the film held the most influence and interested me the most. Being part of a generation where information given to us revolves around a visual stimulus I am naturally inclined to the film and it provides me with a richer amount of information than a piece of text. The mixture of moving picture and the constant hum of noise and the commentary between each piece provides a more encompassing experience which stimulates more of your senses.

The way that the Demon addresses the man about how he can change the course of history is true and important today but Polska also shows how can a single human’s actions change history. It is this same dichotomy which I am extremely interested in it holds the idea that humans need to take responsibility for the world and it is down to us to change it. However, as I have discussed before, it is exceedingly difficult to promote change on small scale, as an individual or a small company especially in a world increasingly dependant consumerism. It is a complex web of arguments and contrasting propositions which is becoming more tangled.