Agnieszka Polska
The Demon's Brain, 2018

Artist
Agnieszka Polska

Title:
The Demon's Brain

Year of creation
2018

Technology and duration
four-channel video installation (UHD), 7:24 min, loop; Sound, wall texts, dimensions variable, edition of 5 + 1 AP, patron edition

Year of acquisition
2018

In the multi-channel video installation The Demon's Brain, Agnieszka Polska addresses the ethical question of how individuals can assume social responsibility in the face of an overwhelming present. The starting point for the work are letters from the 15th century that were addressed to Mikołaj Serafin, the manager of the Polish salt mines. In The Demon's Brain, Polska tells the fictional story of the riding messenger of documents in a mixture of live action and animation. On his way, the boy loses his horse and gets lost in a forest. There he has an unexpected encounter with a demon, in whose monologue Christian theological ideas are linked to today's developments and conditions of raw material consumption and environmental destruction, data economics and artificial intelligence.

The installation, designed for the Historical Hall of the Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Aktuell - Berlin, consists of four large-format projection surfaces and a wall with texts. The films show different scenes that run in an endless loop. However, they are synchronized in such a way that they also comment on each other. A deep, subliminal rhythm also unites the videos together. This interconnection bridges time periods. After the demon lets the messenger know that he can change the course of history, his recurring proclamation “It is not too late.” wanders through the historical hall and turns into an appeal to the *the viewer*in.

In The Demon's Brain, Agnieszka Polska 2017 negotiates the possibilities of individual action and taking responsibility. Although the messenger seems to follow the demon's call, from our perspective the development has probably not changed with this intervention. Does the individual's actions have any influence on the complex processes in the world around us and how can we decide which measures are actually right? Who can we trust with this decision?

Agnieszka Polska (*1985 in Lublin, Poland, lives in Berlin) was awarded the 9th Prize of the Nationalgalerie in 2017.