Between 2007 and 2009, Żmijewski and his crew recorded public assemblies across Europe and the Middle East. The videos show crowds at events including anti-NATO demonstrators in France, Polish union members proclaiming their desire to “live with dignity,” and the raucous fans at a German-Turkish football match. Multitudes of bodies form in seemingly similar ways, but to disparate ends: they swell into populist fervor, exercise their right to appear, or lay claim to public space, only to be corralled by riot police, metal barriers, and other forms of state control. “I chose the title ‘Democracies’ because it’s a lie,” Żmijewski noted. “One of the basic democratic rules is to observe the equality of citizens. That’s why I described these movies as ‘Democracies’—because of the lack of democracy in these countries.”
Signals: How Video Transformed the World, March 5–July 8, 2023
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