OFF Festival Katowice 2012: “Paris Berlin Katowice”
We present an artwork that will be featured on the official festival t-shirt and reproduced in large scale on a billboard by the mBank Stage: Sławomir Elsner’s “Paris Berlin Katowice.”
“Paris Berlin Katowice” – originally titled “Paris Berlin Warsaw,” but renamed by the author especially for the OFF Festival – is a series of three drawings depicting flaming cars. The images may evoke associations with dark, American rock’n’roll-era films, but recent events such as the rioting in the Parisian banlieues and other European cities are equally valid.
Born in Wodzisław Śląski and currently based in Berlin, Sławomir Elsner is an artist first introduced to the OFF Festival last year, when he painted a mural depicting a tightrope walker at 21 Mariacka Tylna street in Katowice. Rather than charming us with its finesse, this year’s piece shocks viewers with its brutal literalness, while drawing our attention to the poetic – or even fantastical – aspects found in such a powerful theme as burning cars.