Perec. Things. Machine

Video is locating Georges Perec debut novel „Things” from 1969 in one of the drama theaters in Culture Palace of Warsaw in 2017. Camera is slowly moving, from the bottom of the building to the top, examining all the spaces that are not accessible to theater viewers. Circular movements are accompanied by adaptation written by a director, that turns descriptive language of Perec into an intimate dialogue. The lines are interpreted by two famous Polish actors that established their careers in times of transformation - Andrzej Chyra and Magdalena Cielecka. Chyra and Cielecka play roles of a young aspiring couple, Silvie i Jerome from Perec's novel, but here they are more like their ghosts, summarizing their choices and settling with the past.
Camera movements construct the world that is immediately deconstructed. Director creates illusion of holity showing only flickering details. She tries to grasp the materiality of love and violence, treats architectural symbol of PRL (People's Republic of Poland) as medium – bunker for those, who want to dream. It is also a sentimental journey. Miller used to work in the theater at the age of 18 till 20. It was her first contact with Warsaw, professional theater and politics. Artist revisits all the known places, sneaks into rooms imprinted in the memory, meets again people she used to work with. The space in a way stayed the same, but on the other - everything is distant today, different. The movie becomes a gesture of repetition, opens a space for personal archive in which everything is and is not nostalgic.