David Rych

Encounter

The title of the work refers to the envisioned meeting of two groups involved in workshops held by the artist in the frame of Manifesta 8. The term “encounter”, as coined by Viktor Frankl, in the context of existential-humanism, has the specific meaning of an authentic, congruent meeting between individuals.

Encounter will be realized in a series of interrelated processes of video workshops given at two penitentiary facilities. Two simultaneous workshops will be instigated, the first will be formed of long term convicts, the other group involves adolescents, who are held in police custody (or detained in a similar correction facility for juvenile delinquency).

During the course of both workshops the groups are given a brief introduction in video making, as much as image politics and consequently being led towards questions of space and identity, as a mutual focus in the practical part. Self-description could be a method for personality rendering and at the same time de-essentialize the idea of “the prisoner“. Each participating inmate will be requested to create imagery, which may serve as a codified self-portrait. The results may reach into an intimacy beyond panoptical supervision, as a dominant

The documentary follow juvenile delinquents, who attend a visit to the high security tract of the penitentiary and is given an introduction to conditions within by experienced inmates – a group of prisoners serving long-term incarceration, who consequently take the position of educators. In the course of the encounter the prisoners may take the central stage to talk about their individual stories, but also channel their empirical experience and frustration towards the youth – so they carry away a lesson for life. The experiment gives a voice to the protagonists who, entirely part of a parallel society since years, carry anger and awareness that developed in long-term isolation – to give the youngsters a crash course in prison life as a prospective future scenario to be avoided.