The Art of Un-War is an in-depth exploration of the life and the powerful art interventions of renowned artist Krzysztof Wodiczko. The film investigates how Wodiczko has created powerful responses to the inequities and horrors of war and injustice over the past five decades. Throughout the film, the artist’s powerful interventions become examples of how art can be used to disrupt public complacency.
The film delves into timely works such as the Abraham Lincoln War Veteran Projection in Union Square, NYC, where Wodiczko projects the voices and images of war veterans from the 20th and 21st-century wars onto the statue of Lincoln. The participants' stories of loss, displacement, abuse and PTSD combined with Wodiczko’s own story of trauma emerge in tandem as the projects become a vehicle for healing. Other projects in the film feature refugees from Iraq, North Africa, homeless people from New York, and war veterans from France.
Wodiczko’s trajectory unfolds from his birth in Warsaw during World War II, to his expulsion from Poland by the communist regime, to today. This in-depth exploration into the life and art of the Polish-born artist focuses on the recurring themes of war in his work throughout his five decades career. Wodiczko's public projections become impactful responses to the inequities and horrors of war and injustice.
The evolution of Wodiczko’s political art unfolds throughout the film from his first intervention created in Warsaw in 1968 in response to censorship, to one of his most ambitious projects and a focal point of the film - a radical proposal to transform Paris’ Arc De Triomphe war monument into a site for peace-building research and activism. Wodiczko counters the monument’s glorification of war and portrayal of distorted histories by constructing scaffolding around the Arc De Triomphe and transforming it into its complete antithesis.
The Art of Un-War has been used widely by educators in the following fields: Art, Activism, Cinema, Media, Design and Architecture, War, Peace and Conflict, International Relations, Anthropology, Sociology, Social Practice Art, and Socially Engaged Art. The Art of Un-War is a great tool that ignites insightful conversations about peacebuilding, immigration, using art to create social change, and much more.