Wilhelm Sasnal's paintings and drawings often pro ject a decidedly cinematic character that recalls film stills or individual frames of a cartoon. The Polish artist's emphasis on framing bits of action or non-action provokes the feeling that the viewer is often peering into one of his works as though it were a television monitor, with all the clarity that implies. Though these aspects of Sasnal's work point to the photographic source material that he relies on, it's unsurprising that he has finally undertaken a feature film of his own. The film, Swiniopas an elliptical rendering of the perverse Hans Christian Andersen fable The Swineherd, 1842, along with a recent series of related paintings and drawings, com prises Sasnal's moving yet unnerving new body of work. While Andersen's tale began with a familiar 'Once upon a time …', Sasnal's begins with dialogue that is a little less winsome: “One word to anyone and I'll kill you,” gasps an old farmer to his indolent swineherd, as they hide some sheet metal in a barn's loft. [...]

Quinn Latimer

Catalogue excerpt
fast forward 2. The Power of Motion
Media Art Sammlung Goetz
Editors: Ingvild Goetz and Stephan Urbaschek
Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz, 2010

Swiniopas (Schweinehirt), 2009
1-Kanal-35mm-Film (Farbe, Ton), 85 min 46 s