Rafał Betlejewski

Professional activities

Social actions

• Beautiful Agony – Anna Politkovskaya: On 20 February 2014, Betlejewski posted a video less than two minutes in length on his YouTube channel in which he masturbates and orgasms in the staircase where Anna Politkovskaya, a Russian journalist and human rights activist, was murdered. The video description indicates that it is one of the 14 videos that he made during his artistic residency in Moscow at the invitation of the National Center for Contemporary Art and the Polish Institute.
• ': A controversial television experiment created as part of the program Betlejewski. Provocations, recorded in Radom and broadcast on TTV. The program features desperate residents of Radom looking for work. They were recorded with hidden cameras in staged scenes during fictitious job interviews. During the interviews, hired actors offered unaware program participants a well-paid job if they agreed to act unlawfully or provide services that went far beyond expected responsibilities for a job. The experiment was met with criticism from some journalists, who considered Rafał Beltejewski's actions to be unethical.
• "Hunger"
• "Burn shame." In this campaign, organized from 2001 to 2004, Betlejewski addressed his message to employees who were not satisfied with work in large corporations: "You got corrupted, come to burn shame." Happenings also took place during this campaign, consisting of the burning of artifacts of corporate life, such as company pens, floppy disks, employee opinions, etc.
• I miss you, Jew!: Although the idea was created in 2004, the slogan itself was not created until a year later. There are several projects contained within the main project. One such project consisted of photographing Poles in public spaces once associated with Polish Jews, alongside an empty chair and a kippah placed on it. Another project consisted of writing the slogan "I miss you, Jew" on walls. This was done not just by himself, and Betlejewski encouraged others to write the slogan on their own as well. Subsequently, these slogans, both legal and illegal, began to appear throughout Poland, with photos of them being posted on a common website online. On the same website, Betlejewski created a space for preserving the memories of Jews in Poland as well as for expressing memories related to those memories. He defined the purposes of his activities as " to retrieve the word Jew, take it away from the anti-Semites who are the only ones in this country who use the word freely. I am striving to build a platform for expressing positive emotions towards the people referred to as Jews."
• "TV chapel" ': In an act of protest against a provision in a media law adopted by parliament stating that public media is to promote Christian values, Rafał Betlejewski erected a chapel in the Ochota district of Warsaw, decorated it with ribbons and flowers, and placed a television set in its center rather than a holy picture. The chapel operated for two weeks, generating not only interest from nearby residents and people passing by, but acts of aggression as well.

Photography

• "Let's get to know each other. Zielona Góra – here and now. " In 2002, on 40 billboards in Zielona Góra, Betlejewski used the slogan "Let's get to know each other. Zielona Góra: here and now" to present photographs of notable city residents in fun and casual situations. Subjects included the local police commander, Mrs. Kasia from the solarium, employees of the vodka factory, the surgeon from the provincial hospital as well as the city's president.
• "I prefer Poland." A series of photos published in 2004 on postcards addressing problems in Polish perceptions towards residents of other countries. Betlejewski photographed tourists and residents of these cities in Rio de Janeiro and Cape Town, holding boards with inscriptions praising Poland, such as "Sopot is legendary for us", "I would live in Radom", "The Baltic is a real grazing", and "Long live bigos".
• "And would I go?" Also in 2004, the artist created a series of posters depicting veterans and participants of the Warsaw uprising. They were depicted in unusual poses, and shown in funny situations and contexts.

Paratheatrical activities

• "Milk" : Under the auspices of the TR Warszawa theatre in Warsaw, Betlejewski directed and implemented the "Milk – Take Away Theater" project in 2005 and 2006 with Agnieszka Podsiadlik, Eryk Lubos, Jan Drawnel, Tomasz Tyndryk, and Rafał Maćkowiak. The act consisted of a home-ordered performance for 500 zł of a half-hour presentation on the market situation for milk, the actors asking questions for a milk advertising campaign, and ultimately the actors leaving the home without saying a word. The performance was performed in a variable composition of three people. Betlejewski explained that he wanted to arouse catharsis in the viewer, and also wanted to ""unmask the rules governing consumerism, expose the traps lurking behind attractive packaging, and ask about the role of theater".
• "I Like You and You Like Me.": This project was implemented at the Orchard Gallery in New York City. Together with his curator, Barbara Piwowarska, Betlejewski shut himself for three days in the gallery's exhibition hall in 2006. The social and professional roles of both individuals were mixed with intimate roles. The idea for this project was inspired by Mircei Cantor's Departure and Joseph Beuys' I Like America and America Likes Me, in which Beyus spent three days with a coyote alone in a gallery room.
• Transparent Theater: In 2006 and 2007, under the auspices of the Transparent Theater, of which he founded, Betlejewski took part in a number of para-theatrical projects that involved playing typical social roles, such as a writer, manager, father in the park, teacher on the train, artist on the bridge, and cousin at lunch. He prepared for each performance by creating a stereotypical representation of a given group and providing himself with props characteristic of the persona. All performances took place in public spaces or public places; for example, the role of Teacher on the train was played on InterCity trains. Betlejewski initiated conversation with passengers on the train using the language of teachers gained from posts on internet forums. He only revealed himself, by handing out leaflets to fellow passengers stating that they took part in a performance, right before the destination station. In these performances, Betlejewski played numerous identities so that he could "be able to regain control over and put them into practice in his own terms".
• One Day Theater: In 2009, Betlejewski made an appeal for people to play their own parts on World Theatre Day the next year, on 27 March. This was done in cooperation with the Theater Institute Zbigniew Raszewski, with the action named 'One Day Theater'. Betlejewski described this action as conceptual in nature, taking place primarily in the mental space of its participants. He described the action's purpose as to make people aware that everyone acts in multiple roles every single day, whether they actively realize it or not.

Books

• Ebook.