Filip Syczynski
Filip Syczyński is a director, screenwriter and painter. Filip's strong cinematic approach to storytelling creates work that is visually striking and emotionally engaging.
He was fortunate enough to work with directors such as David Lynch and Adrian McDowall. His movies have been screened at world-renowned film festivals, such as Sundance and Cannes.
Could you tell us more about your background and how you began creating art?
My background is in directing and screenwriting, hence my strong cinematic approach to storytelling creates work that is visually striking and emotionally engaging.
I was fortunate enough to work with directors such as David Lynch and Adrian McDowall. My movies have been screened at world renowned film festivals, such as Sundance and Cannes. I’m currently working on my debut film, THE GREAT MATCH, based on my story, which received the Eurimages Co-production Development Award.
Since I can remember, I have been moving with my parents from one country to the next looking for a better future. With each new language, and each new place to stay (even a couple of refugee camps), I tried to find a way to fit in and express myself. That one universal language has always been drawing and painting. So before I was a filmmaker, and even before I knew I was an artist, I expressed myself without words — through hundreds of images which I drew in each new place where we tried to survive at.
What does your art aim to say to its viewers?
Contemporary art, for me, has become too intellectual. Why does it always has to say “something”? Why does one have to read an accompanying book and know about art history to understand an artwork?
The most important things in our life have a direct impact on us surpassing our intellect. It can be an amazing view, a person which attract us, or even a stressful event — they touch our nervous system momentarily and so deep that we don’t know what happened to us.
I want my art to be like that. Go beyond words, beyond “saying” something”. You just feel it. Like the Buddhist saying goes: “First thought, best thought”. We get lost in life, because we go after our second, third, or even twentieth thought.
My paintings try to catch that first, initial impression.
Can you tell us about the process of creating your work? What is your daily routine when working?
I try to “catch” the first impression of something that touches me deeply and put it directly on the canvas. I don’t understand it at first ( sometimes even after completing it) and that is when I know that it is true. Like a dream which you know was important, but you can’t put it into words.
I paint 5 hours per day. Could I work longer? Sure, but art is not a marathon for me, but an exploration, and you can only dive deep into yourself for so long before having to come back up and catch some air again (and do the shopping, and pick your kids up from school:)
What is the essential element in your art?
I try to find the balance between figurative art and abstract elements. Without a body (even a part of it) in the canvas, I don’t feel anything. When it becomes too abstract it only engages me on an intellectual level. I’m still searching, and that search is my everyday happiness and personal freedom.
In your opinion, what role does the artist have in society?
Words fail us at every moment. The artist makes our ability to express ourselves, our “language”, much richer.
