The Avant-Garde as a Laboratory of Cinema: Alexander Hackenschmied’s ‘Photo-Film’ Practice in the Perspective of “Medienverbund”
Grażyna Świętochowska
grazyna.swietochowska@ug.edu.plUniversity of Gdańsk (Poland)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0241-1722
Abstract
The article aims to revive the memory of Alexander Hackenschmied (1907-2004), a Czech photographer, editor, cinematographer, director, and author of two experimental films, who is almost absent from Polish literature on the subject. Also known as Hammid, Hackenschmied was an important figure in the Czech avant-garde and an artist who operated on the international art scene. In order to capture and problematise the dynamics, multifaceted nature, and multiplicity of cultural and social contexts of Hammid’s activities, the author, following Malte Hagener, uses the potential of the concept of Medienverbund. This category refers to an integrated network of media and social practices, institutional, personal and symbolic connections associated with specific urban or industrial complexes. Examining the artist’s work – especially during its European phase – through the lens of this concept, the author analyses the circumstances of the “production” of an artist who, from the outset, transcended the local and vernacular in order to create a much broader artistic landscape.
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Keywords:
Alexander Hackenschmied, Medienverbund, Czech avant-gardeReferences
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Authors
Grażyna Świętochowskagrazyna.swietochowska@ug.edu.pl
University of Gdańsk Poland
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0241-1722
Assistant Professor at the Institute of Cultural Studies, University of Gdańsk. From 2008 to 2022, she was the editor-in-chief of the academic journal Panoptikum. Her research interests include the history of Central European audiovisual culture as well as the intersections of cinema, art, architecture, and design. In 2023, her research monograph Kino mniejsze. W kręgu filmów czeskiej i słowackiej nowej fali [Minor Cinema: On Czech and Slovak New Wave Films] (2022) was awarded by the Polish Society for Film and Media Studies as the best debut book in film studies. In 2025, she received the Pomeranian Voivodeship Marshal’s Scholarship for cultural creators.
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