The Choreographed Accident: Objects from the Pawel Avorsky Museum, Warsaw (detail), 2009 – 2010
Architectural model, video, and inkjet prints
Marcelino Stuhmer’s The Accidental Producer is multipart installation consisting of two-dimensional prints, graphically derived from newspapers and archival photographs, video, and an architectural model. Inside one of the rooms, Stuhmer has set up an office for his imaginary character, Paul Avery. Avery, also known as Pawel Avorsky, is a fictional character Stuhmer created for his installation. According to the textual portions of Stuhmer’s work, Avorsky was a spy for the British during World War II. In 1987, his apartment and darkroom were discovered in an apartment building inside the former Jewish ghetto in Warsaw. Many believed Avorsky to be a traitor, but in teasing out the elements of his life, Stuhmer focuses our attention on his important role in the development of jazz in Poland and in Europe.
Stuhmer is known for his installations involving painting, video, sounds, and graphic textual treatments. In each of his works, he uncovers layers and nuances of historical fact and fiction for the viewer, offering an entry into the vagaries of past events. For this work, Stuhmer created an unreal personage as a way to reveal the stories of World War II and the cold war.
