This installation of moving-image projections, shown in The Wapping Project's atmospheric, bare brick and tiles boiler room, functions more as a taster or trailer for the work of Lech Majewski than as a full-blown show of the award-winning Polish artist/filmmaker's work. The piece that seems most effective is a triptych of three short film sequences, projected high up on the back wall, from 'Bruegel Suite', itself a series of excerpts from Majewski's recent feature film 'The Mill and the Cross', 2011, starring Michael York, Charlotte Rampling and Rutger Hauer.
The feature film is a multi-layered and sumptuously cinematic reworking of Pieter Bruegel's complex and detailed painting 'The Way to Calvary', (1564) (Bruegel is also portrayed in the film, played by Hauer), in which the suffering of sixteenth-century Flanders under the Spanish Inquisition is shown alongside the suffering of Christ on his way to and on the cross. While 'Bruegel Suite' works as a kind of moving fresco, it in no way does justice to the stunning visuals and attention to detail in the film, partly because much of that detail is lost due to the tiled projection surface but also because the work here is silent, whereas the feature film is not.
Other works seem similarly diminished. 'Blood of a Poet', based on filmed images depicting the mind of a troubled young writer, was originally shown as a 33-screen installation. Majewski later re-edited the sequences into a single screen feature but at Wapping there are only four sequences shown.
Majewski seems to be a filmmaker of particular vision – able to combine complex narrative structures with extraordinary images capturing recurring themes including pain and suffering, religious iconography and the mystery and transience of life. But after seeing the work here, I'd suggest also seeking out his work in other formats – particularly the full version of 'The Mill and the Cross', available as a US import on region 1 DVD.