Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Guest

Let’s take a close look at Krzysztof Wodiczko’s Guest, a limited performance installation made specifically for the visitors that attended the 53rd International Art Exhibition’s Polish Pavilion.

The work is a video projection of eight arched windows and a rectangular skylight set against the darkened walls and ceiling of the Polish Pavilion in Venice. The eight illusory windows depict street scenes of the silhouettes of working-class immigrants while on the elongated skylight projected on the ceiling of the room, a worker appears to clean the skylight’s glass panes. The voices of immigrants living in Poland and Italy, but coming from different countries of the world such as Chechnya, Ukraine, Vietnam, Romania, Sri Lanka, Libya, Bangladesh, Pakistan or Morocco can be heard as their images are seen through the projections. 

Life-sized images of people in dark clothes living in the margins of society physically move through their daily lives. We see them working, walking, talking and laughing. We see a man sliding off a rope and hitting the floor. We see a worker on a hydraulic lift washing windows, a person standing on a ladder, a man passionately speaking and gesturing with his hands, women dancing, youth spending time together. We see immigrants trying to peek through the glass, debris being blown onto the skylight and being cleaned away. We see groups of people and individuals. We see people on different levels: some on the ceiling, some on the lift cleaning windows, some sitting, some standing.
One worker places his face close to the glass, cupping his hands on either side of his face, attempting to block the incoming light so he can see through the glass to the other side. It is also significant that not everyone outside is interested in what is behind the glass. Only a few people try to see through into the gallery space.


Yet we are separated from all these actions by an invisible pane of glass. The images appear unfocused, as if the windows contain frosted glass panels that block our ability to see the immigrants clearly. The images of the people outside of the projected windows are also out of focus, just as the viewer must also be out of focus to those peering in from the outside.  Although the images are life size, and the viewer is only feet from the images, we cannot make out the details of their lives.
We hear the voices of immigrants that are living in Poland and Italy. We hear the native languages of countries such as Chechnya, Ukraine, Vietnam, Romania, Sri Lanka, Libya, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Morocco. We hear stories of the immigrants' lives, their conversations as they share their hardships, the sounds of their work.

We can’t make out the details of their ages and identities, but from their silhouettes and their voices, we understand that they represent the working class from the margins of society. Some seem sad, others playful, others frustrated.


The background space behind the images is neutral and the feeling within the room is contemplative, whereas the world outside, presented through the projections, is more active, vibrant, fluid, chaotic.

The images appear only feet from where we are standing. We hear real voices of working-class immigrants as we see their projected images on the walls and ceiling. This visual and aural phenomenon evokes the sense that the street interactions are happening in real-time.


The spaces between the window panes are dark as if you were sitting inside during a sunny day with the lights off. The windows appear bright, while the areas between them are dark.

The light coming through the window makes it possible to see the silhouettes of the figures, yet the darkness of the room gives the sense that we are hiding from the people that we can see. The darkness also allows us to see the light, each defining one another, yet creating clear boundaries that separate one from the other.

The light reveals and illuminates the forms and actions of immigrants, yet obscures their faces and identities.


Guest allows us to hear the actual voices of immigrants living in Italy. Shukri Sahil, from Libya, speaks, “...they don’t care what you feel, they just make you feel unwanted. They think you’re a burden who ought to be eliminated so they don’t listen to your case nor do they want to understand you. They just say: put him in prison and send him to Poland where he knocks his head against the wall.”

We hear the voice of Pauline R. from Africa, living in Poland, “... I am afraid to go back to my own family. I’m taking refuge in Poland because... I’m afraid of my own people, my own family members.”

We hear the voice of a young man from Northern Vietnam living in Poland, “I escaped across the sea in a boat, I crossed half the world running, and I really need a haven. I’m appealing to the Polish authorities to let me live, to listen to their conscience, and I’m appealing to the many Poles who listen to their consciences.”

We hear the voice of Autun, a Yugoslavian living in Italy “…And if I don’t exist, then history doesn’t exist either.”; Rouslan, from Chechnya living in Poland, “... Am I a refugee? Am I a human being? Who am I? That’s my situation; there’s no way out.”

We hear the voice of Ton Van Anh from North Vietnam living in Poland, “...Because others in this situation were stabbed in bright daylight in the center of Hanoi.”

We hear the voice of Madina from Chechnya, “... ‘Where do I go?’ I asked, it was winter time, ‘where do I go with my children, I don’t understand where I should live, where I should go...”

Wodiczko’s Guest is a haunting spectacle of moving images that is made more interesting as you pick up the headphones and hear the voices and conversations from behind the windows. The installation reminds us of a cinematic projection where the images and sounds are perceived by the viewer to be happening within ourselves.