“As he emerged from the shadows, his figure took on dimension — grossly and immensely fat. And with subtle bulges beneath folds of his dark robes to reveal that all this flesh was sustained partly by portable suspensors harnessed to his flesh. He might weigh two hundred standard kilos in actuality, but his feet would carry no more than fifty of them”

– Frank Herbert “Dune” (1965)

The protagonist of Kuba Bąkowski’s project presented during the Open City 2016 festival is Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, a fictional character from a world-famous saga “Dune” by Frank Herbert. He is the Siridar Governor of Arrakis, a desert planet of strategic importance for development of a situation in the intergalactic space. Harkonnen, having a brilliant mind and at the same time being famous for his perverse cruelty, is one of the antagonists fighting to gain control over the mission to pursue a mysterious substance referred to as melange or the spice. The substance allows to mentally transcend the limits of space and time – to set out on intergalactic and interdimensional travel. Mortified in the battle for the control over Arrakis deserts, Baron Harkonnen is brought back to life in the work by Kuba Bąkowski in a new, paradoxical context. His huge body filled with toxic reeks is connected to a waste pumping device, thus forming a human-machine hybrid. Harkonnen-Bathyscaphe-Landing Module chose Rybny Square for his landing site, next to the former municipal bath and a brothel run once by the local executioner.