SAN FRANCISCO, CA.-The CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts presents Artur Żmijewski's 39-minute film "Repetition" (2005), a documentary recording his reenactment of Professor Zimbardo's 1971 Stanford Prison Experiment. The film screens every hour on the hour at the CCA Wattis Institute's Logan Galleries through February 21, 2006. Professor Zimbardo's experiment, which isolated groups of graduate students in randomly designated roles of prisoners and guards in a simulated prison, had to be interrupted due to the participants' own abusive behavior.

For "Repetition," Żmijewski hired unemployed Polish men to play the roles of prisoners and guards. Filmed with hidden cameras, their behavior quickly progresses from playacting to acts of seemingly genuine frustration and anger. Confrontations escalate, but just when it seems Żmijewski's experiment will replicate the original, things take an unexpected turn.

The outcome raises questions about individual responsibility and social roles, the similarities and differences between art and science, and whether either can offer convincing conclusions about human nature.

"'Repetition' is not only a conceptually astute investigation of ethics, but also an intriguing and innovative example of narrative art," says Ralph Rugoff, director of the CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts. "Artur Żmijewski has emerged over the past five years as one of the most consistently challenging, provocative and profoundly thoughtful artists in Europe. His work examines in an unflinching manner complex moral issues that few of his contemporaries ever address."

Born in 1966 in Warsaw, Żmijewski works exclusively with photography and film, often taking the position of an observer of human behavior, provoking and studying unusual situations. His works often reference the aesthetics of violence and segregation and deal with fringe groups and the socially underprivileged.