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Prochainement
Omer Fast "Nostalgia"
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Archives
2010
Both Before and After
The Boy Who Cried Wolf (Lefty Loosey, Righty Tighty)
Elina Brotherus, "Artists at Work"
Elina Brotherus, "Rétrospective"
2009
Deimantas Narkevicius
"Là où les eaux se mêlent"
Pratchaya Phinthong "What I learned I no longer know; the little I still know, I guessed"
"Nord, Nord-Ouest"
Roman Ondák "Fluid Border"
Ryan Gander « It’s a right Heath Robinson affair » (A stuttering exhibition in two parts)
Mark Geffriaud « Si l’on pouvait être un Peau-Rouge »
Berlin-Paris, un échange de galeries
2008
Yann Sérandour « Weiss »
Pia Rönicke & Zeynel Abidin Kizilyaprak «An Usual Story from a Nameless Country»
« Faces »
Jiri Kovanda «Two Cushions»
Omer Fast «De Grote Boodschap»
2007
« Cinematic Panorama »
Elina Brotherus
Pratchaya Phinthong «if I dig a very deep hole»
Julius Koller «Space is The Place»
Mac Adams «07-70»
« The Last piece By John Fare »
« Time Flies »
2006
Dominique Petitgand «Quelqu’un par terre (Someone one the ground)»
Pia Rönicke «Rosa's Letters - Telling a Story»
« Jiri Kovanda VS Reste du monde (Tentatives de Rapprochement) »
Roman Ondák «More Silent Than Ever»
« Outside The Living Room »
Deimantas Narkevicius «Instead of Today»
Omer Fast «Godville»
2005
« Petites Compositions entre amis - Séquence 3 »
« Petites Compositions entre amis - Séquence 2 »
« Petites Compositions entre amis - Séquence 1 »
Elina Brotherus «Model Studies»
2004
Pia Rönicke «Without a Name»
Loris Gréaud «Ending Introduction»
Robert Breer
Alban Hajdinaj «My Home is Your Home»
2003
« Links »
« Present Perfect »
Roman Ondák «Talker»
2002
Mac Adams «Beneath The Shadow»
Omer Fast
Deimantas Narkevicius
Dominique Petitgand
2001
Robert Breer
Elina Brotherus «Suites françaises 2»
« Hors-jeu »
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Mac Adams
Robert Breer
Elina Brotherus
Omer Fast
Ryan Gander
Mark Geffriaud
Július Koller
Jiri Kovanda
Deimantas Narkevicius
Roman Ondák
Dominique Petitgand
Pratchaya Phinthong
Pia Rönicke
Yann Sérandour

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Mac Adams
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Mark Geffriaud
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Jiri Kovanda
Deimantas Narkevicius
Roman Ondák
Dominique Petitgand
Pratchaya Phinthong
Pia Rönicke
Yann Sérandour

Program

Upcoming
Omer Fast "Nostalgia"
Current
Archives
2010
Both before and after
The Boy Who Cried Wolf (Lefty Loosey, Righty Tighty)
Elina Brotherus "Artists at Work"
Elina Brotherus, "Retrospective"
2009
Deimantas Narkevicius
Where water comes together with other water
Pratchaya Phinthong "What I learned I no longer know; the little I still know, I guessed"
Nord, Nord-Ouest
Roman Ondák "Fluid Border"
Ryan Gander "It’s a right Heath Robinson affair" (A stuttering exhibition in two parts)
Mark Geffriaud "If one were only an Indian"
Berlin-Paris, a gallery exchange
2008
Yann Sérandour "Weiss"
Pia Rönicke & Zeynel Abidin Kizilyaprak "An Usual Story From a Nameless Country"
"Faces"
Jiri Kovanda "Two Cushions"
Omer Fast "De Grote Boodschap"
2007
"Cinematic Panorama"
Elina Brotherus
Pratchaya Phinthong "if I dig a very deep hole"
Julius Koller "Space is The Place"
Mac Adams "07-70"
"The Last Piece by John Fare"
"Time Files"
2006
Dominique Petitgand
Pia Rönicke "Rosa's Letters- Telling a Story"
Jiri Kovanda "Jiri Kovanda vs Reste du Monde (Tentatives de rapprochement)"
Roman Ondák "More Silent Than Ever"
"Outside The Living Room"
Deimantas Narkevicius "Instead of Today"
Omer Fast "Godville"
2005
"Petites compositions entre amis - Sequence 3"
"Petites compositions entre amis - Sequence 2"
"Petites compositions entre amis - Sequence 1"
Elina Brotherus "Model Studies"
2004
Pia Rönicke "Without a Name"
Loris Greaud "Ending Introduction"
Robert Breer
Alban Hajdinaj "My Home is Your Home"
2003
"Links"
"Present Perfect"
Roman Ondák "Talker"
2002
Mac Adams "Beneath the Shadow"
Omer Fast
Deimantas Narkevicius
Dominique Petitgand
2001
Robert Breer
Elina Brotherus "Suites Françaises 2"
"Hors-Jeu"
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Art Basel Miami Beach
Fiac, Paris
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Mac Adams
Robert Breer
Elina Brotherus
Omer Fast
Ryan Gander
Mark Geffriaud
Július Koller
Jiri Kovanda
Deimantas Narkevicius
Roman Ondák
Dominique Petitgand
Pratchaya Phinthong
Pia Rönicke
Yann Sérandour

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Deimantas Narkevicius

Biography

Presentation

Originally trained as a sculptor, Narkevicius has mainly been working on storytelling using film and video. His central focus is an exploration of history with a current and subjective point of view. History itself has become his methodology and his primary material. Choosing moments in History has helped him understand physical and psychological phenomenon, and that process has made him reconsider his own place in the world.

In the film installation "His-story", the artist tells about a period in his country from a personal freely formed perspective, all the while using the style of a documentary. As in the title, Narkevicius is making a play on words: relating his own story to the history of Lithuania. He tells about his father, a highly placed government bureaucrat who was fired from his job without notice. Having no other explanation for this action, the state labeled him mentally unstable and had him committed.

The storytelling technique is unusual because the artist continually switches back and forth between moments from the past and the present, creating a sense of déjà-vu. Narkevicius deconstructs the linear narration, placing the story in both the past and the present, using the same techniques and styles that were seen in amateur films from the 1970s. These "docu-stories’" produced with outdated equipment are reminiscent of films from Soviet propaganda. This combination of techniques sets the film in an undefined place and time.

The work "Energy Lithuania" gets its name from a national power plant around which a city was artificially built in the 1960s. Narkevicius grew up at the same time as these urban utopias, these ideological illusions and symbols of economic development. Today the power plant is no longer economically viable and the city has become a ghost town. Those who still live there do so as if time has stopped. The electric city has become a souvenir. Narkevicius extracts the city from the past, like some interactive matter that he reworks into his own account. Perfectly versed in the visual codes of propaganda films shown on Lithuanian television, Narkevicius plays them up and recycles them in his contemporary story that judges the past.

"Legend coming true" (shot with super 8mm film) tells the story of a woman who survived the Vilnius ghetto. A long monologue accompanies four days of filming a static shot of buildings where shadow and light, night and day, are condenced into a one-hour film, an effect produced by using time lapse editing. The narrator tells the story of the 20th Century during her own life. The collective existence of a community is retold by the voice of one woman. The biographical nature of the story prompts us to reconsider the way history is told. The wish to show a film about the holocaust is an attempt to encourage a public debate in a local context, hoping to gain a real sense of the future. For instance, a screening of the film for the current residents of Vilnius.

In the film "Europe 54° 54’ -25° 19" (8 minutes, 16mm color), a cameraman riding in a car driven by the artist shot the film. Leaving his apartment, Narkevicius heads to the geographical center of Europe, a few kilometers away. The film follows the trip, from one place to the next, from an individual to an abstract idea, accompanied by the artist’s voice. In this instance, the center of Europe is less a physical geographical place than an ideological construction. During the Communist era, the idea of being part of Europe was in itself unimaginable.

Deimantas Narkevicius thinks of history as material for art that is alive. According to him, a work of art can always be thought of as an examination of other subjects. This is the crossroad where he positions his work.

Biography

Deimantas Narkevicius Born in 1964 in Utena, Lithuania. Lives and works in Vilnius, Lithuania.

The Documentary FilmPlatform ZONE, The Arts Center Buda, Kortrijk; The University Movie Theater Film Plateau, Ghent; MuHKA media, Antwerpen.

Building Memory: four films about architecture, monuments, and community, Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius.

3xYES, Latest acquisitions to the collection, Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, Warsaw.

XVI. Rohkunstbau: ATLANTIS I, Hidden Histories - New Identities, Schloss Marquardt, Potsdam.

Pierre Bismuth, Mario Garcia Torres, Annette Kelm, Deimantas Narkevicius, Jan Mot, Brussels.

El Pasado En El Presente Y Lo Propio En Lo Ajeno, LABoral Centre for Art and Creative Industries, Gijón (Asturias), Spain.

For Your Eyes Only on tour 2008/2009, Collections Frac Nord - Pas de Calais: Fundacio Sunol, Barcelone; Netwerk, Centrum voor hedendaagse kunst, Aalst; Shanghai Zendai Moma, Shanghai; Venice Video Art Fair, Venice; Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing; Lothringer 13, Städtische Kunsthalle München.

Lieux de vie - Mémoire et phantasme de l'enracinement, Abbaye Saint-André, Centre d'art contemporain, Meymac.

ArtFocus 2008, International Biennial of Contemporary Art, cur. Bernard Blistène & Ami Barak, Jerusalem.

Screening, Cinema Indeed - Narratives and Projections, Institute Itaú Cultural, São Paulo.

The Greenroom, The Hessel Museum and The Center for Curatorial Studies at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson.

You Are My Mirror 2 : les lendemains n'ont pas chanté, 49 NORD 6 EST - Frac Lorraine, Metz.

Future in the Past, Slovenian Pavilion, The 52nd International Art Exhibition Venice Biennial, Venice.

Deimantas Narkevicius and Jùlius Koller, Art Premiere, gb agency, Art 38, Basel.

The Last Chapter-Trace Route: Remapping Global Cities, The 6th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju.

Une vision du monde, La collection vidéo de Jean-Conrad et Isabelle Lemaître, Maison Rouge, Paris.

Biennale Cuvée, O.K Centrum für Gegenwarstskunst, Center for Contemporary Art, Linz.

The Future is not what it used to be, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig.

Brainstorming, topographie de la morale, Centre d'Art Contemporain, Vassivière.

Films by Anna Klamroth & Deimantas Narkevicius, Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee.

Now What, Dreaming a better world in six parts, BAK, Basis Voor Actuele Kunst, Utrecht.

The 8th Baltic Triennial of International Art, Centre of Attraction, Old Printing House, Vilnius.

Parc Humà, una exposicio de criatures globals, Institut de Cultura Palau de la Virreina, Barcelona.

Cool Places, 7th Triennial of Contemporary Baltic Art, Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius.

Personal Time, Art of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania 1945-1996, The Zacheta Gallery of Contemporary Art, Warsaw; Exhibition Hall, Saint-Petersbourg.

Bread and Salt, Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius; Edinburgh College of Art (1995); Cornehouse, Manchester (1996).

Bibliography

(selection)

Kaleidoscope #3, Reconstructing Reality, by Cecilia Canzani, September - October.

Metropolis M, Deimantas Narkevicius, Memory and Document in Times of Repression, by Dominic van den Boogerd, February - March.

Catalogue The Unanimous Life / La Vida Unanime, Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven.

Catalogue Can Art Do More?, Art Focus 2008, International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Jerusalem.

Catalogue Pensée Sauvage, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Revolver, Archiv Für Aktuelle Kunst.

A Prior Magazine, #14, Special Issue, text by Jean-Pierre Rehm and conversation with Deimantas Narkevicius by Larissa Harris.

Catalogue Deimantas Narkevicius, This is not what you see..., Bunkier Sztuki, Cracow.

Art Forum International, Deimantas Narkevicius, Akademie der Künste, by Jennifer Allen, March.

Le Monde, Le cercle restreint des collectionneurs d'art vidéo by Bérénice Bailly.

Catalogue Experience Memory, Re-Enactment, published by Piet Zwart Institute, Willem de Kooning Academy, Rotterdam and Revolver, Archiv für Aktuelle Kunst.

Catalogue Do Not Interrupt Your Activities, Royal College of Art Galleries, London.

1+1+1, Some notes on the work of Deimantas Narkevicius, by Lisa Panting, Issue One, Spring.

Catalogue Deimantas Narkevicius, The Role of a Lifetime, Art & Sacred Places, Brighton, text by Jan Verwoert.

Catalogue Utopia Station Posters, Haus der Kunst, Munich; Museum in Progress, Vienna.

Catalogue Déplacements, ARC, Musée d'Art Moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris.

Frieze, #72, Home Truths, How do you portray a historical crisis? by Jan Verwoert, Jan/Feb

Kunstverein München Magazine, Deimantas Narkevicius' Project, by Maria Lind, Fall.

Features, online magazine, Interview Deimantas Narkevicius by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Dec.

Kunstbulletin, Ohne Bemühen um politische Wirkung oder exotische Effekte, by Liutauras Psibiliskis, June.

Catalogue Parc Humà, una exposicio de criatures globals, Institut de Cultura Palau de la Virreina, Barcelona.

Le Monde, Des histoires dans l'histoire d'un vidéaste lituanien by Geneviève Breerette, April 14 -15.

Aden, Deimantas Narkevicius: L'impasse oblige à réfléchir, by Emmanuelle Lequeux, March 20-26.

Postmediamagazine, www.postmediamagazine.com, Legend Coming True by Emanuela De Cecco.

Gallery Magazine, Great 24, The Photographers' Gallery, London, Near and Elsewhere by Kate Bush, June - August.

Siksi, The Nordic Art Review, XIII, #3-4, Travels beyond time and space by Liutauras Psibilskis.

Catalogue Manifesta 2, European Biennale, Luxembourg, Deimantas Narkevicius by Raimundas Malasauskas & Jonas Valatkevicius.

Press Articles

Click on the underlined parts to download the texts in pdf

Kaléidoscope, # 3, "Reconstructing reality, The subjective documentaries on Deimantas Narkevicius", text by Cecilia Caziani, September-October

Arte e critica, #59, "Deimantas Narkevicius. Gatherer of stars and ruins", by Paolo Emilio Antognoli.

Metropolis M, #1, "Deimantas Narkevicius : Memory and Document in Times of Repression", by Dominic van den Boogerd, February - March.

A Prior Magazine, #14, Special issue, text by Jean-Pierre Rehm and conversation between Deimantas Narkevicius and Larissa Harris.

Art Forum International, ‘Deimantas Narkevicius, Akademie der Künste’, by Jennifer Allen, March.

Cac Interviu Magazine, ‘Those were the days, my friend...’ interview by Simon Rees.

Flash Art , ‘Deimantas Narkevicius, Against Monumentality’, interview by Hans-Ulrich Olbrist, October.

Frieze , n°72, ‘Home Truths, How do you portray a historical crisis?’ by Jan Verwoert, January - February

Films

Ausgetraümt

‘Ausgetraümt’ has no direct English translation but means a state between dream and reality at the point of waking up.

“The theme of the film is “naiveté”. I do understand “naiveté” as an initial state to be creative for any beginner in any field of arts. Without naiveté any young person, probably, would not choose to be an artist, so to be condemned for potential failure. Here I would like to refer to myself. I had to be absolutely naive (this is what my parents were telling to me) to choose to be a visual artist, in the late 80's when (in the Soviet Union) everything was falling apart. There was no precedent of success, or an example to follow in the country which was still isolated. Now, 20 years later, I can tell that in a way I have succeeded. I do act internationally, and, probably, can accept my self to be called an artist.

For this film I would like to re-approach to the state of mind of “naiveté” which I find quite beautiful and already lost. Here, I would like to document a small group of young boys who just started a band in Vilnius. I find it really naive to start a band in Lithuania with some international ambitions. Pop or rock music here was not really developed as a form of self expression at any period. No musician has made it internationally so far (besides classically trained performers) from here. I'm intending to follow that bunch of idealists, to ask them a few questions about their vision on their future, to get some of their reflections on their political, or more important, unsatisfying cultural environment.”

Into the Unknown

"Into the Unknown" is a film edited from material sourced from the E-TV archive, specifically footage from films produced by DEFA in the former-DDR. In the images there is everyday life of East Berliners documented over the course of 20 years (with a high proportion of footage from the 1970s and 1980s). The everyday scenes are of both the city and countryside, close-ups of people when they are relaxing, and hard at work, and of big crowds at an official outdoor gathering. The interior views are of private and public spaces. The images are suggestive of the ordering of the people's lives. Individuals are squeezed into strict social systems. The images, originally made to promote socialist way of living, show us how "well balanced" the socialist lifestyle was.

By re-editing different clips of films and mixing up the soundtracks I wanted to bring back a certain "existential weight" to those cinematic representations of archetypical socialist protagonists. Old workers, young pupils, concerned doctors and nurses are all fragile human beings, vulnerable to the flow of time. The flow washed away the system – twenty years ago. Even though many of the people in the film are still alive, their archetypal visualisation has changed, and only exists in the films produced by DEFA. The images have disappeared, their style is ephemeral. Is this problem only specific to that system of "state socialism"?

In the soundtrack there are several English language voiceovers. The sound is collected from a range of documentaries from the period and not necessary linked with the footage. Some sentences are taken from Czech film Vyzva do Ticha [Challenge in Silence, 1965].

The text expresses people's complicated relationships with their environment. Constant internal monitoring and censorship of speech and politically correct behaviour provoked a mild-schizophrenia in a number of citizens. Nevertheless, the superimposed normality and highly organised life, depicted in the DDR film footage, reflects an ideal, or, an exemplary view of life. I consider it the creation of a cinematic standard which is attractive, when removed from the political context of the period. I believe that the introduction of the troubling, non-synchronized voiceovers, interrupt this idealised cinematic view, to evoke a tension and sense of irritation within the imagery of this historic period – which is yet to disappear from cultural circulation.

The Dud Effect

Abandoned Soviet nuclear rocket launch bases form the subject of this film. There is a base like this here in Lithuania. It was closed down back in 1977, but the underground catacomb structure is still impressive by its scale and scope. I have found a few people who did serve in such a base and who provided me with all technical and particular information on the way it was functioning. My basic idea is to create a film in which the scenario would be a shot of such a rocket from the site in Lithuania. Fortunately, such a thing never happened during the period of Cold War, but within new political turn of confrontation between West and East (including Russia), the horror - which we thought was gone - of possible nuclear strategical weapon confrontation is rising from the past. The other source of inspiration for this theme is the outstanding film by Peter Watkins “The War Game”. I do not want to go on commenting this film, but the fact that such a film appeared in 1965 shows individual and collective concern of the danger of nuclear weapon competition back in the 60’s in the UK. Unfortunately, such a concern has never sprung out in the former East. I am afraid there is much less will to understand the deadly potential of the weapons of mass destruction, which are still available. My basic scenario for this work is to (re)create a shot of R-14 type rocket from the site. I am not using an animation or 3D technologies to illustrate such an act. It is still more about filming this quite large territory of nature (with the remains of the base) as well as the structure of the catacombs with the intention to convey a psychological perception of consternation of such a possible act and its outcome. In addition I am using some extra found footage from the 70’s, filmed around in Lithuania (actually the area is very beautiful, it is one of a few national parks of the country with a rich fauna). There are also some unique B&W photo material of the R-14 complex ready to attack, taken during practical training at some identical site, used for the film. To recreate “launching”, I used very modest means of film collage (more like a suggestion) including the B&W photo shots and a soundtrack of commands in Russian. I actually met a Russian officer who still remember them by heart. Deimantas Narkevicius, 2008

The Head

« On my way home, walking along Gediminas Avenue (formerly called Lenin Avenue), I dived into a mob, which, overcome with enthusiasm had been waiting for something to happen. This was an ubiquitous feeling, during August and September of 1991, right after the hapless Moscow coup attempt to regain its Lituanian colony. The atmosphere was brimming with anticipation for change - although it wasn't clear what type of change or what it would bring. The 'Velvet Revolutions' passed by quite peacefully (they were also endorsed by the Communist elite) and did not draw borders of ethnic or political separation, at least at the time, there was no clearly distinguished enemy (apparent collaborators disappeared in the far reaches of Russia or mingled in the same rejoicing mob), which could be identified as 'the defeated'. Initially, the enthusiastic mob began spontaneously disassembling Communist regime symbols (although Communism in its true sense had never been implemented), and its objects of public political propaganda - monuments. In the Soviet Republics these sculptures were primarily interpreted as domination marker of the occupying state. Public mobilization to peacefully break free from Russian occupation was a principal desire of the Lituanian people and was successfully implemented with firmness and patience in the few years to follow. Meanwhile, the disintegration and transformation of the Socialist bureaucratic state has been continuing ever since; though is yet to have been implemented in all areas of the state sector. Hence, in a matter of days, with the support of the joyful crowd, the monuments to Socialist Realism were dismantled: Communist ideologists, creators of the Soviet state and portraits of subsequent political figures. Monuments of the same period and style, depicting Lithuanian cultural figures escaped this fate. The demounted monuments were stored away and left - as if any concept of what to do with them had, for the moment, been exhausted. No historic period passes without trace and its aftermath does not disappear naturally, especially such a dramatic, extensive, radical, and overwhelming tide as the Soviet area. After nearly two decades, it remains difficult to reflect upon the period without guilt and it feels uncomfortable to analyze the cultural genesis of this period. Moreover, the change in contemporary aesthetics is so complete that the Soviet past is simply difficult to recognize, and the heritage is so sizeable, its impact is being felt on a longer term than it was possible to expect. The historical circumstances of the Cold War are well known and are often remembered with nostalgia not only in the former East. Despite this awareness, one might question whether the visual synecdoche of that time - Social Realism - has been properly evaluated; and if people are generally aware that one of its functions was to duplicate international modernism. Readings of this neoclassical style, that synthesized an everyday realism, provide more authentic information than a number of political evaluations of the period. The art of the Soviet era has preserved its astonishing and apparent expressive cynicism; as individual creativity was reduced to minimum in the face of canonical requirements. Consequently, these objects constitute a visual heritage of political terror, and monuments of the psychological pressure (and intentional and financial repression) exerted on individual creativity. We shouldn't, however, confuse things. Objects from that time are not a crime. They are rather witnesses to the crimes of history, a visual heritage of the epoch, which must be preserved and cherished: if we are to feel any sympathy for what was lost by people living in that era; and to separate individuals from their creatively constrained art works - even if the consequences of this aesthetic repression are still felt in the former East. Meanwhile, the 'competing' arts in the West made dynamic developments that seem accelerated - even now - because of relative political situations. The removal of monuments from central squares of East European cities visually softens or falsifies the development of the history of art and politics. A new generation of artists (and citizens) can hardly perceive, that for 45 years freedom of individual expression, and criticism of the domination ideology, was not tolerated. By their very nature Socialist Realist monuments are representative of their epoch. We might well ask; on what grounds, by what rights should they be preserved? As a visual design of the historical period or simply a fashionable style, Socialist Realism is an equally valuable art style within the canon of 20th century art movements, although its principles are radically divergent from Modernist art. It was an art-style in service to ideology that formally referred to a classicism that was equally far from democratic. This essential difference seems paradoxical and ensures its vitality by inspiring contemporary artists from the very beginning of collapse of Communism, closing the veil of nostalgia for the collapsed Utopia, even several decades prior to its 'official' end. As such, Socialist Realist works can be displayed in art museums next to works of other canonical movements as equally valuable historical indexes; representative of the gap which evolved at that time and split the formerly united Europe. Monuments, that until recently were symbolic markers of the most important public spaces, should not become carousels within theme parks built as undefined testaments: displayed as if for the appreciation of important achievements of the past- fetishizing something corrupt (1). No doubt, the biggest impact would be, given the means, returning the sculptures to their former locations, at least for some time. Not that the enthusiasm of the early 1990s was futile; the spontaneous and sincere campaigns of the mob changed the symbolic meaning of the monuments. The gigantic sculptures lost their political meaning and ideological significance. They were 'de-sacralized'. Monuments became sculptures again, just like any other - that can be transported, deposited, displayed elsewhere or returned to their former sites. My proposal for skulpur projekte münster 07 is to dismount the monumental sculptural portrait of Karl Marx in the town of Chemnitz, and transport it to Münster for the period of the exhibition, and then return it to the same place in Chemnitz. » Deimantas Narkevicius (1) There is one such Soviet sculpture park in Lithuania and another in Hungary; I refer to Grüto Parkas in Lithuania in my work The Role of a Lifetime (2003).

Revisiting Solaris

“The futurologist Stanislaw Lem predicted that technological development would increasingly dominate human relations. Artificial (machine) intelligence would even go so far as to attempt to substitute feelings inherent to human beings. “It will not,” Lem stated in one of his late interviews. He knew that true artificial intelligence could not be created; better and better imitations would appear instead. The electronic device called the computer already pretends to have intelligence, and is even able to be a conscious conversation partner for human beings, but that is neither deception nor substitution, but imitation. Materialized psychical projections based on an individual's memory appear in Lem's space drama Solaris. The astronaut Chris Kelvin is visited by a woman who is outwardly identical to his dead wife. Legendary Russian director Andrej Tarkovskij, who interpreted the novel quite freely, filmed the story in 1972. In his film, Tarkovskij added a family element, so that the astronaut visits his father and his family house before going to Space. Additionally, quite a long part of the film version takes place on earth, both the astronaut's departure from it and return at the end of the film when he goes back to his father's house. The way the film is constructed, or more precisely, composed, the frames of nature scenes have a quite symbolic meaning, and are visually connected to the paintings of Renaissance or Romantic masters. To me it seemed that Tarkovskij was less critical than Lem of the increasing impact of the electronic media (or media in general) on human relations. In my short film, Revisiting Solaris, the actor Donatas Banionis appears in his role as Chris Kelvin again more than forty years after Andrej Tarkovskij's Solaris was made. Revisiting Solaris is based on the last chapter of Lems' book, the part that had been left out of Tarkovskij's version. In this last chapter, Kelvin reflects on his brief visit on the “soil” of the planet Solaris shortly before his return from the space mission. As material to visualize landscape of Solaris, I used a series of photographs made by the Lithuanian symbolist painter and composer Mykalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis in 1905 in Anapa. Ciurlionis' works are marked by an original conception of space, producing the impression of an infinite expanse and limitless time. The pictures thus take on a quality of cosmic vision and deep inner concentration. I found it very interesting that in 1971 Andrej Tarkovskij filmed the same surface of the Black Sea in Crimea to represent the landscape of the mysterious ocean.” Deimantas Narkevicius

Disappearance of a Tribe

Disappearance of a Tribe is the continuation series of work examining the period of radical social experiment that took place in Soviet Europe in the post war period. This examination isn’t inspired by a sentiment of a Utopian past. The creation of a multicultural mega state under the common idea of an International social[ist] community, that covered nearly half of the planet, ironically, is similar to the current moment when we are facing the challenges of European Union integration. Disappearance of a Tribe is a cinematic assembly of private photographs, which portrays the life story of a family. The pictures depict a common life in the Socialist era and that experience, which seem to have been totally lost.

Matrioskos

Matrioskos is a documentary style video that is in effect a re-enactment of a fictional story. Three professional actresses, who took part in a commercial TV project “Matriojskas” produced by VITIM in Belgium, are re-telling the scenario of that film, as if it was biographical. The fictional story, “based on a true story” is presented as a documentary following the experience of three individuals. The project questions the current or imbalance between fictional narrative and documentary practice in contemporary popular media.

Once in the XX Century

This film is based on already existing video material. The artist has acquired material from Lithuanian National TV archive which documents the action of taking down the sculpture of Lenin. In addition he has bought a video footage of the same action from a freelance video reporter. So, there is two-camera perspective on the event. The images of taking down the sculpture of Lenin in Vilnius are really known around, as the materials were widely broadcasted by CNN and some other major media networks. The images of Lenin hanging above the crowd and waving his hand were repeated thousand times by CNN during the last decade as the symbol of the disintegration of Soviet Union and failure of the idea of communism. In this new work the materials are edited in a way that it will look as the crowd is preparing and then celebrating the erection of the sculpture of Lenin. "The thoughts behind the work are not about nostalgia for a former times. In many East European countries (which are going under extreme new liberal development of their economies) there are quite large number of people who are missing some social ideas, dreams, or even utopias. As the reality of Soviet Union is becoming alien and forgotten for majority of East Europeans, the ideas of socialism again becoming actual and a possible to be discussed as an alternative for the extreme new liberalism. For the younger generation communism is becoming something very exotic. Definitely, it doesn't refer to them as a state of terror against individual and ideology of the colonization of entire nations. On the other hand, the recent past in the East is denied by the new politicians. Some of them (who originally started their political careers before the changes of the 90's) becoming a sort of right wing populists. Often their rhetoric's somehow reminds something from the past. So there is something scary about some even hardly possible repetition of not so distant past." Deimantas Narkevicius

The Role of a Lifetime

This film combines three distinct elements: the first is an interview with the British film-maker Peter Watkins, recorded in Lithuania where Watkins lived for many years in the course of his self imposed exile from Britain. The second is a sequence of drawings of the Lithuanian landscape, some depicting an unusual theme park, Gruto Park, repository of Social Realist sculptures from the post-war era. The third comprises footage of Brighton life, shot by an amateur film enthusiast and deposited in the archives in Brighton. Narkeviπius’ construction of the film unites these disparate components, relating sound and image to produce a strangely compelling play between Watkins’ commentary and the imagery on the screen. Peter Watkins and Deimantas Narkevicius share a profound skepticism in relation to images that promise to be authentic representations of history. Independently of each other they have produced films with similar concerns: dismantling the conventional visual rhetoric of historic testimony and searching for a cinematic language that does not subject the history to the forces of ideological assimilation or mass media commodification.

Scena

“The film is inspired by the architecture of the building of the CAC, Contemporary Art Center in Vilnius. As I have been working in this institution for 9 years, I could say that the situation around the CAC is Utopia. The architecture of the building could be described as the Soviet functional modernism of the 60's. It was build as an exhibition pavilion for the 50 years anniversary of the great October revolution. It was called as the Palace for Exhibitions. Up till the beginning of 90's it eas an official place for the official art exhibitions. Ironically, but since the beginning of 90's, due to some irrational matters it became Contemporary Art Centre with its independant artistic program. The program of the institution is so ambitious that, there is not any other institution which could be at least a bit in competition. Also, because of the contemporary art program the number of visitors decreased radically since the times when the institution was The Palace of Arts and use to have an artistic program for “all people”. So the institution isolated itself among the local infrastructure, as it did not really compromised with it's program for the intentions to “take the masses back”. The modernistic building become a shelter for the people who are working there. There is everyday life going on in the institution, which seems to be a contradiction to the purpose, but in fact, the people working there are supporting this Utopia with their activities even if they do not think about that much. Also most of them are special characters.” Deimantas Narkevicius

Kaimietis

“The narrative of the film Kaimietis is based on the monolgues of two indivduals, who do not know each other. These monologues have been recorded for a young sculptor, the male character of the film, getting ready to leave his country, while the text of a female student was recorded just after leaving the home country. Both characters are not typical economic or political immigrants. They share a common drive for new experience in another country, another cultural context. Both young people delve into their personnal important issues, without attaching too much to linear sequence. The visual structure of the film is aimed at creating visual suggestions of these two documental narratives, without filming the actual narrators. The sculptor is speaking while showing a portrait of the national hero, created by himself, while the monologue of young female student is accompanied by photographs: - the snapshots of her first days in the strange city. The first reflectionsof travelling, moving house and experiences are compared with the point of departure, the city, which they know well; from the first moments of deperture this point becomes an object of rememberance.” Deimantas Narkevicius

Energy Lithuania

This film is built in the style of a documentary study of an electrical power plant. At the same time, it evokes the life of the ‘Electric City’ built around the plant in the 1950s and 60s. This artificial ‘new’ city was designed as an embodiement of optimism and Modernist ethos. the technological revolution of Lithuania was to be inaugurated from here. A gaze at a community of industrial workers, while it is gradually dissolving.

Legend Coming True

After a few seconds of cinematic silence, the voice of a small girl bounces off the screen. This invisible child re-tells - in Lithuanian - the founding legend of the city of Vilnius, as concocted by romantic 19th century historians. The screen is lighting up, little by little. The sun, shining in through a window, helps the girl to find the last words in the open book. This is the beginning of Deimantas Narkevicius' film Legend Coming True. Fade-out. The Lithuanian stuttering of the girlish voice gives way to the high-pitched voice of elderly woman speaking in fluent, Yiddish-tinged Russian. The narrative unfolds in calm, almost hypnotically rhythmic fashion. The voice belongs to Fania, an old Jewish resident of Vilnius who survived the Holocaust in this legendary city. Although she is the protagonist, she remains invisible in the film, just like that other historical figure - the legendary prince. The story spans an extraordinarily vast territory: Kaunas, Vilnius, Israel, Varena, Tadjikistan, Italy, Latvia, Paris, Australia, Toronto, Siberia, Stutthof, Los Angeles, Paneriai. The extensive network of a scattered Jewish community. But the fundamental topography of the film is made up of four aspects of Vilnius: the childhood street, the school facade, the ghetto yard and the Rudninkai forest. In those four locations around Vilnius, all of them dramatically associated with Jewish history, Deimantas Narkevicius had a camera rigged for 24 hours. The camera was programmed to shoot one frame every minute. In this way, the 24 hours of shooting became 14 minutes of viewing. The result is similar to animated film. These are four days and nights, compressed and wrapped in a story that takes more than an hour to tell. Our protagonist brings together the whole 20th century in the time of her story. In the beginning of the film, mythical time is being spoken, and at the end there is a performance of meta-historical hope. This multi-dimensional temporal structure must be a necessary tool for bringing us as close as possible to the truth of the event. Deimantas Narkevicius tries to give a voice to those who lost their privileges, and to remind us about the ideas of social and historical justice. The protagonist of Legend Coming True rescued herself and others. The author of the film is rescuing several things: the ideas of history, truth and civic responsibility

His-story

“This film is made using authentic Russian film making equipment from 60’s. In the film me and some people very close to me are telling the story of my deceased parents . In the film my partner and me are about the same age like my parents were in the sixties when was the boom of Soviet realistic movies. The difference is that such a political story could not be produced at that time.”

Europe 54° 54' - 25° 19'

“This film is a simple documentary of a trip I have made one morning from my former flat to the geographical centre of Europe.” Script “One friday morning I got the urge to go and see the centre of Europe. Though I had been aware of the centre of Europe being in Lithuania for some time, I simply had disregarded the fact as unimportant as one of the many phenomena of the ethnocentric ideology, typical of a young country. That morning I asked myself what was my relationship to that geographical fact. It occurred to me that it was also the centre of my travels , the central point in time of the time I had spend elsewhere. I looked at the map trying to remind myself of the time I had spent in Russia in places east of the centre. I descovered , however, that i had passed the same amount of my time in the West. The distances I had travelled in different directions were also evenly distributed around the town I knew best. So I decided to go and see the centre of my travels and of the time I had spent elsewhere. As I got closer to that place i got the feeling I had been there before and had seen the spot. Maybe it was in Lithuania , somewhere in Russia or Poland. It could have been anywhere in Europe.” Deimantas Narkevicius