How does our angle change when we relate to the other? Mare Tralla and Cooltūristės attempt to reclaim personal-subjective category in talking about cultural differences, ideologies and politics. Drawing on personal experiences and stories, fragmented histories of communication and miss-communication that arises when cultural strangers (others) meet rather than 'grand theories'. Playing critically with the stereotypical opinions the artist use various media: text, light, video and performance. Horizon and horizontality are the key elements of the show.­­

The exposition consists of five parts:

Reading faces. Video 5:30 min. 2011

Agnes from Estonian film „The Last Relic“ (1969) and Veronika from Lithuanian film „Ave, Vita“ (1970) are facing decisive moments in their lives. Agnes is asked to marry a man she does not love for the sake of holy relic. Veronika discovers that she is pregnant. Both strive to be independent women, trying to find their own place. In the video heroines are deprived of their voices. Only their faces are visible. The silent conversation of women‘s gazes is interrupted by the subtitles, representing how patriarchal power structures (the convent and the hospital) is trying to control women’s bodies and intimate life.  The true feelings of Agnes and Veronika can be only read from their faces.

Viimne Reliikvia / The Last Relic /1969 / Estonia / 86 Min. / Color
Dir. Grigori Kromanov /Scr. Arvo Valton, Eduard Bornhöhe /Agnes: Ingrid Andrina
Ave, Vita / 1970 / Lithuania / 90 Min. / Black and White / Dir. Almantas Grikevičius 
Scr. Grigorijus Kanovičius, Vytautas Žalakevičius / Veronika: Eugenija Bajorytė

Angled towards the Other. Video 6:38 min. 2011

The artists are drawing the line of inner horizon with their eyes in slow motion. Their gazes never meet.

Horizon. Text on the walls. Handwriting. 2012

You said angled towards the other, I found a corner. We are not looking
at the same direction.
Your eyes are moving my horizon. An angle is never a straight line.
Are women strangers to each other? The story is broken into small pieces - - - - -

Lying is lying. Interactive installation. Trolley, 6 lamps. 2012

The viewer is encouraged to lie on a trolley, move forward and read a sentence, written on the lamps. A quote is taken from Audre Lorde’s book “Sister Outsider”. A word “lying” on the trolley refers both to moral and physical condition.

Cooltūristės
Another Way
Video 0:32 sec., glitch colour photographs. 2012

Polish film and theater actress Jadwiga Jankowska was awarded a Palme d'Or at Cannes Film Festival for her role in a film “Another Way” by the Hungarian film director Károly Makk in 1982. It shows the opression of political and private life in Hungary after 1956. Ambiguity emerges when media recreates media: TV reportage on youtube, video inversion in computer, photographs of the projection in Contemporary Art Centre in Gdansk and stop-frames that turned into prints. The video and photograps of it becomes a kind of sequel of a film "Another Way" and allows to guess why Hungarian actresses refused to play in it.

Photographs displayed in exhibition are unadjusted: color auras of Jankowska and French actress Brigitte Fossey were added by a camera itself that created the aesthetics of glitch. Emphatic intimacy (hug, kiss, wiping the cheek) is deconstructed: this episode of the ceremony looks like moments from private life. Desiring gaze of the camera transforms the story.

Trying to convey the complex political and personal experience image transformations are linked to variations of translation. The English translation of autobiographical novel by Hungarian writer Erzsébet Galgóczi “Törvényen belül” (Within the Law) is “Another Love”, when its screen adaptation by Károly Makk “Egymásra nézve” (Regarding One Another) gets a title “Another Way”  translated to Lithuanian  “Another Look”.

The exhibition is open from May 21 to June 16 at Pamėnkalnis gallery (Pamėnkalnio g.1/13, LT-01116 Vilnius)

Have a glimpse of the exhibition:

Photographs by Dalia Mikonytė