Photo reportage from the exhibition 'Non-decisive moments. Another Take on Lithuanian Photography' at Inside-Out Art Museum, Beijing

November 8, 2016
Author Echo Gone Wrong

inside_out_muziejusIn 1991 the People’s Republic of China recognized the statehood of Lithuania, thus today we commemorate the 25th anniversary of diplomatic cooperation between the countries. On this occasion, there is an intention to not only introduce classical Lithuanian photography, the golden age of which is considered to be the 1960s and 1970s, but also to show the art processes that took place during the period of regaining independence and those that are taking place at the moment.

The exhibition Non-decisive moments. Another Take on Lithuanian Photography presents works where, differently than in classical photography, an image is not “caught” by simply walking down the street; it emerges passively while slowly observing the environment, or is constructed out of various images not necessarily created by an artist himself. In other words, an idea is shaped in the mind and only later it is realized using photographic media. Three exhibitions displayed in the Inside-out museum contain works ranging from those created as far back as the end of the 19th century to those made nowadays. Exhibitions spreading over three museum floors will provide viewers with the possibility to get to know the most conceptual part of Vitas Luckus’creative work and images revealing the break-through of Lithuanian photography that took place at the juncture of the 1980s and 1990s as well as the reverberation of aesthetics formed in those days in modern photography. The third exhibition will introduce works of artists who use the creative strategy of appropriation.

This exhibition is composed by three different parts and will introduce the following artists:
Vytautas Balčytis, Violeta Bubelytė, Alfonsas Budvytis, Geistė Kinčinaitytė, Stanislovas Kazimieras Kosakovskis, Arūnas Kulikauskas, Vitas Luckus, Alvydas Lukys, Aurelija Maknyte, Algimantas Maldutis, Algirdas Musneckis, Aleksandras Ostašenkovas, Remigijus Pačėsa, Gytis Skudžinskas, Vytautas V. Stanionis, Algirdas Šeškus, Virgilijus Šonta, Remigijus Treigys, Gintautas Trimakas, and Gintaras Zinkevičius.

TAKEN TERRITORIES
Exhibition Date:2016.10.12–2016.10.23
Venue: the fisrt floor of the Inside-Out Art Museum
Curator:Gytis Skudzinskas

In this exhibition there is a discussion about creating method, which can be shortly named by the concept of appropriations. This is not only a borrowing of art work or its fragments for own utility or their transfer to another context, but also a sign of socio-cultural act, that changes perception of art and daily life.

Stanislaw Kazimierz Kossakowski, Arūnas Kulikauskas, Aurelija Maknytė, Geistė Kinčinaitytė, Samanta Matuzaitė.

These kinds of creativity strategies are applied in contemporary art decisions. Signs of it can be found in Lithuania, when the phenomenon of photography just started to spread. For example, graph Stanislaw Kazimierz Kossakowski in XIX century, created photographic montages, using a negative which was sent to him, and this way declared the fictive and mythologized history of his surroundings. In 20th century’s second half, after generation of Lithuanian photography school, appropriation strategies were used by “boredom aesthetics” photographers, such as Arūnas Kulikauskas and also among younger artists, like Aurelija Maknytė, Geistė Kinčinaitytė, Samanta Matuzaitė.

Exhibition “Taken territories” – is a dialogue between these different generations. Like graph Stanislaw Kazimierz Kossakowski using appropriation method conquered Egypt or Mexico and Geistė Kinčinaitytė after more than century later says to Mars landscapes “You Belong To Me”. Aurelija’s Maknytė collected strangers’ photographs of landscapes and urban land shafts which touched by fire opens parallel worlds. The most fashionable leisure destination – Palanga lets Arūnas Kulikauskas to raise a question: if bodies there are overall true? Vytautas V. Stanionis conceptually rethink the passport photographs taken by his father. Algirdas Musneckis withdrawing himself as an author, he gives a special meaning to the lost family, travel and incidental photographs.

Non-decisive moments
Exhibition Date:2016.10.12–2016.10.23
Venue: the second floor of the Inside-Out Art Museum
Curator: Ieva Meilutė-Svinkūnienė

The juncture of 1980s and 1990s marked significant changes not only in the political life of Lithuania, but also in the art stage of the country. At the time a new generation of artists who determined a turning point in Lithuanian photography emerged. Humanistic photography that prevailed for several decades was replaced by a less expressive yet much more personal and real look into own surroundings, human being, body. Artists ceased wandering the streets in the chase of that Bressonic „decisive moment“; on the contrary, they adopted the position of passive observers. Far reaching horizons were superseded by an extremely closed image composition, creators focused on things close to them, recorded almost anonymous environments. Photography was more and more frequently used to reflect personal thoughts and experiences: it transformed from public into very personal and silent. With their choice of laconic language, photographers confounded the usual standards of composition and brightness on purpose; they imitated amateur photography, while pure aesthetics lost its former importance.
All these artists discerned with their individual sight and thinking, developed creative ideas in their own peculiar ways to express their world-view. Apart from works created in 1980s and 1990s, the exhibition is complemented by more contemporary conceptual works, which broaden the prospect of modern Lithuanian photography with a new attitude to a photographic object and the concept of reality.

In 1991 China recognized the statehood of Lithuania, thus today we commemorate the 25th anniversary of diplomatic cooperation between the countries. On this occasion, there is an intention to not only introduce classical Lithuanian photography, the golden age of which is considered to be 1960s and 1970s, but also to show the art processes that took place during the period of regaining independence and those that are taking place at the moment.

Vitas Luckus. Beyond Reality
Exhibition Date:2016.10.12–2016.12.04
Venue:  third floor of the Inside-Out Art Museum
Curator: Ieva Meilutė-Svinkūnienė

Vitas Luckus (1943–1987) is one of the most original figures in Lithuanian photography. Since 1960s he had contributed to the formation of Lithuanian photography school, created many remarkable works of classical photograph and successfully worked in the field of applied photography. However, conventional photography was not enough for him: he started constructing his peculiar world of images while combining reality and fantasy; the world where composition, colour or point of viewing altered the perception of reality drastically. Being out-of-the-box personality in terms of both creative work and traditional lifestyle in general, Vitas seemed to walk in the periphery. He stood out from the others because of his energy and immediate and extremely close relation to the surrounding world and because of the ability to render the features in his works.
Despite being a true legend not only in Lithuania but also in the entire Soviet Union, Vitas had just a few personal exhibitions and did not live to see any solid publication of his works. After dramatic death of the artist, his widow Tania left to the USA with all his photography archive. It took more than 20 years to rediscover creative legacy of the artist: in 2013 a retrospective of photography by Vitas Luckus Let’s Enter a New World was held in the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius (the curator of the exhibition was Margarita Matulytė); in 2014 the artist’s monograph was awarded in the nomination Historical Book Award in the international photography festival Rencontres d‘Arles. In this way, the name Luckus has finally started its way into the history of world photography.

Inside-Out Art Museum introduces the most conceptual part of Vitas Luckus creative work: photography series A Take on Vintage Photography (1969–1983), Sweet Mood (1975–1983), Pantomime (1968–1972), Improvising Pantomime (1971–1973), Close-up Portrait (1968–1986) and the series created a few weeks prior to his death On a White Background (1987). All the series introduced in the exhibition reveal the artist’s unconventional attitude to media, his attempt to overstep it as well as to overstep himself and the limitations of thinking.

 

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Photography by the organisers