Mikko Waltari‘s exhibition “Documentary Spectacle” will be launched at Vilnius Photography Gallery on 13 January, 5.30pm.
Time (the way we understand it) is marked by linear events that create history. History defines a part of our identity, both in personal and in collective sense. Artists’ melancholy grows from the relationship to the events where one is rather a spectator than an actor.
The ongoing Documentary Spectacle -series consists of works that have been created using digital panorama technique. While using several vertical frames to create up to 150x350cm prints, it is possible to compress the time and the events into a single image rich in detail.
However arranged the scene, certain rules (similar to documentary theatre) help to maintain a level of truthlikeness in the representation of the real.
The subjects depicted are referring to past events – or rather, they are showing the traces of an event with the eyes of an outsider. Thus, both the technical and the artistic approach could be understood as post-documentary photography.
Mikko Waltari (b. 1966) got his MA-degree from Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania, in 2017, and he now works both in Finland and in Lithuania. Waltari’s ongoing long-term work addresses European social change from the late 1980’s to the present. He has showcased his works in Berlin, Riga, Athens and other European cities.
The exhibition is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.
Vilnius Photography Gallery
Stikliai St. 4 / Didžioji St. 19
Vilnius