in 2023 October 26 18 p.m. artist Dainius Liškevičius will perform the performance "Pizzeria. Mail. Vilnius / 7:1:32". This is the second in a series of performances by D. Liškevičius event, which this year is initiated by the Union of Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Art Creators. The first one - the smoke sculpture "One minute portrait of Jurgis Mačiūnas saying CIAO!" - was already shown during the Vilnius galleries weekend on September 9. Petro Cvirka Square, Vilnius.
Dainius Liškevičius' performances work like puzzles, solved by deciphering cultural signs. And the key is social and political shifts measured by the creator's body, time itself. Since 1999 standing on his head in the cities of the world, the artist marks the discovered places like a traveler of old times, and at the same time performs a titanic job - with his work he "keeps" the Earth as an Atlantic ("Centers of the World / Enjoy yourself"). He created a dizzying sign for his hometown of Kaunas by standing on the castle tower and pointing to the wrong direction of the wind (Vėjarodis, 1996). In Vilnius, as if a dead Christ was lying on the knees of the bronze Žemaita, he immortalized the non-establishment of the Antanas Gudaitis Museum and the non-fulfillment of the creator's will ("Pieta", 2013). Political radicals made Liškevičius famous for his youth performance "Kliaksas / Restartas" (2000), when after wiping his chocolate-stained face with the tricolor, he became a different person - a citizen of the future of Lithuania that accepted otherness. in 2022 he dedicated the performance "Ten yra VERSMĖ" to warring Ukraine, which is saving its culture from the rampage of aggressors blinded by propaganda. (Text by Agnes Narušytė)
The second performance of the performance series "Pizzeria. Mail. Vilnius / 1:32:34", which will take place on October 26, is connected with the artist's film "Modernus butas" (The Modern Flat) presented in the program of this year's film festival "Scanorama" and also refers to his previous work - 2018 . the installation "Entropija / Che fare?" and reuses already used newspapers in it.
The performance is dedicated to the "cinema camera" in my memory, which archives the images seen in life and then throws them out again at the most unexpected times...
Vilnius, 1990, autumn, an ordinary gray day. It's easy, I'm standing at the stop on Gediminas Avenue near the Central Post Office. As far as I remember, there was a pizzeria in which, as well Beautiful, he used to put two or three small black olives on the pizza, the taste of which I remember even now... Suddenly a white Mercedes stops nearby and a bearded man in a white raincoat gets out of it, holding a rolled-up newspaper in his hand, a panama covering his head... I vaguely remember everything, maybe it's just a "flashback" from Bukowski's novel The Mail, or maybe it's a cinematic moment of memory where fiction and reality intertwine. Actor Juozas Budraitis gets out of the car in a white raincoat, he walks with his shoulders hunched, not paying attention to the surrounding environment. I think he doesn't really remember that day, because it wasn't special for him, but it's important for me, especially now, with the premiere of the movie "The Modern Flat" at the European Film Forum "Scanorama".
The performance is partly done for the camera. The operator becomes part of my intended action as an internal memory operator, trying to capture this moment that leads to other memory images. I continue towards the "Benetton" store,... maybe the Vilnius cinema is already there?
Dainius Liškevičius is a member of the interdisciplinary union of art creators, representing the generation of Lithuanian "break generation" artists who contributed to the renewal of art expression after the restoration of Lithuania's independence. He creates installations, photographs, performances, further blurring the boundaries of genres and searching for new forms in contemporary art. Liškevičius' work is characterized by social engagement, contextuality, irony, and social criticism. Responding to the topography of a specific place, he investigates people's behaviors and experiences, identity and cultural values, the collision of public and private spaces, collective and personal memory. In 2015, Dainius Liškevičius represented Lithuania at the 56th Venice Biennale of Contemporary Art, where he presented the project "Museum". in 2021 the artist was awarded the Lithuanian National Culture and Art Prize. More information: www.liskevicius.lt
Date and place of performance:
in 2023 October 26 18.00:XNUMX a.m.
At the stairs of the former Vilnius City Central Post Office building, Gedimina Ave. 7, Vilnius. The performance act consists of 3-4 doubles.
