Liškevičius Dainius
Museum, 2012
National Gallery of Art, Vilnius, 2012
High Culture Unexplored Dream, 2004, instllation: objects, video projections, soundtrack (Soundtrack: Dainius Liškevičius and Linas Rimša)
HIGH CULTURE UNEXPLORED DREAM
HIGH DREAM UNEXPLORED DRAMA
HIGH DRAMA UNEXPLORED DREAM
HIGH DREAM UNEXPLORED CULTURE
In this installation, contemporary lifestyle and desires are transferred to the domain of contemporary art to become a commentary on both spheres. The installation, taking up 300 square metres of space, presents a comprehensive programme of “cool” as understood in 2004 – white objects created by the artist invite the viewer to lie down, watch the simulated mountain landscapes projected on round screens above (attached to the ceiling), and listen to a relaxing soundtrack. The words DREAM DRAMA CULTURE allude to the fact that contemporary art necessitates programming efforts and bodily discipline to be able to effectively immerse a viewer in an optimal and receptive environment.
THE CENTRES OF THE WORLD / ENJOY YOURSELF
1999, to be continued. Performance. C-Prints
This project consist of number of short performances in which the artist stands on his head for around minute at random sites. The title refers to ancient ideas about the structure of the world: when standing on his head, the artist is actually holding up the planet. The human head is the centre of the world. The situation is generated by the unfamiliar socials context, a new environment which has to be adapted to. To understand it you have to change yourself, to adapt yourself to the new social conditions. The performances are a metaphor for a virtual overturn happening in your mind. The project is presented as a photo documentation. This is a work in process. The project is continued in every country artist visits. There are about 400 photos produced at the moment (In Holland, Poland, Belarus, Finland, Lithuania, Sweden, Latvia, India etc.).
OBELISQUE
2008 Installation, Artist’s apartment, Vilnius
Living Room/Living Space
The photographs and video comprising the installation are shot in the artist’s living-space and studio. The audience is invited to watch the transformation of the living space into destructive chaos or monumental sculpture, the annual de-decorations of the Christmas tree, improvised home concerts and blind photographing in the dark. The documentation accumulated by the artist over a number of years has become an ongoing autobiographical project that seamlessly combines everyday and creative events: the living space becomes a stage while routine actions turn into performances, or, conversely, art projects take the form of family entertainment or a radical transformation of the domestic environment.
In/Out, 1998, installation
“This is on of the ways to see the last big project by Dainius Liskevicius “In/Out”, first shown in the exhibitions “Cool Places” at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius. The structure of several automatic doors operating on the opposite basis is a metaphor of social context of the post-communist countries. It Shows a clash between the offer of the social ideals and the fact the they are not accessible to a bigger part of society. On the other hand this work really functions only when the spectators create the playful situation, which is content of the metaphor mentioned above. The playfulness of this work also reflects the important aspects of the “societe de spectacle” as described by Guy Debord. So “In/Out” is critical and descriptive at the same time”.
Spaces I-VIII
8-C prints
The artist occupies an unusual perspective in these photographs: he photographs the viewer seats of the theater from the position of a person on stage. Thus the look into a person is replaced by the look into a society. Apart from that, artist documents empty halls; hence the focus is not so much on the society, but on its structure.
One-minute portrait of George Maciunas saying CIAO!
Performance 2010 – 2013 Photo by Modestas Ezerskis
The performance-smoke-sculpture One-minute portrait of George Maciunas saying: CIAO! was first performed on the roof of the Ministry of Fluxus in Vilnius in 2010. To create this piece Dainius Liskevicius made use of Vilnius’ air streams that circulate in a complex relief of the city roofs, streets, intersections and the respiration of passers-by.
Art Critic on…
The ideological roots of Liškevičius’s art may be traced to The Situationist International. In his 1967 book, The Society of the Spectacle, philosopher Guy Debord, the originator of the movement, claimed that people had lost the feeling of reality and exchanged being into having and appearing.1 He encouraged artists to arouse the audience from the intoxicating dream of ‘happiness’ by pushing them into disturbing situations, overturning the meanings of images and turning the manifestations of capitalism against themselves. Liškevičius does this often: he creates and immediately unravels the illusion of the spectacle by having an ironic take on grand ideas, by loosening established rules and ‘tricking’ the viewer who does not get what he or she expected: when one approaches a typical glass door, it does not open – it closes (In / Out, 1999); when one lies down on a white circle, the dream to reach catharsis through culture is not fulfilled (High Culture Unexplored Dream, 2004); and when one enters the Museum (2012), history is not constructed, but deconstructed. What is consumed smoothly and unconsciously in life becomes an obstacle in art and makes one wonder: about the ‘indisputable’ truths of capitalism, the ‘unchanging’ cultural values and ‘objective’ narratives of history. The artist seems to offer services, an aesthetic environment and real things, but it soon becomes clear that this has been just a deceptive glare, a spectacle created for us.
Agnė Narušytė