Tuesday 9 December at 6 pm, CAC Reading Room

From series Inquirers. PhD series.

Processes of Lithuanian contemporary art are well explored from various perspectives, but most of these studies address the appearance of a new phenomenon and analyse its meaning within the context of common field of art praxis. There is very little attention, or it is fragmented, to the questions which deal with conditions that enabled emergence of a certain phenomenon.

In his book ‘Theory of Avant-garde’ the German literary critic Peter Bürger notices, that historical distance has led the Avant-garde to perceive art as an institution and this notion is what distances Avant-garde from the rest of modern art. Looking at the contemporary art in Lithuania from a certain position it is possible to notice the principle of historical distance in some artistic practices. That is clearly expressed in most of the projects by Deimantas Narkevičius, or in latest projects by Dainius Liškevičius – ‘Museum’ and ‘Tranquillity’. Both Narkevičius and Liškevičius now are considered as middle generation artists and the question for this discussion would be if it is possible to talk about historical distance in praxis of younger generation of Lithuanian artists?

Giedrius Gulbinas – Post graduate student at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Phd Thesis ‘Change of social topics in contemporary art in Lithuania since the 90’s’