Gediminas Akstinas and Antanas Gerlikas Exhibition of meetings
One old museum worker, responsible for the formation of the permanent exposition in a small art musem and having a weakness for abstract painting, when meeting me often complains, that, some artworks, that he likes a lot, loose their affectness just after they appear in a musem collection. He usually tells me about the time he saw a marvellous painting in the studio of local artist, which has become the most beautiful depiction of a city in the evening he has ever seen. After putting some efforts, museum purchased that painting. The museum worker himself was strongly disappointed after realising that he can‘t find a suitable place for the exhibit of the picture. Later on he understood that he was involuntary trying to recreate a primal impression left by the painting; it was getting dark at that time, the twilight was slowly penetrating into the studio and the one who painted the picture was silently, almost without breathing, holding a light for his painting from a small lighter, with a wish to prolong the time of a meeting between the museum worker and the artwork. After telling this story museum worker underlines that every meeting with the artowrk never repeats itself and before saying goodbye he mentiones that he is still writing a book about the experience of meeting a painting I have just told you about.
A book still being written by the museum worker has already gained a physical shape of an extended meeting. Imagine how the first glance of the museum worker would have changed, if he had known that seeing the painting would become a fabula of his forthcoming book. Thinking about a future book would have settled the look of the museum worker as well as the look predicted the narrative of a book.
This is the way this exhibition appeared. It started with the suggestion for Gediminas Akstinas and Antanas Gerlikas to meet at the Exhibition of Meetings. The experience of the two artists shows up in a dialogue situation knowing that their artworks would be seen in one room.
The man was sick. He became aggressive, started knockabout in the streets, nagging people and fighting in bars at night. He would go out and shout – Hello LADIES!! I say HELLO! – but they would go away. So he would turn to the man passing behind him: – Hey, WHERE ARE YOU GOING, HA!? I am ASKING, where ARE YOU GOING, I SAID! DON’T BE AFRAID. Hah, just look at him! I SAID DON’T BE AFRAID. Hey, what, are you afraid, ha? HAAA!!! HA!!!! Where are you going?! Where the fuck are you running I said! COME HERE YOU MOTHERFUCKER, WHY ARE YOU RUNNING?!!
People nearby didn’t know what to do and called the police. They packed the aggressive subject and took him away.
The next day the same man comes back home and awaits a phone call. A pleasant female voice asks him to come there and there. He goes.
They lead him through the door and you appear in front of the other man who doesn’t introduce himself.
– Hello, hello – nice to see you! – he is very friendly.
Next to the other table sits a young woman. Her hair is long and luminous, she seems attractive to you.
Then you are prescribed a travel to exotic land where you will spend four weeks learning to play reed-pipe.
This story was once told by Antanas Gerlikas. Its reliability aswell as authenticity cannot be proved, but this story same as any exhibition and artwork may become the beginning or the middle of a trip; or simply pop up from your memory when you meet someone.
Monika Lipšic
Antanas Gerlikas. Untitled. 2012
Antanas Gerlikas. Guide Stick. 2011
Gediminas Akstinas. Shelf Bench. 2012
Antanas Gerlikas. Impressions of races. 2010
Gediminas Akstinas. Watercolour. 1995
Photos by Robertas Narkus
Exhibition of meetings with artists Gediminas Akstinas and Antanas Gerlikas opened on 6th of April in a new Vilnius exhibition space “The Gardens“.
This exhibition appears as an experience in a cinema show after the electricity dissapearing, when after the light flash followed by the dive into the dark you start to feel someone next to you, while still impulsively looking to the screen and you smile because you know that he or she is smiling or regretting yet before the knowing why he or she is smiling or regretting. Exhibitions tend to follow a form of the trade. This time one sees what others two bring to the meeting; they already knew where were they going. Thus this exhibition becomes an interchange, similar to that when two travellers in a railway station swapped their newspapers. They continued their own ways and the newspapers were of different days.
Gediminas Akstinas (b. 1961) is an older generation artist, best known from his massive metal constructions and antropomorphous hand-made shelves. His artistic decisions are always related with specific locations and situations. In his works he often uses everyday things, while never forgetting their ideas and forms which give opportunities for new stories.
Last exhibitions: Dimension 1, CAC, Vilnius, 2006; Europe/4 points, Culture platform KultFlux, Vilnius, 2009; RITA Antanas Mončys house-museum, Palanga, from 2010.
Antanas Gerlikas (b. 1978) is a younger generation artist. In his oeuvre he analizes a logic of an artwork in various forms and does this while looking from a perpsective of a daily life and the artwork itself. In this exhibition of meetings Antanas Gerlikas will present his artworks as transitional objects.
Last exhibitions: A Walk, CAC foyer, Vilnius, 2012; The Museum Problem, galery „Frutta“, Rome, curated by Chris Fitzpatrick, 2012; Foto finish, author Raimundas Malašauskas, CAC, Vilnius, 2011.
Curated by Monika Lipšic and Gerda Paliušytė.
Vernisage April 6th, 18h
Exhibition will be on display untill May 10th
The Gardens, exhibition space in Planetarium, Konstitucijos pr. 12A, Vilnius
Open on Thursdays and Fridays 17-19h or by appointment.