HISTORY FOR THE FUTURE

The form of the art residency programmes implemented at KCCC has been constantly changing. Only the main aim of these workshops does not change: they are devoted to the city community, meetings with artists, and a common creative process in which city residents can try out different techniques, evaluate their abilities, and find their personal relationship with art. This year, the topic of the KCCC residency is Graphic Subordination. Its programme is very diverse, just like the forms of graphic art: the traditional ones, graffiti, sound art, or installations in the city space that can be further developed by any passer-by. The 2019 artist-in-residence programme was started by artist Jūratė Rekevičiūtė.

Artist Jūratė Rekevičiūtė, an artist-in-residence at KCCC, invited citizens of Klaipėda to a creative workshop during which a collaborative project of the artist and the city community History for the Future was implemented.

During their lifetime, individuals accumulate a number of memories. Some of them are eagerly shared, some others are hidden, still others are stored – or the time to remember them has not come yet. Those memories surface at most unexpected times and in various forms and become the mirrors of us and the world around us.

J. Rekevičiūtė suggested that the participants of the workshop should analyze their personal archives of the past and provide them with a different form –give meaning to their memories through works of art. “I wanted people to bring their own memories. Those might have been words or objects – anything through which they could express their emotions. From those memories we together were creating new works of art”, said the artist.

The participants of the creative workshop responded to the project very sincerely and shared sensitive personal life stories: for some, it was mother’s old apple tree, for others, a favourite toy accompanying them from the childhood, or a spiritual link with a tree or a wooden ‘sculpture’ created by nature and found at the seaside. After applying the most convenient techniques – linocut, Rekevičiūtė’s authorial technique of relief print, collage, or other – in order to give a meaning to those and other memories, personal reminescences turned into art works.

Personal stories of the participants were different, as well as their age and experience. Some remembered joyful moments, and some others painful ones; they shared their unfulfilled dreams or unexpected discoveries. However, all of those stories were very personal and sensitive. The participants were asked to write down their stories – in the process of writing, they were refined to a single leading motif. To quote the host of the workshop Jūratė Rekevičiūtė, “the important and interesting task was to turn those motifs not only into works of graphic art to be put up on the wall, but also into 3D-printer-made pieces of jewelry reflecting the meaningful story of each project participant. Motifs for the jewelry came from the paintings created by them. I am very pleased with the creative cooperation that took place during my residency. We were greatly helped by local designer Virginijus Bakas and the KCC guide Loreta Patašienė.”

A one-week creative workshop was attended by 20 residents of Klaipėda. Some stayed for a shorter and some for a longer time, while some others attended every session and stayed there as long as Jūratė Rekevičiūtė – that was her individual relationship with each workshop participant. She helped the participants to choose the stories they wanted to perpetuate, to decide on the best style and technique for creative visualization, and assisted in managing the creative process.

Thus, e.g., one of the participants Monika Petreikytė chose to perpetuate her memories of her great-grandmother: by means of Jūratė Rekevičiūtė’s authorial technique, she imprinted her great-grandmother’s kerchief that the latter had liked to wear and had taken good care of. Another young participant Agnė Jonauskaitė also dedicated her work to her granny. The granny used to collect antique dolls. In her childhood, the girl was scared of those dolls and was afraid to even enter the room where they were. However, after the grandmother’s death, the collection acquired a different meaning: Agnė imagined her granny was looking at her through the dolls’ eyes, and that was why they became very dear to her. Emilė Turskytė decided to perpetuate the favourite toy of her childhood, a teddy bear. It was her best loved toy that she used to dress up, and at primary school she would take it to classes as a mascot. On the occasion of her leaving gymnasium, the parents framed the toy for Emilė as a symbol of the end of her childhood. Emilė decided to perpetuate it in a different way: the exhibition featured her linotype triptych with an image of the beloved teddy bear.

The story of Marija Kliukienė is also related to childhood, but not her own – of her children and grandchildren. The woman chose to perpetuate her story through her children’s grown-out clothes. “I was taught by my granny: if you want your children to be friendly and never quarrel, you have to dress them in the same clothes already worn by their siblings. That was why I kept them”, Marija said. For the print cliché she used 40-year-old children’s clothes worn both by her daughters and grandchildren.

Author’s statement: In 1996, Jūratė Rekevičiūtė graduated from Vilnius Academy of Arts and became very involved in a marathon of colourful and extravagant personal exhibitions. Since 1997, she has been a member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association. Since 2005, she has been organizing events on her own and has becoms one of the main founders of the first Lithuanian graphic biennial Now Art Now Future. Over the period of 2006 to 2008, that unique event took place simultaneously in three Lithuanian cities and a number of galleries and public spaces. Its motto “Graphic arts speak the language of modern culture” has become the motto following the artist’s creative activities for many subsequent years. Jūratė is able to guess future trends, follow fashion, borrow “without borrowing”, and synthesize new quality art by skillfully joining tradition and innovation. Recently in her exhibitions the artist presented the authorial technique of relief print.

The exhibition will be open until the 24th of June, 2019.