PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITION “PEOPLE OF WETLAND” OF EUGENIJUS BARZDŽIUS

A photography exhibition “People of Wetland” of one of the brightest art photographers of Lithuanian younger generation, Eugenijus Barzdžius, is going to be exhibited at KCCC Exhibition Hall (Didžioji Vandens str. 2, Klaipėda) from Friday, the 5th of October, 2018.

“A group of pensioners, frustrated by a long journey to their rightful collective gardens in the city outskirts or outside the city, around the year 2002 decided to establish an autonomously managed area within the marshy boundaries of Šiauliai city. This group of approximately fifteen elderly people (the number of it is not fixed due to endlessly rotating wheel life) occupied the land plot, built fences, and put together some buildings out of unwanted material, and some of them even installed a drainage system.

They hire a tractor to plough land before planting potatoes or after collecting the cabbage harvest each spring and autumn. Homeless people sometimes desolate the huts and greenhouses but the pensioners quickly rebuild them from the unwanted material, found near the waste containers or given by other people.

For some of them the result of such cultivation work is the source of vegetables, berries and fruit for the entire cold season. Glasses of vegetables, grown and preserved by themselves, are a considerable increment to the poor state pension which, unfortunately, is not enough to fill the stomach. For others it is simply some kind of a therapy… The opportunity to get away from the solitude of an enclosed apartment, to keep in touch with earth or help the new generation to find a connection with it” – the art photographer E. Barzdžius presents his project “People of Wetland”.

According to the art photographer and journalist Milda Kiaušaitė, “instead of capturing the domestic life of fifteen pensioners, the photographer rejects any kind of plot line. He chooses three parallels: the portraits of the community members, the still lifes of the harvest (usually – preserves) grown in the wetland, and the images of the constructions (huts, greenhouses or fences). <…> The visual solution ofE. Barzdžius– the fragmentation of the elements constituting the story, and disruption of the narrative. It’s like a childish curiosity, the desire to loosen the screws, to take a look into the mechanism, to learn its structure, and to understand its operation principles, only led by the adult knowledge that each action belongs to the moments and each of them can be the end of it”.

Photography projects “Breakwater” and “Links” ofE. Barzdžiusare also presented in the exhibition.

About the author

Eugenijus Barzdžius was born in 1979 m. in Šiauliai, studied art, documentary photography, and urban cultures at the universities of Šiauliai,South WalesandLondon. The works of the author are publicised and exhibited in various countries worldwide (USA,United Kingdom,Denmark,Canada,France,Germany, and etc.), and have been awarded and honourably commemorated in the international competitions.

The project of E. Barzdžius “Harvest of Wetland” won in the competition “PDN Photo Annual” (USA) in the student category in 2013, he has also received an exclusive Marty Forscher Society Foundation scholarship for the contribution to humanistic photography. The book “International Photography Awards” (IPA) published by the author in 2013 won third place in the documentary non-professional category.

More information about the author – www.eugenijusb.com.

This exhibition is a part of the photography project “KITI 9” (“OTHERS” p). The project is organised by Lithuanian Union of Art Photographers, Klaipėda Branch, the curator – Darius Vaičekauskas. The project is partially funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.

The exhibition will run until the 4th of November 2018.

Opening hours of the KCCC Exhibition Hall (Didžioji Vandens str. 2, Klaipėda): Wednesday-Sunday 11 AM – 7 PM (closed on public holidays).

The Klaipėda branch of the Union of Lithuanian Art Photographers
Tomo str. 7, Klaipeda
Tel: 8 615 49470
www.photoklaipeda.lt