Remigijus Venckus “Amnesia. Other repeated places”

Klaipeda Culture Communication Center presents an experimental photography exhibition by Remigijus Venckus, PhD, developing the conception of the Amnesia cycle at 6 p.m. on the 19th December, 2014.

The photographs, made with the unique technique developed by the author, question memory and the phenomenon of the location important to it. The artist says, “Time distances the image from its original location. A jerky and iterative relationship remains, though scattering increasingly. Finally, reiteration begins to repeat itself alone. […] The rate – rhythm of reiterations kind of brings the image closer to death. I.e., reiteration of the images is the convulsions of the dying, the twinkles of elucidating and obscuring memory. When the image no longer repeats any vivid location, context, object or subject of an occurrence, it is a continual relationship with death that remains. So in this case, it seems to me more likely that the meaning of the image is created by reiteration rather than relationship with the location. In addition, advantage is taken of a story experienced by the viewer. […] When thinking about the phenomenon of reiteration, a binary confrontation between the work and the viewer is emerging: the first one is a belief in the image as if it were something close to me (the viewer); the second one is the halting memory that repeatedly stops me in the maze of the meaning of the work and casts doubt on the veracity of what I see on the picture surface. My exhibition is dedicated to the viewer who completely distrusts the image as document rather than the viewer unafraid of duality”. The creative work of the artist is a resourceful question about memory locations that are naturally forgotten without being retained in memory.

A collection of works presented at the exhibition was influenced by a 15 year old creative photography archive reviewed by the author and seven year long study of the philosophy of Jacques Derrida. The author organised successful exhibitions on the Amnesia cycle over the period 2013-2014: Amnesia and Locations of Diaries (Telsiai Gallery of Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, Telsiai), The Flaming Archives of Amnesia and Empty Screens (Laiptai Gallery, Siauliai), Unknown Places (Kaunas Castle, Kaunas), Berlin Diary (Photo Gallery, Panevezys). Gaze from the Amnesia cycle was displayed at the international exhibition White Noise, Black Word (Lithuania, Croatia and Romania). See more about exhibitions on the Amnesia cycle at: www.amnesia.venckus.eu

About The author. PhD Remigijus Venckus (born 1981) is a doctor of humanities, an art critic who writes about video art, painting and photography. The author prepares critical reviews of the works and art collections created by well-known artists in Lithuania and abroad. As an art critic, the author participates in Lithuanian and foreign art galleries and museums. The author also is a media artist, most often creating photography and video art. He made presentations of his works in twenty-two solo exhibitions in Lithuania and in two exhibitions in Poland. The author is the participant of more than twenty national and over thirty international exhibitions.

Currently, R. Venckus is a lecturer at Vytautas Magnus University. He teaches video art, performances and installations art, the introduction of new media art, audiovisual technology and the basics of art, audiovisual research. He has published nine articles refereed in scientific databases; four articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals; three papers in international and fourteen reports in national scientific conferences.

The exhibition lats till 1st February, 2015