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gb agency: Deimantas Narkevicius - 14 Nov 2009 to 23 Dec 2009 Current Exhibition |
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English below Deimantas Narkevicius 14 novembre - 23 d�cembre 2009 Pour cette nouvelle exposition personnelle � gb agency, Paris, l�artiste lituanien Deimantas Narkevicius a choisi de pr�senter son film �Into the Unknown�, 2009, accompagn� d�un ensemble de sculptures r�alis�es dans les ann�es 1990 et d�une photographie tir�e de l�un de ses films, �His-story�, 1998. Il souligne ainsi la dimension plasticienne de son oeuvre filmique. Selon l�artiste, l�acte de monter un film poss�de quelque chose de pictural. Chez Deimantas Narkevicius, le format du documentaire est questionn� pour devenir peu � peu subjectif. L�ambivalence cr�� par la coexistence de plusieurs narrations dans ses films semble faire �cho � ses sculptures fragment�es, d�construites puis reconstruites. Dans ses installations comme dans ses films, il d�construit toute narration lin�aire, pla�ant l�histoire � la fois dans le pass� et le pr�sent. Car ce qui int�resse l�artiste n�est pas tant de documenter une histoire que d�en rendre visible son processus. C�est la raison pour laquelle il �prouve le medium, juxtapose les techniques, transgresse les genres et remixe les �l�ments trouv�s. �Into the Unknown� a �t� r�alis� � la suite d�une commmission du British Film Institute pour comm�morer l�anniversaire de la chute du mur de Berlin. L�artiste s�est servi des archives du BFI - et particuli�rement des films de propagande socialiste produits par la DEFA (Deutsche Film-Aktiengesellschaft) de l�ex-Allemagne de l�Est docu-mentant entre autres la vie quotidienne des habitants de Berlin-Est - qu�il a �dit� afin de proposer une vision universelle et existentielle d�individus vivant dans un r�gime social et politique tr�s strict. A la campagne comme � la ville, on y voit des travailleurs (ouvriers, m�decins, biblioth�quaires...) mais aussi des retrait�s, des enfants ou des couples d�amoureux comme autant d�arch�types visant � promouvoir l��quilibre et le bien-�tre du mode de vie socialiste. Si aucun symbole ouvertement politique n�apparait � l��cran, le montage effectu� par l�artiste souligne n�anmoins la mani�re dont chaque personne est film�e afin de devenir un protagoniste exemplaire ou id�alis� du r�gime. Cette mise en relief de repr�sentations cin�matographiques arch�typales est par ailleurs accentu�e par le d�calage op�r� par la bande-son, m�langeant musiques et voix-off en anglais provenant de documentaires de la m�me p�riode sans lien apparent avec les images. Exprimant les relations compliqu�es des individus avec leur environnement, les dff�rents textes provoquent ainsi une tension ou une certaine irritation avec les images qu�ils accompagnent. �Into the Unknown� souligne de la sorte l�effet du temps sur les individus comme sur les syst�mes politiques qu�ils �rigent et les repr�sentations qu�ils en construisent. Deimantas Nakevicius November 14 - December 23, 2009 For his new solo exhibition at gb agency, Paris, lithuanian artist Deimantas Narkevicius has chosen to present his latest film �Into the Unknown�, 2009 alongside sculptures he made in the 90s and a black and white photograph taken from one of his film �His-story�, 1998. According to the artist, the act of editing a film is a pictorial gesture. The documentary format is reformulated to become more and more subjective and lose its initial function. The ambivalence created by the coexistence of different narratives in his films bounce back to his fragmented sculptures, de-constructed and re- constructed, made from parallel moments. With his sculptures or his films he deconstructs any linear narration, placing the story in both the past and the present. This way, Deimantas Narkevicius doesn't document (hi-)story but reveals its process. This is why he tests the medium, juxtaposes the techniques, transgresses the genres and remixes ready made documents. To coincide with the 20 years anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the British Film Institute has commissioned the artist to create a new work based on the ETV collection of propaganda films, the largest of its kind surviving in Western Europe. Throughout last year the artist has explored the collection, concentrating particularly on documentary films from East and Central Europe in order to create �Into the Unknown�, a film edited out of existing, politically motivated found footage originally made to promote the socialist way of living. The material selected depict every day life of East Berliners documented during the German Democratic Republic period, the new work exposing the individuals� place into strict social systems. By re-editing different clips of existing films and mixing up sound, the artist�s intention was to bring back a certain existential weight to the cinematic representations of socialist archetypical figures. Old workers, young pupils, concerned doctors and nurses are just fragile human beings, vulnerable to the flow of time. The same flow of time which made the political system they were living in fade away two decades ago. Some of the people documented in the footage are still alive and yet the social visual canon they are representing today only exists in the films produced by the DEFA (the GDR Film Corporation). �Into the Unknown� allows us to reflect on an ephemeral style of image making which is gone and whether this applies only to the system of state socialism. |
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