‚Waving and swaying‘ Neringa Vasiliauskaite, 2018
The exhibition is made from some works on the wall and some objects, which are exhibited in a space in different formations. The centrepieces are taken from A. Tarkovsky’s film “Solaris” and interpreted in a distinctive way. However, the viewer should not see the movie as the gravitational point of the installation, rather the motives of the film should be regarded as parallels in the present day.
The Installation is manipulating both personal space of the viewer as well as the inner space of the premises, the room: „Instead, when we explore space, we are actively seeking to find reflections or images of mankind and his earthbound experiences.“ (John Kenneth Muir). In the installation, you see everyday objects of a humdrum life coming to the surface. Such artefacts as landscapes, printed on latex (works “blankets”, or “pinboard”), containing details of the outer space, create a contrast between them. At the same time the objects work together to create and underline the relation between the man and the cosmos.
The idea behind the reproductions, copies and other reflections is to remind one of the nature of human memories, that are nothing else but copies of the reality. The juxtaposition between simulacra and real things, that are related to something else, is accentuated in the installation time and again.
As a sort of paradigm of the past, the most of presented objects have a specific shade of colour assigned to them, that do not easily fall into the scale of black-and-white or could be defined as a pure colour. Rather, they are somewhere in-between of tones of brown, reddish, yellowish and greyish. The same is happening with the surfaces in the room, where perfectly shiny glass contrasts the opaque latex, when the surfaces are reflecting different quantities of light.
The perception of the room is strongly influenced by works on the walls that are made of highly reflective, coated glass. They influence the room not only by the means of reflecting the space and the objects inside it, but also by mirroring the colours, at times alternating them. Generally, a mirror is quite a common motive in the movies of Tarkovsky. For the film-director they are the symbols of another universe as well as the background for the objects that are dispersed in the space. Their reflections are like shadows of the almostforgotten memories that seem abstracted in the pictures, although they mirror a confirmation of reality: the things do really exist.
To reflect oneself in the works, or to watch others as they reflect themselves, reminds of a primitive, rudimentary, but human existence, that is depicted in the Film “Self-centered Beings”: “We don’t need other worlds. We need a mirror.“ (Solaris, 1972).
Another paramount theme of this installation is time, which is particularly important and referred to on many levels: the past and the future are blended together while the space (cosmos) is connected to profane human things to bring them closer to the mood of nostalgia, hypnosis, illusion and fantasy. Paralells between the backstage of the film and the space in the exposition are designed in such a manner that the choice of materials creates an artificial mood, embracing the works and interacting with them.
