Narkevičius, Deimantas (LT)
Carlberg Tap E / Cinemateket
Deimantas Narkevičius
Born 1964 in Utena, Lithuania
Lives in Vilnius
Deimantas Narkevičius embarked on his artistic career in the period following Lithuania's independence from the Soviet Union, a period during which Communism underwent a decline in Europe, leaving a society like that of Lithuania in chaos. But it was also a period imbued with a dynamic and a forward-looking focus. In a number of his films, Narkevičius is concerned to find a historical vantage point from which to reflect on his native country's destiny and potential future. The relationship between objective truth and interpretive constructs is a recurring theme in his films.
Narkevičius departs from the documentary norm by using a diversity of film and narrative techniques simultaneously. In his 2003 The Role of a Lifetime, apparently disparate sound and images are juxtaposed. The sound side - an interview with the British film director Peter Watkins, known for his controversial mockumentaries - is accompanied by drawings of Grotu, Lithuania's socialist theme park, and by old Super 8 clips of people enjoying the weekend at a British holiday resort. What initially appears to be a biopic documentary about Peter Watkins turns out to contain several competing layers and narratives. This lack of coherence, coupled with the use of montage techniques, heightens the viewer's sense of the film as a construct. In the attempt to make sense of
the multiple layers, the individual's own knowledge and experience are brought into play - with the result that the viewer becomes yet another piece of the disharmonious jigsaw.
Narkevičius' latest film The Dud Effect (2008) is set in the immediate vicinity of some of the abandoned launch pads for nuclear missiles found everywhere in the former Soviet Union. Using information from people who worked these places and stock footage from launch rehearsals, Narkevičius has constructed a simulated launch of an R-14 nuclear missile. Fortunately, this never came to happen in reality, but the question remains whether the fear we thought was behind us is about to begin all over again with a new strategic arms race due to the current political relationship between West and East.
The issue of documentary veracity is also taken to the max in Once in the XX Century (2004) in which Narkevičius uses TV footage showing the removal of Lenin's statue in Vilnius in September 1991, but manipulates the material so that it looks as if the crowds were cheering its erection. A notable characteristic of Deimantas Narkevičius' film and video installations is their illustration of how ideologies, social change and personal stances colour history.
-NBR
Lives in Vilnius
Deimantas Narkevičius embarked on his artistic career in the period following Lithuania's independence from the Soviet Union, a period during which Communism underwent a decline in Europe, leaving a society like that of Lithuania in chaos. But it was also a period imbued with a dynamic and a forward-looking focus. In a number of his films, Narkevičius is concerned to find a historical vantage point from which to reflect on his native country's destiny and potential future. The relationship between objective truth and interpretive constructs is a recurring theme in his films.
Narkevičius departs from the documentary norm by using a diversity of film and narrative techniques simultaneously. In his 2003 The Role of a Lifetime, apparently disparate sound and images are juxtaposed. The sound side - an interview with the British film director Peter Watkins, known for his controversial mockumentaries - is accompanied by drawings of Grotu, Lithuania's socialist theme park, and by old Super 8 clips of people enjoying the weekend at a British holiday resort. What initially appears to be a biopic documentary about Peter Watkins turns out to contain several competing layers and narratives. This lack of coherence, coupled with the use of montage techniques, heightens the viewer's sense of the film as a construct. In the attempt to make sense of
the multiple layers, the individual's own knowledge and experience are brought into play - with the result that the viewer becomes yet another piece of the disharmonious jigsaw.
Narkevičius' latest film The Dud Effect (2008) is set in the immediate vicinity of some of the abandoned launch pads for nuclear missiles found everywhere in the former Soviet Union. Using information from people who worked these places and stock footage from launch rehearsals, Narkevičius has constructed a simulated launch of an R-14 nuclear missile. Fortunately, this never came to happen in reality, but the question remains whether the fear we thought was behind us is about to begin all over again with a new strategic arms race due to the current political relationship between West and East.
The issue of documentary veracity is also taken to the max in Once in the XX Century (2004) in which Narkevičius uses TV footage showing the removal of Lenin's statue in Vilnius in September 1991, but manipulates the material so that it looks as if the crowds were cheering its erection. A notable characteristic of Deimantas Narkevičius' film and video installations is their illustration of how ideologies, social change and personal stances colour history.
-NBR