Statement piece. 2024

Tekstas, „Calibri“ šriftas (autoriaus pageidaujamas šriftas), kortelė, komercinis rašalas, flomasteris, nerūdijantis plienas

Dear viewer,

LET ME TELL YOU A STORY. Take your time to read it. The author is not dead.
It was Roland Barthes who famously declared it publicly. Putting you, the reader, the viewer, in the driving seat, giving you free rein to interpret. You felt you had the power to see what you wanted to see, to disregard the author’s intention. It was also around that time that it became fashionable to refer to what you were seeing as “auto-nomous objects”.

Ah, the irony! For once, an object is conceptually such only if there’s a subject. And how can it have free agency to “rule” itself if you are imposing your own interpretation on it? AND how is it that you so often glorify and judge its value not for itself, or even your interpretation of it, but through its provenance and the creative powers of its author?

Foucault cautioned us to observe and examine the ‘empty space… the void’ left by this supposed death. Too many considerations (and contradictions) left open…

So here’s what I think. As an artist, I am not here to tell you what to see. But I AM here to give you a lens through which to see the world with my eyes, my thoughts, my questions. If you are interested in seeing only through your own eyes, what is my role as an artist?

Artists are the instigators of meaning. It is our responsibility not to provide answers but to pose new questions. And it is the responsibility of you, the viewer, to listen and to engage, not in solitary interpretation, answering only to yourself, telling yourself what you want to hear, but in a dialogue, with the author and with others.

Art is not an object. It is not the “thing” in front of you.

Art is not auto-nomous. It does not speak for itself, it does not “govern” meaning by itself, and nor do I, or you.

Art is the opening of a door for us to join forces in thinking, agreeing, questioning, clashing. Art is the creating of both empathy and entropy, harmony and chaos.

The etymology of the word “art” contains the concept of “fitting together”. So allow me to be an author who can, and wishes to, tell you a story. And allow yourself to be a viewer who can, and wishes to, listen and pay attention. Art is what happens next, when we create meaning together.

Art is a shared doing.
Yours, Lieta