Antje Wachs Gallery is pleased to present Kristina Inciuraite and Eleonore de Montesquiou in a two person show.
The project “Test” (2007–2008) by Lithuanian artist Kristina Inciuraite comprises a series of graphic prints, photographs, and a video that reflects the post-Soviet condition of Lithuania and test the psychological climate in the country in relation to transitions within the socio-economic, and political domain.
The silkscreens depict Rorschach Inkblot motifs – used by psychologists in free association exercises to measure an analysand’s psychic condition (depending on a positive or negative reading of the abstract image of ink stains).
The series’ title, “The Oilblot Test” (2007), is derived from the visual register. The work draws a parallel between the test and the collective psyche of the nation in relation to issues of oil extraction and processing – which at this moment is a cause of high political tension in Lithuania – globally – and in the surrounding geo-political region over which Russia exerts increasing power.
In 2006 the Lithuanian oil company “Mazeikiu nafta” was bought by the company “Polski Koncern Naftowy ORLEN S.A.”, a major Polish corporation (that employs over 3500 workers; and mainly Poles, Russians and Lithuanians). The series of photographs “Veteran Women” (2007) focuses on the employees of this company. The photographs represent veteran women employees of “Mazeikiu nafta” who have worked for the company for at least 20 years. They were photographed during the celebration to honour the veterans held in “Mazeikiu nafta” every year: everybody who has spent many years in the company is honoured.
The video “Oil City” (2007–2008) is set in the city of Mazeikiai, which is situated next to “Mazeikiu nafta”. It discusses the influence that this giant company has on the city. The artist asked citizens of Mazeikiai who were active users of the Mazeikiai Municipality’s website forum to express their opinions about their city – its present situation and its potential for the future. Mazeikiai has many Polish citizens, which is a cause for tension within the community – and that the company and the city pay the foreigners too many concessions, even maintaining Soviet attitudes. For better or worse, foreign employees working for the huge company influence the identity of Mazeikiai, and if the company did not exist, the city would flounder. Eleonore de Montesquiou’s project “Forward” also deals with the observing and changing of a city, in this case St. Petersberg. The film GRIBOEDOVA shows images of a self organised activity on a canal side street in St Petersburg. This type of business is vanishing, since the city is being gradually renovated. The sound by Lembe Lokk introduces a very fine contrast on the inside and the outside, as though one was watching from a window down in the street.
Two years after de Montesquiou filmed the people on Griboedova canal, she documented in over 50 photos signs changes in Saint Petersburg. The city has become a huge renovation and construction site although in the center new architectural projects such as the Marinsky theater are being suspended. The images shown in the gallery are comparable with mental notes, they function like a fragmented film with close ups or links such as the 3 larger scale images that Eleonore de Montesquiou shot in the center of Novosibirsk. The latter are very characteristic of the juxtaposition of temporal layers one can encounter in Russian cities today.