December

(Exhibition “Identifications” of Eimutis Markūnas creative works at Kaunas Picture Gallery) Kotryna Džilavjanaitė
www.kamane.lt, 2006 12 08

E.Markūnas. "Connection"

E.Markūnas. "Zone"

E.Markūnas. "Louvre"

E.Markūnas. "Burnt Things"

E.Markūnas. "Dedication to Teachers"

In brief: The artistic thoughts of Eimutis Markūnas have been occupied by the primeval need of cognition, the craving to identify the essence of another person by scanning the body relief, to create a new identity for him. These ideas are fulfilled in the painter’s exhibition “Identifications”.

The author reveals a slightly macabre collection of identities – fingerprints without any alibis (“Marks”), X-rays of body parts of models (“Map”), printed souls of women, flowing through the pores of canvases (“Zone No.1”). E.Markūnas betrays that he is an usurper who uses the body and soul of people identified in his art without any scruples.

However, the artist opposes the reticence of the society in such a controversial manner. In exchange to the open research of his models, the author denudes himself as well. Revealing personal experiences, the artist lets the spectator watch a probe which wanders in his heart during a disease (video/sound work “Identification”).

In addition to video, installations and photographs, Markūnas also presents light minimal paintings, in which the main category is time stretching to the endlessness in “1258 minutes” or “112 hours”. Even though the stained-glass artist does not exhibit traditional examples of stained-glass works, the transparency and shining of the other side typical of this field of art may be sensed in the exhibition.

The usage of various art forms determined that the space of the gallery turned into a mysterious laboratory of an alchemist with soft shadows, strange sounds breaking in silence and music of Tom Waits echoing in the space. The exhibition of Eimutis Markūnas leaves a strong impression. The artist reveals as a strong post-modernist and as a creator of a magic synthetic performance.