2014-05-27 A walk with Stasys Eidrigevičius

The broadcast about the artist Stasys Eidrigevičius offers many colours and forms. Do not understand it directly – the city behind the interlocutors is colourful but it is only a decoration – the world of the artist disclosing from his words is much more interesting. And colour is the most beautiful in it.

White colour, because these “Walks” reminded me of one old law. An artist always functions in the society, he/she is an activist of the society. Sometimes, in times of Baroque, he/she could be active at the side of kings and cardinals, sometimes, like in the 2nd and 7th decades of the 20th century, - in bars of doubtful reputation, in industrial suburbs and underground art galleries. Still, it does not manner in what surroundings he/she works, the artist is always free and remains an artist only due to his/her skill to preserve his/her freedom for action. The artist is the one who finds freedom in his/her activity.

“I introduced my own order in the Academy of Arts. It appeared that they were not so free – they were sitting stiff…” Eidrigevičius expresses the strangest thought for the beginning of the 21st century. I see from the eyes that you will start protesting at once: young people are much freer than earlier! Still, the statement of Stasys has its ground. The artist of the 21st century is raised as a slave of mind and career – he/she draws only when he can create something genial, puts down only thoughts of the highest quality. To put it in other words, he waits instead of doing something. Waits, waits and does nothing.

Therefore, for me the white colour of Eidrigevičius is freedom, a white page of paper open to ideas, thoughts and movement of hand. Bits of life – dates, surnames, views, codes of sounds – everything may appear on it and become the manifest of daily freedom, a small nonsense of life. There are many of such things in the sketch notebooks of Stasys. It is his daily freedom, the thread of creative life.

Be free.

Monika