Rimantas Plungė ”Reverse”

Analog, digital photography, video technologies they are as important to dr. R. Plungė‘s the images they capture. The environment is a source of inspiration for the author, while acknowledging that the world around us can only be known, understood and interpreted by looking at oneself. It is we, the self, that is not only the potential for self-realization, improvement, management, but also the power of the understanding, transformation and interpretation of the environment. Art is one of the strategies for mastering the world, qualitative rather than quantitative. This approach of the author does not form a superficial creation of a “picture”, but a methodical use of visual media to convey experiences and ideas. The images created in this way are neither comfortable nor frivolous, nor superficially beautiful – this can be both engaging and repulsive at the same time, but the author seeks to ensure that art does not leave the viewer indifferent.

The technological approach of photography chosen by the photo installation the RIVER (it exhibits photographs of recent years) – cut, engraved, torn negatives intrigue with multi-layeredness, which creates visual tension between unexpectedly adjacent images. Analog images move from photographic film to digital space and lay down on sheets of paper. Obviously, it is important for the author to touch, scratch, trim, or cut out the surface of the tape, but he also does not resist the inevitable progress of digitization. Such a sensory interpretation combines technological experience, environmental perception, time, space, becoming a place, and personal experience into one whole.

The video installation of the exhibition talks about the desire to understand which moments are important, which can be identified as “decisive” moments. Usually the most important moments of life are not solemn, memorable, but they are simple, often their latent effects justify the events of life – they shape our attitudes, dictate feelings and remain in the memory. Memory provides continuity of personality, and the image creates reflections – often blurred, inconspicuous, but no less important. Images, forms, reflections, unlike texts, are symbolic, not didactic. They do not show, but reveal, do not tell, and settle in our imagination. In this way, the viewer becomes a part of the work, because for him the work actualizes experiences that do not indicate, but rather awaken the viewer’s memory. The author captures, sorts, compares and presents the viewer with moments in a sequence of frames. They (moments) are important to the author, so the scrolls of the image can be difficult for the viewer to read, sometimes mysterious, sometimes seem provocative, but most often cozy and open to the viewer. The author’s video installation is “pictorial”. It is like a picture: is always waiting for the viewer, it is not like a film that needs to be watched from the beginning, but a work that has neither a beginning nor an end. Like an endless loop of time …

The only thread that connects the main motives of the works in the exhibition is the author of the work himself. It is his individual experience that creates the author’s mythological field, which also becomes the viewer’s identity, as it also actualizes and awakens his experience.

Exhibited by prof. dr. Rimantas Plungė’s exhibition REVERSE 21 summarizes the author’s search for the last 15 years in working with photography and video media.

Exhibition is part of the Meno Parkas gallery’s project  “Accents. 2021”.