Eglė Rakauskaitė [Lithuania]

“Gariūnai” | video

 venue: 11a Krowoderska Str., a wall of a building

 

The video is a memory of stall-holders and crowds of customers in the daily ebb and flow of a temporary market. Outsiders and locals mingled and trade; and we observe the casual voyeurism that accompanies all places where people mix in public. The stalls and the crowds, make an otherwise empty, even derelict space into a “place.” The Lithuanian open market Gariūnai, located on the Kaunas highway from Vilnius, is 120 hectares and claimed to be the largest outdoor market in Europe; with an estimated 50,000 visitors shopping there every day. It is open sunrise to lunchtime every day of the week except Mondays. A couple of years before Eglė Rakauskaitė made her video of the place, the Danish Queen insisted on visiting Gariūnai on her official trip to the country. The Lithuanians were horrified. [Source: “Vilnius in Your Pocket: Essential City Guide” June-July 2002.]

 

Eglė Rakauskaitė (b. 1967) is a leading Lithuanian artist who lives and works in Vilnius, Lithuania. She completed her art studies at the Vilnius Art Academy in 1993; and though classically trained in painting, she has primarily worked in video installation, and photography. Rakauskaitė was selected to represent Lithuania at the 48th International Venice Biennale in 1999. She has participated in many other significant international exhibitions and her work is widely exhibited in Europe. In 2002, she was also a delegate to the European Cultural Parliament, a forum of artists and critics, which met in Bruges to debate issues of identity, diversity and politics.