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(The Vilnius District Prosecutor’s Office ended the pre-trial investigation on a possible state of
desecration of characters in the video of Dainius Liškevičius. According to the prosecutor’s office, the investigation was terminated due to the statute of limitations, – BNS inf.)
Little has been known so far that he will abandon the hateful work of D.Liškevičius, in which a young artist cleaned a face stained with chocolate in three colors, although this video representation was even rotated a few years ago at the famous Venice Biennale. in Italy. Although even then, in 2015, the work caused some noise in Lithuania, he breathed out quickly.
The name of D. Liškevičius was once again loud when the Union of Nationalists and Republicans of Lithuania drew attention to the presentation of the video in February this year.
The pre-trial investigation into Article 127 of the Penal Code, desecration of state symbols, started in the winter was accelerated when organizers of the Great March for the Defense of the Family displayed excerpts from Kliaks / Restart in Vingis Park.
The participants of this march closed the application of the law with new complaints. The desecration of the state symbol is punishable by up to two years in prison.
The 51-year-old artist has become a suspect, although he himself is surprised that an investigation has been launched into his work in general, as the legality of the video’s interpretation can be easily corroborated.
– What did you mean by the video performance “Kliaksas / Restartas”? – “Lietuvos rytas” asked D.Liškevičius.
– The play talks about national identity, homophobia, the borders of patriotism, when they transcend and become nationalism.
The action was created in 2000 and focused on the future: the question is whether the thinking of its citizens will change after Lithuania joins the European Union. Will Lithuania become not a national but a civic state, where all citizens will be able to live, regardless of their nationality, race, beliefs and sexual orientation?
I strongly believed in that and asked in my work if we could manage to change so that Lithuania could continue to exist as a normal democratic state.
– At the beginning of this century, there was still little talk in Lithuania about homophobia, ethnic and racial hatred. What inspired you to create this performance at the time?
– Freed from the occupation and the communist regime, we built a new political and cultural base, and I, as an artist, tried to predict the future.
That work had to become a beacon for the nation that we must change our thinking because the new political system is changing life and culture, and we must be prepared for that, or at least think about it.
– What shaped your worldview so that you could look ahead?
– I am an artist of a turning point, living in the Soviet system for 20 years, then seeing how we regain Independence.
He believed that all Lithuanian citizens should achieve their hard-earned freedom, although it is not easy to live freely either.
Today’s news clearly shows that a part of society still feels the consequences of the wounds of the Soviet system and is not oriented in the situation.
When I was creating this performance, I was optimistic.
I didn’t even think that 20 years from now things would happen as they are now; I saw our society much brighter.
One who would look at this work two decades later: “You see, we have avoided certain places, we are a force, we realize who we are and what patriotism is.”
– He has been questioned as a suspect following new complaints about his work. What were the interests of the prosecutors?
– So far I have just read the material and said that I need a lawyer because I felt that no one was talking about art, that it is politics. It is associated with the Great March for the Defense of the Family, whose participants are covered with slogans and patriotic masks.
I think officials were affected by this and suffered some kind of political pressure.
Otherwise, it is difficult to explain that a study has been carried out for almost half a year, directed both to the MO Museum, which shows the artwork itself, and to its creator, because I am an artist with official status. Everything here is legal, I don’t understand what you can stick to here.
All you had to do was ask the Ministry of Culture, the Vilnius Academy of Arts and the National Gallery of Art to make it clear that there was nothing to explore here.
– When you introduced this work in 2000, was there no passion for tricolor desecration?
– Then I was even surprised that there was no reaction.
The public wasn’t interested in it then, art didn’t care either, people only cared about their own well-being.
The state itself was more concerned with economic matters, such as paving the streets.
– In 2015, a video performance with his other works was presented at the Venice Biennale as part of the Museum project. Why did you withdraw Kliaks / Restart again after 15 years?
– The “Museum” project represented Lithuania at the Venice Biennale 2015. It is a multifaceted work that talks about Lithuania, the institutions of our country, the Soviet period and our country today.
I created my own Museum, which talks about the past and the future.
This project consists of some 200 works that create a cohesive narrative. Its axis is the creator and the freedom of the creator.
A large part of the project is dedicated to the art of protest and protest in general as an art form. I included that video performance with many other plays in the section on patriotism.
That’s when the politicians have already reacted. Various parties, both on the left and on the right, have explained that it is not art that my work should be of interest to law enforcement, but that is all.
The Museum with its flag and its performance was presented at the National Gallery of Art in 2012, and has been exhibited many times abroad: in Switzerland, Germany, Latvia and Estonia, but during that time hardly anyone in Lithuania has seen it.
Now, with the emergence of a new movement, work has suddenly retreated again, manipulating and overthrowing society.
I think law enforcement should pay attention to how that work is treated. After all, it was stolen from the MO Museum website and displayed without any rights to do so. The copyright of both mine and the museum has been violated.
– Didn’t you complain to the police about that?
– The Lithuanian Association for the Protection of Copyright has asked the police for an investigation into copyright infringement.
In addition, the organizers of the march showed my work in Vingis Park to a crowd of thousands and urged me to take care of it. It is an incitement to hatred, even, I would say, to public violence. In fact, I felt insecure.
– Have you received direct threats?
– The Internet is full of various and certainly not the most beautiful words. I also received a personal message on Mother’s Day. It seemed to me that it was a threat, although the police say it was only an insult to honor and dignity.
– You said you see an attack on your performance as politicking. How political are you as an artist?
– You cannot underestimate what is happening in Lithuania now, because it is impossible to hide from it. Even without interest in politics, it inevitably involves you and you must choose a position, for LGBT or for a traditional family.
However, I don’t think our society is as terribly fragmented as it seems.
I think that’s the way that part of a traumatized society behaves, and people with political plans manipulate that society, extort it, rally their constituents, and make populist promises of a bright tomorrow.
The family defense march is the best example of this.
The scariest thing is when a character says that there is no art here, that the MO Museum is not a museum. He will soon say that Lithuania is not here and everyone will agree with him.
And it is better that the participants of that march go to the Lithuanian border with Belarus, enter a living chain and thus do useful work in helping the border guards to counter the influx of migrants.
– Have you submitted more papers that use state symbols?
– Then obviously not. There is such an old work of mine “Windmill”. Also performance.
There I stood at the tower of the Kaunas castle and played the weather vane. In this paper, I talked about how Lithuania and our society should focus on the West, not the East. He had scaled Kaunas Castle, but had permission to do so.
He also sees a threat to freedom of expression.
Some Lithuanian cultural institutions and organizations appealed to heads of state and law enforcement regarding the threat to the functioning of cultural institutions and freedom of expression.
“We declare that the pre-trial investigation initiated into the desecration of state symbols in a work of art represents a threat to the principle of freedom of expression enshrined in the Constitution and the functioning of cultural institutions in Lithuania.”
A public letter from the Vilnius Academy of Arts, the Lithuanian Union of Photographic Artists, the Center for Contemporary Art, the Lithuanian National Art Museum, the Union of Cinematographers, the MO Museum, the Lithuanian Artists Association, the MKČiurlionis National Art Museum and others were prompted by a pre-trial investigation, in which the artist wipes a chocolate face on the Lithuanian flag.
“With this work of art 21 years ago, the author raised the question of what the Lithuanian state will look like in the future, whether it will be able to accept the national, racial and other diversity of its citizens. It does not desecrate the national flag, nor pollute it, but rather wipes the face like Christ, tormented by Pontius Pilate, wipes his face on the cloth of Turin. It is likely that the organizers of the Family March, who complained to the artist, recognized themselves in the figure of this character. However, the most important thing is that the artist represents a fictitious reality in the work in the same way that it is represented in movies or theatrical performances, ”the letter says.
