Conversation with Darius Žiura: I trust the text more than my photographic images | Culture

A book full of personal experiences, reflections on artistic practices, and theoretical contexts, born from an art thesis, can offer many lines of conversation (and many good quotes!), but this time the language turned towards writing. Not only because D. Žiura, as he says himself, suddenly jumped into the professional league, but also because writing and his reflections are one of the themes of “Diser”.

So how and why was this book written, why is writing so difficult and how does the reality of the literary field differ from the world of contemporary art?

– „In Diser, you write that the writing process itself affects reality: it mutates, it can even become unmanageable. How much have you tried to control reality while writing? Especially considering that the text is loosely connected not only to your artistic practices, but also to very personal experiences.

– Although “Diser’s” approach is more documentary, it constantly reflects on the boundaries of reality and fiction, and in general reality as a manifestation of hallucination. Undoubtedly, the text affects the experience of reality, and the reality experienced through the text affects the writing. Immersing yourself in the interplay of reality and text, you can both swim and sink. When I write, I consciously go in waves, trying different methods and tools, playing with them, and at the same time trying not to play too much and not lose my sanity.

Therefore, the book is imbued with subjectivity. On the other hand, it contains things that many readers will recognize, and the entire text is based on a certain documentary strategy.

– That strategy interests me. How did it work in preparing the artistic research and creating the reality of the text?

– First of all, it should be mentioned that art doctoral studies in Lithuania appeared relatively recently, and I was almost among the first ten doctoral students. It was not at all clear what that artistic research was, and to this day the concept is contested around the world. Should artistic research aim for scientific objective knowledge, only to be somehow “artistic”? Should artistic research seek artistic truth, which is subjective in principle?

I got into a situation where I realized that there is no clear agreement and there won’t be, as if I became a hostage of that situation. Then I decided to take the opportunity and just do what I want and what is most interesting to me.

Although I had no preconceived plan for the content of the text, I defined a certain framework: that my text is four years of writing, presented in chronological order. I wanted to document processes and reflections, relationships with theoretical problems, relevant cultural concepts, my life. Through those texts, it is revealed how the four-year journey unfolds, where I started and where it led.

And when it comes to reality and fiction, I like literature the most the tower those texts in which writers write regarding themselves. Let’s just say that of all Murakami’s books, what I’m talking regarding when I talk regarding running is the most interesting to me.

– Her paraphrased name became one too „Diseries“ department.

– This title is my dedication to Murakami’s only book in which he doesn’t make anything up. I find it more interesting than his other books combined. This is a relatively small book, smaller in volume than many others. But it is such a concentrate of experience that completely engages and enchants with its authenticity.

And that sense of certainty is important to me. That’s why I try to write regarding things I know very well. There are moments in our life that stick in our memory and won’t let go: when you keep remembering them, you have to somehow make sense of it. The reality of “Diser” is formed from such things.

Photo by Greta Skaraitiene/BNS/Darius Žiura

– Your story regarding the time is very intriguing: Dec. 10. Vilnius, squats, academy etc. I would even say that I get the impression that people outside of the art field are primarily hooked on the 10 designs you create. portrait. Today, in the public space, there is a lot of interest in this time in general, even its exoticization. What is your relationship with this trend and how would you feel regarding it while sharing your experiences?

– Compared to the entire text, regarding 10 I don’t write that much in the book, but I write in a sufficiently concentrated way.

It was a “broken” time. Back then, it was impossible to imagine that we would ever live the way we live now. And now it is difficult to imagine and understand what happened then.

At that time, society did not even understand the word “artist”. What else is an “artist”? You are either an artist or an outdoor director. Although I started artistic activity quite early and I mention in “Disery” serious exhibitions in which I had to participate, at the same time I was on the fringes of society. You live without social media. insurance, you earn a living by painting on the street in the summer and Pilies st. has 100 sq. m. area for nothing (laughing).

10 Dec. was a set of unimaginable contradictions, and it is not at all surprising that it seems exotic today. The things I describe sound like incredible stories to many, but they are recognized by many eyewitnesses of the time.

– „“Diser’s” text answers different questions that are relevant in your artistic practices. Of them, I found representation to be the most interesting. However, in the text, you name it not only important, but also your least favorite art problem. Why is this question both so significant and so inconvenient?

– I think that this is one of the most problematic social phenomena, and it works at all levels.

Any representation is a representation, all visual art is concerned with representation – hence representation. On the other hand, every person has to deal with his own representation and from childhood he is forced to look, act and communicate in a certain way. Representation dictates to us images that we try to conform to, forces us to play certain roles. Sometimes the images we create are very different from what is happening inside us – and then the roof goes off our heads.

In Disery, I write regarding myself, but there are other people involved…

– …with their first and last names.

– Yes, by names, surnames, nicknames. Along with my parents and relatives. What can I tell regarding myself and other people, and what can’t I tell? This question was one of the fundamental ones when creating the text.

In general, “Diser” is like my first open word to the public, on which the future life depends.

– You haven’t written before? What was your relationship with writing?

– I was very attracted to books from a very young age, but I didn’t like writing anyway. I especially hated required essays and wondered how those writers wrote books: I read a lot myself, but it always seemed to me that to write a book you need some kind of hyper imagination and exceptional talent.

But I wrote poems as a child. After entering the Academy of Fine Arts, I constantly wrote prose of black humor and surreal absurdity, the volume of which was from word to page, but I never published that prose. An important part of the CMC exhibition “Other space” consisted of my texts based on the motives of an imaginary journey. But while I was no stranger to writing, I didn’t take it seriously.

And I wrote the very first text of “Diser”, “From where it all began”, even before my doctoral studies, when I was lying in a sanatorium with a broken leg. There was nothing to do there, you wouldn’t look telly in days – and that’s why I started writing. It was an ideal situation for writing – you are fed three times a day, you don’t have a headache that you are not participating because you simply cannot be anywhere else. No extraneous interference. Fantastic conditions (laughing).

Photo by Greta Skaraitiene/BNS/Darius Žiura

– Almost a residence!

– Yes! And I still remember it as an almost ideal state. Which is really strange because at the time I was on crutches and mightn’t walk normally.

It was then that I first realized that I was interested in delving into writing, and when I found out regarding the PhD program, I entered with this text.

I was soon overcome with euphoria and a strange uneasiness at the same time, as I realized the power and threats of words as I discovered my own language. I was overwhelmed by internal dilemmas, which I also talk regarding in “Diser”.

– What then happens to the portrait of you as an artist and a person that inevitably develops in “Diser”? In the book, you write regarding your photographic images: “I have no complaints regarding my face. Normal face. It’s just that it looks a little different in photographs than in real life.” Does the written portrait look closer?

– I probably trust the text more than my photographic images. I still struggle with my photo portraits – I have regarding three photos where I look the least stupid, which I always use when needed (laughing).

Text, however, is a more serious format than a single photograph. And in it I managed to express many things that cannot be expressed in other ways.

Anyway, people usually blurt out when communicating. There are people who can talk all the time and they don’t even care if you listen to them. But I don’t talk much. I often feel that just does not match the speed – I just think too slowly. And public speaking is always stressful for me. When you don’t talk much, the things you don’t say keep piling up. And this nervous (laughing).

This is a pretty strong motivation to take up writing. You don’t need to hurry when writing, there is time to think regarding the text, and maybe that’s why writing is more favorable to me than speaking.

– At the same time, writing in your text reveals itself as hard work, more complicated than the creation of images. You even say that it is impossible to live and write at the same time.

– It was not easy, because first of all, I just never took writing seriously in my life, and now I suddenly found myself in the professional league (laughing).

When working with words, there are many tasks and attitudes that you set for yourself. And here once more is the same problem of representation – how do you imagine what writing might and should be? It’s as if you have to somehow justify that representation, meet your own expectations. It is not easy: writing costs a lot of emotional and mental stress, physical strength.

At the same time, it doctoral, rather heavy format. And really, while you’re writing, you just can’t live, you can’t do anything else. Therefore, the writing continued love and hate drama.

– But it is a great achievement that you don’t feel that difficulty at all in the text itself: „Disery“ reading regarding your writing travails is even very nice.

– Me too flourespecially now that the book is out (laughs).

– I am interested in asking regarding the construction of the text itself, weaving a theoretical perspective: these connections are very unexpected, breaking out of the framework of the traditional structure, even when it comes to artistic writing.

– During my doctoral studies, I intensively read theoretical texts and groped my way, trying to discover my relationship with them. I tried to write in different directions until I arrived at a rather minimalistic, conceptual model, which in some ways is characteristic of my other works. But I had a lot of questions and doubts regarding which direction to move. In fact, it is not easy to find yourself in such an environment, when international seminars are held, you feel that you do not have enough theoretical knowledge backgroundo, and you compare yourself to people who have been doing it all their lives. But it was from this constant dialogue between subjective reality and theory that “Diser” eventually developed.

– What does writing do? What has writing given you as an artist?

– New track (laughing).

Writing “Diser” was the result of studying, and it shows. For me, the doctoral studies were generally a good springboard, as if they took me to a slightly different level professionally.

On the other hand, “Diseris” is very interesting for me as an experience in another context. Similar to the movie “Gustoniai Gustoniai”. Although I am new to both cinema and literature, it is very interesting to observe different communities from the inside, gradually becoming a participant in them. It is like different realities, with different criteria and characteristics of mutual communication, with a different relationship with the works themselves.

A book is a much more democratic tool of expression than an art exhibition.

Let’s say a book is a much more democratic tool of expression than an art exhibition. After the show ends, she goes down in history and is quickly forgotten by everyone. Meanwhile, the book keeps giving you feedback, and that’s a very good feeling, especially for me, coming from an art world where people don’t usually openly express their opinions regarding exhibitions and works to each other. Very peculiar communication rituals work there, and the art world may even seem distorted from the outside. And the readers’ reaction to the book is much more immediate.

These differences in perspectives and experiences allow for a deeper understanding of the culture. And this is extremely interesting to me.