Juozas Laivys ‘SEDA (LT, 2011) = SEDA (LV, 2016)

Work ‘Nuclear power plant’ (2011) was exhibited in the twin towns of Seda in Lithuania and Latvia. Photo documentation highlights similarities between both events, referencing the artist’s idea that art cannot exist without competition.

Juozas Laivys (1976) is a conceptual artist whose practice spans the mediums of performance, text, sculpture, video and photography. He manipulates with the roles, situations and clichés created by the contemporary art, and reflects on questions such as the relationship between authorship and authenticity, artwork and the market, art history and the latest art practices, the role of institutionalism and curators etc. After studying art in Vilnius and in France he now resides in a small Lithuanian village Narvaišiai where his projects endeavour to inspire the life of local residents and provoke their interest in the contemporary art. During 2005-2014 he created 18 mobile sculptures that get transported around the surrounding villages, circulating in public space as ‘events and situations’. The main stipulation of a Juozas Laivys’ project is the mobility of its objects, allowing for free travel and interaction with the local residents, thus becoming the reason for communication, as well as the means of communication.