A Tree Blessed by the Priest of Trees
Notes of the Priest of Trees, Volume II, 2024, Klaipėda
a real tree (common beech), text engraved on a found stone, a postcard / open letter at the Klaipėda tourist information centre
M-4 Liepų g. 11, kiemas
M-17 Klaipėda tourist information centre, Turgaus g. 7
The source of inspiration was an old Memel postcard depicting the White Lighthouse. The main intrigue lies in two different editions of the postcard: one shows a woman and her reflection in a puddle, while in the other the woman’s figure has been retouched out, yet her reflection — like a shadow, a trace or a mirage — remains visible and recognisable. Exploring the public spaces of Klaipėda, the artist paid much attention to shadows and their reflections. Cultural diversity and the intertwining of eras are understood in this study as a creative platform of reality. The artist’s attention was caught by the situation of a shadow falling on a tree. A common beech growing in the courtyard of 11 Liepų Street has distinctive foliage: where the shadow of the building falls it is green, and where it gets more sun it is red. This colour contrast reflects the building’s shadow even when no shadow is there. The tree, growing on land owned by Klaipėda City Municipality, is treated as a publicly accessible cultural object. During the project Phenomenon M an artistic accent is composed beside it, consisting of a composition of three stones: two stones that lay on the tree’s roots, and a third with an inscription stating that this is a common beech blessed by the priest of trees. On the brought-in stone is also carved the reflection of the woman’s shadow in the puddle depicted on the old postcard. To draw attention to the changing needs for postal services, the artist issues a postcard that tells the story of this study in the form of an open letter, addressed to everyone who visits the tourist information centre.
Juozas Laivys
Juozas Laivys’s artistic practice spans sculptures, objects, installations, performance art, texts, video art and photography. The artist stands out for his authentic approach to themes actively debated in contemporary art, such as authorship, institutional power, the economic value of art, and the boundaries between art and life (or their absence). In raising these issues, Laivys often employs a strategy of appropriation and a deliberately blunt rhetoric characteristic of mass and bureaucratic culture, joining conceptual gestures with real physical actions. Having created 256 works by 2015, Laivys decided to suspend his individual creative activity for fourteen years, seeking to turn his own life into a work of art. He now works with the possibilities of post-creation and delves into pure ideas dictated by a specific place, time, current events and subjective artistic vision. In 2024 he took part in several projects in which he presented himself as the priest of trees.
