Table of Contents
1. Creation of Street Art Makes Marijampole Famous
The city of Marijampole can be considered one big open-air street art gallery. In the summer of 2011, Ray Bartkus, a Lithuanian artist living in the USA, initiated the idea of the symposium “Malonny: Marijampole-London-New York” with the help of like-minded people and artists, the aim of which is to unite artists of different countries and nationalities for joint works. Through 30 works of world art, these exceptional cultural initiatives decorate various city spaces, giving them distinctiveness and otherness in an international context as well.
1.1 Resources, eco-friendliness and sustainability of creations:
The work of artist Ray Bartkaus “Flowing Life” (2015) was painted on the old Marijampole dam. It was an old, unremarkable building. The drawing is drawn in reverse and its true order is only reflected in the water. Depending on the natural conditions, the reflection ripples or is bright, and sometimes disappears altogether. The artist hoped that every passer-by would find something new here. This drawing, like the days of our lives, is different every time. Under the influence of weather conditions and water, this work crumbled after a few years, but it was corrected and restored.
The artist believes that street art is a very democratic form of art, immediate, for which the surrounding environment is very important. He likes to communicate with the surrounding environment through works of art, to change it, to give it a new meaning. He is inspired by everything and anything, such as old crumbling walls.
The artist manages to attract participants from all over the world to the symposium. “In the beginning it was not easy – says R. Bartkus. Now it is incomparably easier, because we have a well-recognized brand and followers all over the world.” Volunteers from Marijampole, who help implement many works, are highly valued at the symposium.
1.2 Novelty, uniqueness and benefit:
This work was printed on the cover of magazine “National Geographic”. “Unknown Lithuania” magazine cover. In 2019, it was chosen as the most beautiful Lithuanian street art creation at the international tourism and active leisure exhibition Adventur.
The work “Flowing Life” painted by Ray Bartkaus, which breathed new life into the walls of the old Marijampole dam, is now once again stirring the imagination of Internet users. The attention of the actor Lucas Alifano also increased the popularity. The famous actor shared a photo of “Flowing Life” with his friends on the social network Facebook, explaining that the upside-down mural is correctly reflected in the water. In a few days, this post received more than 200,000 likes, 18 thousand shares and one and a half thousand comments. Even more than 10 thousand of hearts was collected by Lucas Alifano after sharing it on his Instagram profile. The actor’s followers in the comment section shared doubts about the authenticity of the photo, saying that it was created using photo editing programs. “I came here to say that this is a fake, poorly retouched image, but… before I claim anything, I check and see what I found, <…> it’s in Lithuania,” commented one netizen while sharing another photo of the dam taken from a different angle, “I was under the impression, that everything here is fake, even though it’s not.”
The work “Flowing Life” makes Marijampole famous all over the world, thus increasing the attractiveness of the city, attracting an ever-increasing number of tourists and thereby bringing benefits to the city.
1.3 Sculpture " Polluted Brain”
Introduction:
The sculpture “Polluted Brain” was created at the Marijampole Art School and primarily talks about the pollution of our brains. Their starting point as a human intellectual beginning. The philosophy of the work makes us think about our transformation and “growth” as homo sapiens in the context of the global world. The sculpture is created from used raw materials.
Sculpture itself (Latin sculpo – ‘I carve’), as an object, is a branch of visual arts and the oldest type of three-dimensional art. The latter includes the creation of spatial aesthetic, artistic objects from various materials, copying existing forms in the environment, highlighting and emphasizing certain of their features or creating abstract objects, etc. All methods of making a sculpture often use a lot of energy and have a negative impact on the environment: electricity, materials, etc. As for the sculpture “Polluted Brain”, the materials used for its execution emphasize a conscious choice. Without using electricity, water or other additional materials, on the contrary, only secondary raw materials are used exclusively.
The problem:
To create the sculpture, the method of sustainable, socially informative sculpture “waste art” is used, focusing mainly on the philosophy of the idea, raising questions: How does our brain get polluted, full of garbage? What and how to avoid so that this does not happen? Only secondary materials were chosen for the sculpture “Polluted Brain” for the purpose of energy efficiency and waste reduction.
Materials:
The use of secondary raw materials in the sculpture “Polluted Brain” is paper pulp from a paper shredder, thread balls that have lost their quality, foam waste, fabric scraps, etc. All this waste was packed in used polyethylene bags and transparent wrapping film. Pupils used old red paint that has lost its quality and remnants of embossed glue. The inclusion of already used materials in the production of the sculpture makes it possible to stop using new materials, but to use what has already served.
The creative stages of the sculpture "Polluted Brain":
The students drew sketches of brains, collected materials, discussed the workflow, use of materials, creative purpose and, of course, discussed the activity of the human brain and pollution. Garbage bags were tied into a single, common shape to resemble the volume and shape of a brain. Then the whole form is
wrapped with a transparent wrapping film. With macroflex glue, students formed brain grooves. After forming the required brain shape, in the last stage, the grooves were painted with red paint.
In this way, a young person is educated, taught to think creatively, relying on a philosophical principle and searching for a sustainable concept. Use – what has already been used, giving objects the effect of intellectual novelty.
1.4 Philosophy of waste art sculpture and sustainability:
In the context of today’s buzzwords, we often hear the concept of sustainability, which covers a wide informational field. Here is a sustainable way of life – it means sustainable consumption of food, clothes, things in general, creation of a sustainable environment. So, for some, the “boom” of sustainability is their way of life from generation to generation, for others it is only the 21st century concept of “pop”. Sustainability was talked about at the end of the 20th century. The concept of sustainability was first used in 1987 in the report of the United Nations organization “Our common future”, the latter exclusively emphasized the pursuit of a sustainable development strategy – maintaining harmony between people, nature and the creation of mutual relations between society.
There are two reasons for the birth of the sculpture “Polluted Brain”. The first is that a young person, in order to get to know the intricacies and novelty of the “world”, becomes informatively polluted. Inability to process information flows, to properly distribute them into necessary and unnecessary. Second, this sculpture is primarily an educational one, when it reminds us all of our proper thinking and our efforts not to pollute ourselves with informational garbage.
1.5 Earth Art
Introduction:
Earth art, known as Earthworks, environmental art is an art movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s in Great Britain and the United States, but there are also examples from other countries. “Earth art” expanded the boundaries of art in terms of the materials used and the location of the works. The materials used were often materials from the Earth, including soil, rock, vegetation, and locally available water, and work sites were often far from residential centers. Photo documentation of hard-to-reach places was made, which was usually returned to art galleries in cities.
Novelty and uniqueness:
The idea behind this art movement was about rejecting the commercialization of art making. At that time, the ecological movement arose. At the same time, the idealization of rural life and simplicity prevailed, turning back to nature. Planet Earth becomes the home of humanity.
The art form gained momentum in the 1960s and 1970s because land art was not easily commoditized, unlike the “mass-produced cultural junk” of the time. During this period, proponents of land art rejected the museum or gallery as a site for artistic activity and created monumental landscape projects that were beyond the reach of traditional transportable sculpture and the commercial art market, although photographic documentation was often routinely provided in gallery spaces. Earth art was inspired by minimalist art and conceptual art, as well as contemporary movements such as De Stijl, Cubism, Minimalism, and the works of Constantin Brancusi and Joseph Beuys. One of the first earthworks artists was Herbert Bayer, who worked in 1955 in Grass Mound Aspen, Colorado.
Materials:
Earth Art also appeared in Lithuania. Representatives of earth art create artistic objects from materials found right here in nature: dried plants, frogs, leaves, stones, sand, clay. Right here in nature, they are exhibited. Due to the accessible and simple materials, earth art can appear very simple at first glance. However, as with any work of art, an idea is essential. The creator of earth art sees a vision of how to change, transform and artistically shape a chosen natural object. Often the perfect object is created by creating almost nothing, just highlighting something. Sensitivity to the environment is especially important here: the smaller the “I” of the creator, the bigger the work. “An artist must obey nature, adapt to the particularities of a specific area,” explains M. Gvildys, fosterer of the Lithuanian Earth Art School.
“Earth art – this is the name given to those works that are created from natural materials and are subject to temporality, in other words, nature integrates what has always been here, but looked completely different, without adding anything extra that would be foreign.” – says Marijus Gvildys
“Temporary and change is the most important message conveyed by earth art that reflects nature. It reminds us how important it is to enjoy the moment and teaches us to feel its uniqueness” – reveals the essence the famous Lithuanian florist.
1.6 Implementation of the idea:
Marijampole Art School in 2024 accepted the challenge and in June is organizing a plein air exhibition of Earth art sculptures “I’art del la terre”.
The park, which borders the art school, seems to beg for the creativity of artists, taking advantage of this unique landscape, using sustainable, natural materials. The plein air took place for a week, so it received the attention of visitors, the media, and the municipality. The idea of sustainability speaks that the French-style park is historically important. This park was established in the interwar period and was one of the most impressive parks in Lithuania at that time, it was planted with rare, imported trees and plants, cozy bridges were created over the Javonelis stream, and paths. Unfortunately, today the park is rapidly disappearing, becoming swampy, old trees are turning from moisture, so the Earth Art plein air is a sensitive sign of historical memory and a way to make sense of Lithuanian heritage.
