Applause (video loop, 2004)

Installation consists of video loop projected on the transparent double-sided screen (size parameters depend on the size of the room). The screen should be hanged in the center of the installation room, so the visitor can easily switch from one side of the screen to the other (both sides should be on the equal level of brightness). Two loudspeakers are placed in the opposite sides of the room and pointed to the center. Volume should be medium, space- as dark as possible.
Now let's try to imagine that there is a video projector in the big hall where people are raising a curtain with the aim to cover the coat of arms (symbol of the past at this particular case). When the curtain is raised, it's revealed that the image of the symbol was only a projection and it's over there, always on the top of the curtain. Only the colors have appeared and the image has inversed. When Applause is installed properly on the double-sided screen, it's up to visitor's choice from which side to watch the ceremony.
In „Applause“ one can witness how it's impossible to cover what has been part of yourself for a very long time and how absurd the efforts are.

Material for Applause is video footage from television.

by G-Lab

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Members of Parliament stand up and applause while the emblem of the Soviet Republic of Lithuania is being covered behind them. It is a symbolic adieu to a former epoch. An emblem hides behind the monochrome cloth, meanwhile, centimeter by centimeter, the black and white historical truth covers itself with bright colors of the Soviet emblem scanned from an obsolete schoolbook. What do the members of Parliament applause for, and when? As soon as the history of past decades reassembles itself till the last articulation in front of the viewer, the video starts running backwards, examining (again) one centimeter after another as if to probe whether the content remained the same after being hidden by cloth, time and video manipulation. Members of parliament continue applauding and, right when their non-manipulated black and white reality is being returned to them, they start executing their authorized decision – the canvas moves up again…

The projection should be visible from both sides of the screen for best results.

by Virginija Januskeviciute for youngartists.lt