Židrija Janušaitė, "In order to feel you need to stop" 0

Dovilė Stirbytė
www.kamane.lt, 2015-11-06

In brief: Probably the main creative essence and purpose of artist Židrija Janušaitė is to show how important it is for a constantly busy contemporary person to stop and meet himself. Perhaps, this aim of the artist is best seen in her long performances of minimalist aesthetics. A conversation with the artist at her studio about creative work that can hardly be put into words is presented.

 

What does the form and material of an artwork mean for the author? I wanted to know how important it is to Židrija Janušaitė. She says, she does not give much prominence to it, "It is important to me what I want to say, what feeling or mood I want to express. I am not that much of a thinker or over-thinker. To me, rather, everything just happens. Maybe not everything, the beginning happens. Or it happens that you carry a feeling of some kind of state and you wait for something to happen that will allow you to know what you will use to convey it. And after attaining, hearing and not missing that moment only the technical solutions and rendering remains.”

 

Talking about her performance "Absent Presence" implemented in 2014 at the Kaunas Town Hall square author explains that the idea of it was to highlight the contrast between the action (sitting on the bench with closed eyes) and the bustle of the city. "There can be all kinds of noise, not necessarily sonic. Sometimes when I observe performances it seems to me that there is too much noise - both visual and otherwise. I feel like there can be five performances created out of one. Therefore, I wanted to do nothing. So that only surrounding noise of the city would operate and the artist's body would be like a sculpture in an urban landscape," says Židrija Janušaitė.

 

I wanted to know what Židrija Janušaitė thinks of public, which is essential for a performance to take place. Artist says, "When performing I do not think of the public. I care what happens to these two people and how were are (able) to be one. And I am not interested in what is happening with the audience. Performance is a strong concentration of the idea I want to convey. You need to prepare for it: there is one idea, one thought, one feeling and you - all in it. Otherwise nothing will happen. When doing a performance you have to be focused and your surroundings should not bother you, because if you deviate - more sensitive viewers immediately sense it."

 

 

 

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Židrija Janušaitė. Performance "Life Consists of These Little Touches of Solitude", 90 min., 2013, Meno Parkas gallery, Kaunas. Along with Rosanda Sorakaitė and Laurynas Leonaitis:

 Židrija Janušaitė. "Calmed Mind. Meetings“, ink, oil, video on canvas, 2013, Meno Parkas gallery, Kaunas:

Photos from the archive of Ž. Janušaitė

Project "Meetings in Artists' Studios"


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