"Pol Pot in Iasy", Romania. 2004.
"Helmsboro Country – Lithuania" Installation view. Kaliningrad, 2005
"New media lab" Instalation. 2006
"POL POT, Enthropy and revolution" Milan. 2007
Pol Pot
Series of photographs, performances and installations,
1999-2007
Saloth Sar (1925 - 1998), known by the manes of Brother Number
One, Pol, Pouk, Big Uncle, '87', Phem, '99, commonly known as Pol
Pot was one of the leaders of "Khmer Rouge" party in
the communist Cambodia. Redas Diržys created series of works,
titled "Pol Pot", that focused on this secret political figure,
which used to hide behind different pseudonyms, mystified his
biographical facts and since 1979 has withdrawn from public
political life and became inaccessible to the media.
The works are performances, visual and textual quotes taken from
the newspapers, texts (in collaboration with Stephanie Benzaquen)
and other forms of address. "Pol Pot" reflects upon the mechanisms
of visual reproduction and their political implications. The artist
uses the technique of drilling the shape of an enlarged image out
on the wall.
Helmsboro Country-Lithuania
Installation, photographs, texts. 2005 - 2006
From the text accompanying the installation:
"Welcome to Helmsboro Country -Lithuania!
November 2, 2000 the President of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus
signed a decree presenting the senator Jesse Helms with the 2
degree order of the Great Duke of Lithuania Gediminas for the merit
of glorification of the name ofLithuaniaaround the world. Philip
Morris (Altria, since 2003) have continuously supported the
election campaigns of the senator of North Carolina Jesse Helms.
This company supports the "American code"of the senator at the
Jesse Helms center inWingate,North Carolina. Philip Morris: "The
senator Helms is very courteous...and his position allows him to do
that...". When in 1990 the government initiated the financial
confines, Helms implemented a large-scale campaign against the
National Endowment for the Arts (theUSAgovernment institution of
support for the arts). Helms has expressed intolerance for the
people with HIV, homosexuals, unions and the women's freedom of
choice concerning abortion. He supported Robert D'Aubuisson, who is
linked with death squads inEl Salvador, the general Augusto
Pinochet, the apartheid politicians inSouth Africa. In his
campaigns he often uses racist rhetoric.
In 1990 John Weber gallery inNew Yorkreceived official warning
that sanctions will be applied if the gallery proceeds to show the
work by Hans Haacke titledHelmsboro Country.This work questioned
the 60 million dollar public relations campaign that Phillip Morris
paid to the National Archives for the use of the first 10
amendments of the Constitution. After learning, that Phillip Morris
finances the senator Helms, ACT UP announced the international
boycott to this company's products.
In 1994 Phillip Morris approached theNew Yorkart institutions
asking for their support in preventing the ban against smoking in
public areas. The ban was lifted. In 2003 the celebration of the
20-year since the founding of Whitney museum took place at Altria
quarters inNew York.
[references:Hans Haackeby Walter Grasskamp, Molly Nesbit and Jon
Bird, Phaidon Press Limited, 2004; p. 131]".
"New Media Lab" can be considered an ironic comment that
questions the expediency and sincerity of the subversive, socially
engaged protest campaigns; and to be a critique of their
institutional or quasi-institutional forms of address.
From the concept of "New Media Lab":
"This format is dedicated to all the fans of new media, who are
partial to the expression of open protest. Before starting your
work, you have to realize, that smoking as a media is very
dangerous to your health and the health of the people around
you.
The purpose of the Lab is to focus on the smallest formal
elements of the image in the media format and to apply them to the
new media (the smoke) the existence of which was concealed by the
same media. Our aim is to prevent consideration of the image in the
media as a mere photograph of everyday life, but attempt to test
the fundamental elements of their representation - raster dots, the
accumulations of which compose new images every day. The high speed
of changing images creates an impression of the heavy flow of
information, which however exists as only mere repetition of the
same dots.
We propose that in the Lab you light a cigarette and burn the
hole of the according size in place of the enlarged raster black
dot.
Pol Pot
Series of photographs, performances and installations,
1999-2007
Saloth Sar (1925 - 1998), known by the manes of Brother Number
One, Pol, Pouk, Big Uncle, '87', Phem, '99, commonly known as Pol
Pot was one of the leaders of "Khmer Rouge" party in
the communist Cambodia. Redas Diržys created series of works,
titled "Pol Pot", that focused on this secret political figure,
which used to hide behind different pseudonyms, mystified his
biographical facts and since 1979 has withdrawn from public
political life and became inaccessible to the media.
The works are performances, visual and textual quotes taken from
the newspapers, texts (in collaboration with Stephanie Benzaquen)
and other forms of address. "Pol Pot" reflects upon the mechanisms
of visual reproduction and their political implications. The artist
uses the technique of drilling the shape of an enlarged image out
on the wall.
