Jankauskas Donatas

g. 1968

Donatas Jankauskas belongs to the generation of artists that emerged after the reclamation of the Independence in the beginning of the 1990-ies. He works in different media (sculpture, installation, video), but unlike many of his contemporaries, he retains strong continuity of the themes in his work. „The trademark“ of Donatas Jankauskas art work is an ape-man. The ape-men in his works usually become the characters of pompous or sentimental scenes. Their presence transforms these scenes into something curious. The ever reoccurring theme (and, in most cases, referencing the initial one) in Donatas Jankauskas works is the life and work of the cult figure of Lithuanian history – the artist and composer Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, and his status in the Lithuanian culture. Employing great deal of irony, the artist interprets the widely popular scenes from Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis paintings, thus inviting to look into this iconic oeuvre from a different conceptual angle. Apart from that, Donatas Jankauskas often employs the same visual technique as it was used by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis: he plays with the relation of the visible and the invisible, using parts of the body emerging from the water. Even the works directly unrelated to an ape-man or the work of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, are centered around similar themes, such as bestiality or national identity. Apart from individual art works, Donatas Jankauskas initiated and organized public art festivals in Telšiai in 1998, 1999 and 2000. In 2002 he collaborated with Oskaras Koršunovas theater and created the stage masks for the play „King Oedipus“(„Oidipas karalius“)

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„Mammoth for Myself and for Others“, 1995. Installation.

„In the Forest“, 1999. Installation.

„The Nation in the Shell“, 2001. animation, 29 min.

„The Cat in the Bag“, 2003. Sculpture.

"The Day“,2006. Video 10 min.

This work was exhibited in the independent art project "For Myself and for Others"in 1995, initiated by Liutauras Pšibilskis. The works of six artists were exhibited in places that signified consumer culture - the stores and coffee shops inVilnius. The mammoth ("Mammoth Caught in a Trap", 1993) which Donatas Jankauskas' made earlier was transferred and placed on the shop window of the store "Pilėja" inGediminas avenue. In that sense, the everyday contemporary shopping for food was curiously linked to the Stone Age food seeking rituals such as mammoth hunt.

Donatas Jankauskas' solo show "Retrospective" curated by Raimundas Malašauskas in 1999 presented all the works previously created by the artist, as well as few new installations: the interpretations of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis' works "The Music of the Forest", "Tranquility" and "Truth". The gigantic installation "The Music of the Forest" is the three-dimensional interpretation of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis' painting, where the mystic hand that plays "the music of the forest" is turned into a hairy paw of an ape.

The exhibition "Self-esteem. Lithuanian Art 01" curated by Anders Kreugers in 2001 was dedicated to the analysis of Lithuanian identity. Donatas Jankauskas'animated film "The Nation in the Shell"was created specifically for this exhibition. This piece is based of the Japanese animated film "The Soul in the Shell"(1995) - a futuristic fantasy full of cyborgs: cyborgs that have an "installed" soul, in other words, bodies that can have a potentially installed identity. Donatas Jankauskas records his own words as a voice-over on the bootlegged Russian version of the film. He speaks in Samogitian dialect and the soundtrack includes the sounds of folk music. Some words in the text are changed (e.g., instead of the original word he says "RepublicofSamogitia" ). In this way, the animated film, centered on the issues of human identity becomes an inquiry into construction of the national identity.

In 2003 Elona Lubytė organized a public art project, titled "The Sculptures in Neris". The participants created site-specific works centered on the river Neris. Donatas Jankauskas installed his sculpture "The Cat in the Bag"between theGreenBridgeandMindaugasBridge. In this work he used his characteristic technique: he played with the relation of the visible and the invisible in the objects emerging from the water. The head and the tail of a fantastic animal that were seen above the water surface evoked the character of contemporary mythology and Scottish tourism - the monster ofLochness. However, the part which remained under the water was invisible, which invited the viewers to use their imagination and rethink the process of construction of a myth.

In 2003-2006 the Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (CAC) organized the exhibition series titled "Emission", which presented the artists of the mid-generation. Donatas Jankauskas participated in this project in 2006 with his video "The Day". The video screen was installed on the exterior wall of CAC, so the work was made accessible not only to the exhibition visitors, but also to every passer-by. The ape-men in the work "The Day" become the characters of Lithuanian reality and M. K. Čiurlionis'works. In this video the ape-men are engaged in the common activities of contemporary statistical Lithuanian: they drive the cars, wave the baseball bats, sit with their dates, read books. The fragments of the paintings of M. K. Čiurlionis constantly appear in the background of the scenes and the ape-men themselves sometimes create the scenes that evoke M. K. Čiurlionis'paintings, e.g. they hold the sun in their hands or submerge into the water.