Rein Jelle Terpstra
Robert F. Kennedy Funeral Train—The People’s View

From September 25th the exhibition Robert F. Kennedy Funeral Train—The People’s View by the Dutch artist Rein Jelle Terpstra will be open in the "Prospektas" gallery (Gedimino ave. 43, Vilnius). The opening event with author Rein Jelle Terpstra will take place on September 30th (Monday) at 5:30 p.m.

Several years ago, visual artist Rein Jelle Terpstra became fascinated by a photo series by the American photographer Paul Fusco entitled RFK Funeral Train. On June 8^th, 1968, Fusco rode aboard the so-called funeral train, the train that carried the mortal remains of Robert F. Kennedy (RFK), who had just been assassinated, from New York to Washington, D.C. From aboard the slowly moving train, Fusco pointed his camera at the tens of thousands of mourning Americans along the tracks, who were paying their final respects to the popular senator and presidential candidate. They all looked at the train, which barely appears in Fusco’s photos.

Terpstra became fascinated by the question of what exactly these people saw and what they captured with the cameras they could be seen holding in Fusco’s photos. He decided to start looking for the photos and footage that the mourners had taken of the passing train.

Terpstra posted messages in local newspapers and on social media and followed the train’s route. He hung around train stations and knocked on people’s doors. Based on the many images he found, he reconstructed what he calls “the people’s view”: not the view of the professional photographer on the train, but that of the eyewitnesses along the tracks.

With Robert F. Kennedy Funeral Train—The People’s View, Terpstra has added an important chapter to the visual history of the United States. This exhibition was shown previously in 2018 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the International Center of Photography in New York, The Finnish Museum of Photography and Rencontres d’Arles.

Rein Jelle Terpstra (born 4 July 1960) is a Dutch visual artist and a lecturer at the Minerva Art Academy, Hanze University of Applied Sciences in Groningen. Terpstra was educated at the AKI Academy of Art & Design in Enschede and the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. After his time at the Rijksakademie, Terpstra focused on photography in relation to perception, memory, and history.

The exhibition will be open until 26th September.

Lithuanian Photographers’ Association is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.

Prospektas gallery working hours:

II–V 12.00–18.00; VI 12.00–16.00