Mikko Waltari. Plays
2016 09 01
2016.08.29 – 2016.09.10
“Akademija” gallery | Pilies St 44, Vilnius
Vilnius-based Finnish photographer Mikko Waltari (b. 1966) finalised his BA studies at Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2015. His diploma project consists of four large-format photographs, which he created with the help of professional actors and amateurs. Each of them took several weeks, if not months, to be created. Yet, the arranged settings are mixed with coincidences, that are consciously accepted and used.
The fifth tableaux-sized work, that doesn’t belong to the diploma-series but shown in the exhibition, is the opposite - a moment captured on the fly during a holiday trip to Sicily. Nevertheless, the reality of the image doesn't seem to differ from the four plays.
The artist is mixing reality and theatre, as well as past and present, into the emotionally tense scenes where an eyeblink is extended into infinity. Near life-size prints emphasise the painting-like quality of the images which are made to be hung on the wall and contemplated from afar as an outsider, allowing the spectator to scrutinise our being.