Exhibition time: 13 07 2023–06 08 2023
Opening: July 13 | 18:00
Meno Parkas Gallery (Rotušės a. 27, 44279 Kaunas, Lithuania)
„I am a Disciple of the Philosopher Dionysus1”.
¹In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (Ancient Greek: Διώνυσος, Dionysos) is the god of wine-making and ecstasy. He is associated with freedom, with the positive social influence caused by wine. Dionysus is the god of the creative forces of nature. He is worshipped at night.
The ancient Greeks knew two energies: ZOE - infinite impersonal all-surpassing energy, and BIOS - personal energy that formalizes beginning and an end. Hence biology and biography. Dionysus represents ZOE.
This exhibition is a reflection on the meeting of these two energies in a human being. Consciousness, subconscious, body and mind. Our young and childishly naive civilization, science and culture billions of years before the all-creating and all-destroying elements of darkness. It’s a small ship sailing on a formless ocean. What do these elements have in common, can they understand each other? Ludwig Wittgenstein said that "If a lion began to speak with the voice of a man, we could not understand him".
To put this rather abstract situation into perspective, I have chosen the case of the famous 19th century German 'philosopher of life' Friedrich Nietzsche, who, among other things, declared himself to be a 'disciple of the philosopher Dionysius'. But sympathy for Dionysius is a dangerous sympathy. Sober rationality did not save Friedrich from getting too close to a god who blurs boundaries (terms). And he (his mind) was torn to pieces, just like the Theban King Pentheus (Euripides' tragedy “The Bacchantes”). By the way, Dionysus himself was cut up and eaten by the Titans, who were courted by Hera (the hearth of the home, the patroness of a family). Martyr (Greek: μάρτυς, mártys, "witness"). To go mad is to witness Dionysus, to become a witness to Dionysus. This is the greatest gift of a god to his followers. The ability to broadcast the eternal global life energy - ZOE - sweeping as hurricane e.g. the BIOgraphy of an intelligent person.
Dionysius entered modernism through philosophy of F. Nietzsche, and post-modernism through the analytical dream psychology of C. G. Jung, where the myth of the eternal worker Sisyphus and the economy of work are replaced by the myth of Dionysus - the economy of pleasure and perversion.
The exhibition consists of two types of works: 'Dark' and 'Light'.
Dark - Drawings and paintings / Reflecting light / An allusion to reflection /
Light - Video projector, banners, luminescent objects / Emitting light / An allusion to radiating energy /
Darius Rakauskas (b. 1969) is an artist working in the fields of painting, drawing, installation, and performance art. In 2005 he graduated from the Kaunas Faculty of the Vilnius Academy of Arts, where he obtained a Master degree. Since 2000 he participates in exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad and had held 17 solo exhibitions. Since 2009 is a member of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association. He currently lives and works in Kaunas, Lithuania.
The exhibition is supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Lithuanian Artists’ Association.
