Deimantas Narkevičius: Twittering Soul (3D)

Art Cinema OFFoff recently dedicated a focus program to the films of the Lithuanian visual artist Deimantas Narkevičius. In collaboration with Film Fest Gent, we now present his first feature film. Twittering Soul fits in with our season theme of Fantasma and the experimental 3D program that we are presenting later on this fall, on November 28.

Twittering Soul hovers between reality, fantasy, dreams and visions. The film is set in a small village in southern Lithuania one summer afternoon in the late 1800s, yet it is haunted by the spectre of the twentieth century. The nature of a wide range of strange happenings remains mysterious, the connection between them tenuous. Presented in stereoscopic 3D and shot with a painterly attention to light, Twittering Soul gazes at once into the past and the future. (Srikanth Srinivasan)

In his work, Deimantas Narkevičius examines the relationship of personal memories to political histories, particularly those of his native Lithuania. His films submit historical events to the narrative structures of storytelling and cinema, turning history itself into both material and methodology.

As noted by the German film magazine Cargo, the new film – shot with stereoscopic lenses – is part of the artist’s decades-long exploration of a diverse range of film and video formats in his search for different physical qualities and materialities. Over the past few years, he has also frequently experimented with holography, for instance. With his new film, this has now led Narkevičius – a sculptor by training – to early photography and its approach to the sculptural, spatial image.

The work of Deimantas Narkevičius has been exhibited extensively around the world at important contemporary art venues including the Centre Pompidou (Paris), Museo Nacional Centro De Arte Reina Sofia (Madrid), Tate Modern (London), Museum of Modern Art (New York) and Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam).

With an introduction by Wim Lambrecht (LUCA School of Arts Gent)