Defining the Status of Document in the Work of Deimantas Narkevičius "The Role of His Life"

Abstract

Nowadays we can observe a change in attitude towards a document that is no longer a given, an imprint that contains the facts of history, regardless of external contexts. Now, for those who work with a document, it becomes important how to look at it, how to work with it from the present moment of time. The French philosopher Michel Foucault proposes the understanding of a document as an organized structure in a certain way, asserting that “a document is no longer an immovable matter for history,” which stores irrefutable information about the past. History and document switch places, and the first one becomes a tool "with the help of which the entire body of documents acquires its proper status" and not vice versa. This process enables not only historians but also artists to discover a new type of materials, such as diaries, oral stories, letters and archival photographs. Artists change the context of the existence of materials, thereby revealing the ways of their functioning and the mechanisms of granting documentary status. One of the most interesting artists exploring the issues of history representation is the Lithuanian artist Deimantas Narkevičius. The article considers his work "The role of a lifetime", which is based on an interview, taken by the artist himself with documentary filmmaker Peter Watkins, about the essence of documentary cinematography, the director's profession and its connection with personal subjective experience. Watkins' story is juxtaposed with the chronicle of Brighton in the 1960s and drawings of the sculptural Grutas Park in the city of Druskininkai. The text will consider the issue of what makes it possible to speak of these materials as documents, as well as how the optics of documentary is built in the work of Narkevičius.