Mapping Artistic Research. Presentation by Vytautas Michelkevičius (LT)
Since 2002, internationally renowned Lithuanian media and art theorist, researcher and curator
Vytautas Michelkevičius has published more than ten catalogues and books on media theory, art
and photography. He has also headed research projects on forming strategies for contemporary
art and photography history, encouraging a more critical assessment of traditional documentation
methodologies, contextual conditions and the creators of history themselves. There has been
particular acclaim for Michelkevičius’ innovative, interdisciplinary approach to art research involving
data mapping and visualisation of data for photographs, videos, installations and other creative
expressions, stimulating the usage of “visual writing” in addition to textual writing in historical
documentation. Vytautas Michelkevičius’ informal presentation Mapping Artistic Research will offer
deeper insights into the strategies and practice of this approach, using as an example the book
Mapping Lithuanian Photography: Histories and Archives (2007). This publication is significant not
only because of its methodological approach, but also because Lithuanian researchers are the first in
the Baltics to actively review and reinterpret their national history of photography. The presentation
will enable researchers of both art and photography as well as interested persons from other realms
to examine data organisation practices from a different viewpoint, thus discovering a new
interdisciplinary perspective.
The presentation is thematically linked to the biennial symposium Now Memories which is devoted
to the methods and historiography of contemporary art and photography research.
Curator: Elīna Ķempele (LV)
Organizer: Riga Photography Biennial in cooperation with the Association of Culture Institutions of Riga City Council and Riga Art Space
Image: Vytautas Michelkevičius, Anastasija Sosunova. Perspectives on the relationship of theory and practice from the book "Mapping Artistic Research. Towards Diagrammatic Thinking", 2018