The exhibition entitled "Collections. From typological research to mania to accumulate", conceived as an analysis of one of the key principles of photography - typological object documentation and its reflection in the context of Lithuanian visual culture. From its origins (even before it claimed to be an art form), photography has been closely linked to the sorting, capturing and collecting of objects. With the wide spread of scientific typological sets, this strategy transformed into the so-called "deadpan" style in the context of artistic photography.
In the field of Lithuanian photography, we can find this kind of photographic practice since the oldest ethnographic sets captured by cameras, but a self-contained, articulated artistic form appears only in the 1970s. In that medium, Vytautas V. Stanionis transformed his father's documentary material into a conceptual artistic project. And Alvydas Lukys and Gintautas Trimakas, purposefully documenting found or household objects, begin to create independent photo cycles in which the basic reason for the creation of the work is the typology of the objects. This stylistics does not lose its relevance and is still being developed by authors of both the middle and the youngest generation, Valdemaras Manomaitis, Vilma Samulionytė.
Typological photography is also used in other fields of artistic creation, not limited only to photographic resolution. Dainius Liškevičius or Aurelija Maknytė relied on such photographic tactics when documenting the performance. Kęstutis Grigaliūnas creates installations based on the historical memory of Lithuania.
Although it would seem that the authors are very different, they are united by a visual and conceptual principle. They collect for their own purposes and principles, and the exhibition will present it as the collection of one hypothetical collector.
Lithuanian Photoartists' Union Photography Foundation
