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Abstract
The article analyses the series Disko by Lithuanian-American photographer Andrew Miksys. After moving to Lithuania, Miksys photographed discotheques in villages and small towns between the years 2000 and 2010. The series Disko sparked controversy beyond its artistic context when it was appropriated by foreign and Lithuanian mass media and was said to represent Lithuanian nationhood. The contradiction between the denotative and the connotative aspects of Disko and between the different actual and possible functions of the series in particular social, political and cultural contexts are the main issues analysed in this article. It concludes with an assertion that this contradiction can be resolved by understanding the photographs as an opportunity to prevent the common and idealized myth of nationhood from becoming established ideology in art and politics.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Miksys, Baxt.
2 Miksys, Tulips.
3 Miksys, Disko.
4 Kickstarter, “DISKO.”
5 Ibid.
6 Berger, Understanding a Photograph, 90.
7 Dyer, “Introduction,” xi.
8 Remarks by Miksys at the 39th international photography symposium in Nida, Lithuania in 2016 were followed by a heated debate, which also occurred after Tomas Pabedinskas’ presentation of Miksys’ Disko series at the same symposium in 2017.
9 For instance, the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania honoured Miksys with an award for his Disko series and other work in 2016.
10 Narušytė, “Four Generations,” 16–22, 85–91; Narušytė, Lietuvos fotografija.
11 Pabedinskas, Contemporary Lithuanian Photography; Pabedinskas, Žmogus Lietuvos fotografijoje.
12 Michelkevičius, Generation of the Place.
13 Kaplan, American Exposures, xv.
14 Kelsey, “Our Lady of Perpetual Help,” 53.
15 Jerreat, “Discos of a Dead Empire.”
16 Ibid.
17 Kickstarter, “DISKO.”
18 Pečkaitytė, “Kas baisiau.”
19 Purytė, “British Citizen in Lithuania.”
20 Ibid.
21 Bate and Dickson, “In Between Vernacular and Art Photography,” 57.
22 Barthes, Mythologies, 127.
23 Berger, Understanding a Photograph, 90.
24 Ibid., 91.
25 Ibid., 89.
26 Barthes, Mythologies, 138–139.
27 Berger, Understanding a Photograph, 96.
28 Ibid., 98.
29 Miksys, “In His Own Words.”
30 Barthes, Mythologies, 140–141.
31 Blake, The Pivot of the World, 7.
32 Five photographers representing the humanist movement have received the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and the Arts, the country’ highest honour recognizing work in the cultural field.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Tomas Pabedinskas
Tomas Pabedinskas holds a PhD in art history and criticism. He is an associate professor and lectures on photography and visual culture at the Faculty of Arts at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania. Pabedinskas has published two monographs: Contemporary Lithuanian Photography. The Relationship Between the Image and the Identity of a Person and Žmogus Lietuvos fotografijoje. Požiūrių kaita XX ir XXI a. sandūroje (The Person in Lithuanian Photography: Changing Attitudes at the Turn of the 21st Century). He also writes as a freelance critic on photography and contemporary art for various institutions and publications in Lithuania and abroad.