COMPLEX
Year: 2016
Location: VILNIUS ART FAIR
DURATION: 8 HOURS
Dirsytė's performance "Complex," presented at the Vilnius Art Fair on June 10, 2016, for the entire day. The principle of this long-term performance was the transformation of social connections into personal ones within an art space, where the audience becomes private. The artist eschewed props and focused all her energy on cultivating these connections within society, multiplying her artistic persona within a community of other women, who became like an ensemble for her work. Despite all the performers working on Monika's project—realizing her idea—each participant remained herself, thus enriching the format created by the artist.
People's personal lives in society are the most complex material for art, and this artist masterfully handled it. In this work, she publicly undressed us all in the multifaceted mirror of other women. Each participant's confessional statements, accompanied by bursts of artificial laughter, were performed as if in a group therapy session, seemingly to free themselves from societal instilled but internalized fears, complexes, and genuine suffering, bringing them back to the public eye, confirming the pact between the artist and the audience with a chilling laugh.
This performance reflects the current situation of young women in Lithuanian society better than sociological studies and all the press and television.
