Laima Oržekauskienė ir naujoji tekstilės menininkių karta

LTTekstilės menininkės Laimos Oržekauskienės vaidmuo Kauno ir Lietuvos meniniame lauke yra esmiškai svarbus. Ji nuo XX a. 9 deš. pabaigos Kauno dailės institute ėmė diegti tekstilės kaip vaizduojamojo meno, sprendžiančio vėlyvojo modernizmo, konceptualizmo, o vėliau – šiuolaikinio aktualaus meno klausimus ir problemas. Įtaigaus tikėjimo meno paskirtimi ir galia suartinti žmones per estetines patirtis ir angažuotumo palaikyti kritinio diskurso atmosferą ugdymo proceso metu dėka Oržekauskienė per dvidešimt penkerius meninės ir pedagoginės veiklos metus pati subrendo kaip unikali menininkė, aktualizuojanti [moters] tapatumo, lyčių konfliktų, sakralumo ir sekuliarumo sankirtų klausimus. Jos austuose cikluose itin savitai – per moters prigimties sakralizavimą – skleidžiasi feminizmo idėjos. Oržekauskienės ugdymo principų dėka Kauno tekstilės katedros absolventės – Almyra Bartkevičiūtė-Weigel, Vita Gelūnienė, Lina Jonikė, Inga Likšaitė, Loreta Švaikauskienė, Monika Žaltauskaitė-Grašienė, Bronė Neverdauskienė ir kitos – tapo ryškiomis šiuolaikinio meno lauko dalyvėmis, per savo kūrybą aktualizuojančiomis atskirties, stereotipų temas, įvaizdinančiomis simuliakrinio pasaulio, kūno be organų teorijas, pasitelkiančiomis reliacinės estetikos, postprodukcijos ar bendruomeninių menų principus meniniams projektams realizuoti. Konceptualios tekstilės, arba tekstilės išplėstame lauke, ašis Lietuvos ir Europos kontekste sukasi apie minėtas menininkes ir jas vienijantį židinį VDA KDF Tekstilės katedrą. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Meninė tekstilė; Konceptualioji tekstilė; Aktualus menas; Naujoji tekstilės karta; Art textile; Conceptual art; Current art; New generation of textiles.

ENThe article strives to reveal Laima Oržekauskienė’s artistic and teaching strategies and their influence on the creative choices of the new generation of textile artists. From the start of her teaching at Kaunas Art Faculty in 1987, Oržekauskienė consistently developed a practical teaching programme based on analytic thinking and personal responsibility, she employed the anti-utilitarian principles and analytic cognition attributed to fine arts and spread the notion that textile is also another media for independent, outstanding and current art work. Reviewing the themes and nature of the creative work by Laima Oržekauskienė, it could be said that for her, materials and techniques are a conceptually chosen media and the weaving process is a meditational denotation of existence. Laima Oržekauskienė sacralises the creative process and its results. She believes that the purpose of art is to speak in universal and eternal categories. She bestows art with aesthetic and moral meanings. The main themes of her creative work are identity, self-analysis, gender identity and gender interaction, romanticising the past and transcendent tension denoted through minimal means of expression. These features allow one to consider Laima Oržekauskienė as an artist who takes the lead from conceptual principles and confirms them in her creative work. Considering the work by the new generation textile artists, such as Almyra Weigel, Vita Gelūnienė, Loreta Švaikauskienė, Lina Jonikė, Inga Likšaitė, Monika Žaltauskaitė – Grašienė, and Bronė Neverdauskienė, who studied at the Textiles Department of Kaunas Art Faculty during Oržekauskienė’s time as the head of Department and who have in recent years taught at the Textiles Department, the embracing and continuation of professor Oržekauskienė’s creative thinking is evident.The emerging main themes of the works by young textile artists – evolving, [female] identity, simulacra reality and the questioning of stereotypes, and the principles of their actions – appropriation, interdisciplinary media, collaboration, relational aesthetics, socially engaged arts – reveal the scope of critical thinking and social engagement as the main axis of creative philosophy. It could be said that the epicentre of this discourse oriented textiles (sometimes transcending textiles boundaries) in the field of Kaunas artistic textiles has been revolving around Laima Oržekauskienė for the past two decades. The unique professor’s teaching, her inspiring belief in the primal purpose of art – to connect people in their aesthetical experiences – influenced each of the mentioned Textiles Department graduates to find their individual narrative, connected to the current art field, using different techniques, crossing the boundaries of textiles or abandoning the material factor altogether. These artists, in collaboration with other artists, creative personalities, scientists and viewers, denote art as the process willing to create new circumstances or as the time which needs to be experienced together. Through the efforts of Laima Oržekauskienė and the teaching direction of Kaunas Textiles Department created by her, textiles became one of the media and forms of contemporary and current art. [From the publication]