Imprints

Works by Deimantas Narkevičius

Opening Reception: September 3, 2026, 6-8pm

Exhibition: September 3 - October 17, 2026
Rämisstrasse Gallery Night: September 17, 2026

Imprints, Deimantas Narkevičius
Pascal Robert Gallery, September 2026

Narkevičius the Magician Michael Kurtz Since the early nineties, Deimantas Narkevičius has established himself as one of the defining figures of European contemporary art. Imprints is a three-part introduction to the fundamental questions of his practice: What is Lithuania? What does it mean to be ‘post-Soviet’? How might the past relate to the present, nature to culture, local to national, memory to history? And what role does representation play in all this – statues and songs, photographs and films?

What strikes me about Narkevičius on this occasion is his interest in the magical power, as opposed to the documentary function, of recording technologies. According to the eccentric Czech-born media theorist Vilém Flusser, ‘technical images’ are like magic because, as ‘surfaces above which the eye circles’, they encourage a cyclical approach to time and an approach to meaning that disregards rational or linear logic.

A similar equivalence between magic and technical images pervades Narkevičius’s work. Look at Blessed and Deuced, a new series of photographs recording ancient sacred stones found in the Lithuanian landscape. Each photo is close cropped around a stone and taken from above, which has the effect of cleaving the object depicted to the picture plane. The grain of each image’s surface mingles with the mossy patina of the rock below – the alchemical magic of photography becomes entwined with the spiritual power of the rock. The Dud Effect, meanwhile, is not concerned with folkloric ritual and yet still has a magical impact. Ageing architecture, precise re-enactment, archival imagery and special effects conspire here to conjure a historical event that never even happened, portraying a Soviet nuclear missile launch.

While Flusser held the rise of images responsible for the so-called ‘end of history’ in the 1990s, Narkevičius uses them to convey the continuing presence of history – not as a list of events but a web of unfinished projects and lingering possibilities, of bygone regimes and distant memories that can be summoned like spirits from deep in the forest.

© Michael Kurtz

Author bio: Michael Kurtz is a critic and curator based in London. He writes regularly for Art Monthly and e-flux, and he won the International Award for Art Criticism in 2023. His current curatorial projects are Manifesta 16 Ruhr (closing October 4th) and Picasso-Bacon at the Albertina Museum (opening September 18th).

Citation: Vilém Flusser, Towards a Philosophy of Photography,
Trans. A. Mathews, (2000: London, Reaktion Books).