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Futuro Antico. Interview with Augustas Serapinas
Nov 21, 2023
Ludovico Pratesi
Whatever the future may hold, art will always reflect it in many forms and many voices. Tomorrow is captured in the voice of the Lithuanian artist, currently featured in the exhibition at FOROF in Rome.
What are your inspirational references in art?
I see the art world as a space of freedom where different ideas and manifestations take place. However, it has its boundaries, which sometimes create paradoxical situations. For example, underpaid work at an institution hosting a show about equality. Or seeing the same artist or the same artworks in different exhibitions with different installation conditions, which can make the works look better or worse. I also find it fascinating to observe the people who work in exhibitions but remain invisible to the public. In addition to looking from the perspective of the neighbors of the exhibition venues, as they live nearby but might never visit the shows. My inspiration comes from life situations, sometimes related to the art world and sometimes not at all.
Which project represents you the most? Can you tell us about its genesis?
My practice has changed over the years, and I have several works that could fit this definition. One of them is Blue Pen, originally conceived for the David Dale Gallery in Glasgow. There was a warehouse near the gallery, a family-run business for over a hundred years called Clow Group Ltd. Through a process of interviews with Clow's staff, we learned about one of the incidents that happened forty years ago: Clow had produced a portal access system for a commercial bakery. These inspection platforms were placed to pass over the large industrial mixing bowls, representing a particular phase in the dough-making process. Upon completion, a Clow engineer visited the factory to inspect the platforms. Intrigued by the process, the engineer leaned over the handrail to look into the bowls. As he leaned, a blue pen that he had in the pocket of his jacket fell into the bowl. Clow had to pay the equivalent of ten thousand blue loaves and was not invited to produce further work for the bakery. I was inspired by this story.
With what consequences?
So, for the gallery, I created the blue bread and the platform. Additionally, I added other objects, designed by me and produced by Clow, or borrowed from the Clow company. By showing a variety of items such as scaffolding, platforms, ladders, and a story with blue bread, my goal was to present to the gallery visitors who the neighbor really was. In many cases, being neighbors doesn’t mean knowing each other, because physical proximity doesn’t necessarily lead to connecting trajectories that correspond to different lives. I find it beautiful that, after the end of the exhibition and the dismantling of the works, the relationship established between the exhibition space and its neighbors has the potential to change as people get to know each other more closely through these kinds of processes.
What importance does the Genius Loci have in your work?
I often develop my works in relation to the situation I find around the exhibition space. I try to understand where to place my first step, and once I have done that, I can begin to figure out where to place the second. Without the situations and the space in which I find myself working while designing or installing my exhibitions, the works wouldn’t be as precise as I want them to be. It only makes sense when I see this relationship.
How important is the past for imagining and building the future? Do you think the future can have an ancient heart?
There are always new discoveries in the fields of science, technology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, medicine, and everything else. There are new ideas, political concepts, research, and experiments. We discover so many things, yet it’s part of the world we live in. Many of these discoveries are usually applied (sponsored) by governments and private companies to take advantage of their strategic and market value. The paradox is that the more we learn, the more we also tend to forget. But since the priority is usually the value given by profit, it’s not that useful to have the past at the center when trying to imagine the future. I believe that if we took the past more seriously and learned from it, our future might appear brighter than it seems now. Keeping this in mind, the future should have an ancient heart because without it, there is no future.
What advice would you give to a young person who wants to pursue your path?
Sometimes I hear students say, “I want to become an artist.” In my opinion, either you are an artist or you’re not. If you want to be an artist, you must think and behave like one at all times. Everyone might have a different idea of what an artist is; however, this mindset could be more beneficial than projecting your desire into the future.
In an era defined by post-truth, does the concept of the sacred still hold importance and strength?
A concept is real only if you believe in it. A person’s faith in the sacred will give it meaning and truth. We choose what is sacred to us, consciously or unconsciously: God, nature, money, love, influence, etc.
How do you imagine the future? Could you give us three ideas that you think will guide the coming years?
I can’t give you an answer. Undoubtedly, we are moving towards some worrying trends, accompanied by unknown factors. The hope lies in the human capacity to provide solutions and possibilities for adaptation. However, I can definitely say that whatever the future may be, art will always reflect it in many forms and voices.