Darius Miksys leads two individual workshops considering the topic of 'formlessness'.
Inviting participants to join him in the practice of 'skiving' whereby leather is cut, bent and folded, Miksys combines practical demonstration with broader philosophical discussion to posit the idea of formlessness as an 'edge'. For the artist, this 'edge' is the point at which 'the talk or lecture leaves its target of interest and becomes a memory, a remembrance, or a fetish.'
In this way the artist envisages layering things - thoughts, ideas, memories etc - on top of the 'handiwork' that participants are undertaking, leaving a space to re-imagine the line between learning and allowing our minds to wander.
Approximate duration - three hours.
Please note: this workshop is only suitable for ages 18 and over.
Darius Miksys (b.1969, Kaunas, Lithuania)
For a long time, Darius Miksys stopped using the word 'art' in relation to his work. Refusing to ally himself with any genre or medium, he describes what he does as 'just projects', and speaks about his 'active practice of exhibition-making'. His whole modus operandi is based on social networks, bringing people together to create performances and shared experiences.
A self-proclaimed concept designer, whom others have called a 'practitioner of persuasion art', many of his conceptual schemes have taken place far beyond the confines of the gallery. These have included learning new skills such as playing the accordion or cricket (which led him to establish Lithuania's first cricket club), organising a workshop on avoiding eye contact, and procrastinating his own lecture On Procrastination.
For his first solo exhibition, when he represented Lithuania at the 2011 Venice Biennale, Miksys invited 200 Lithuanian artists who had received government grants to submit a work to his project. The concept, he said, was 'to create a metaphorical mirror for the state and society.'