Egghorsecizmus

Artist Robertas Narkus invites viewers to a session of egghorsecizmus, permeated with black humour and absurdity. In the centre of the show is a man going through a mid-life crisis. Influenced by the challenges of his personal life as well as the major crises of today’s world, including the war currently taking place in the proximity of Lithuania and the global ecological crisis – both of which have been caused by old structures that symbolise reckless masculine drive and unreasonable ambition – the artist explores the themes of guilt, responsibility, hope and love.

Robertas Narkus (b. 1983 in Vilnius) is a Vilnius-based artist working with various media including performance, photography, video, collage and advanced technology, among others. As the initiator of numerous experimental art, management and food production organisations, the artist often draws inspiration from the world of business and start-ups. By juxtaposing the spirit of optimism and drive with the often invisible by-product – the bitterness of failure – he creates tragicomic works. In what may be viewed as an almost casual mash-up of fashionable objects and trends, fragments of the latest theories and the strategies of contemporary art, Narkus builds a multi-layered and deliberately hyperbolic reflection of our time.

Narkus represented Lithuania at the 59th Venice Biennial in 2022. His solo exhibitions have been held at eastcontemporary in Milan (2023), Galerija Vartai in Vilnius (2023 and 2020), David Dale Gallery in Glasgow (2019), Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius (2017) and Tenderpixel in London (2015). Narkus’ works have been presented in important international group projects at the inaugural Vilnius Biennial of Performance Art, de Appel in Amsterdam, the 12th Baltic Triennial, Kaunas Biennial and the 5th Marrakech Biennale. Narkus is the founder of the Vilnius Institute of Pataphysics, the former artist day care centre Autarkia, the experimental engineering camp eeKūlgrinda, and the restaurant Delta Mityba.