lakes, 2004

“Lakes”, 2004, 2 channel video, 7 min

“Lakes” consists of two parts, two visual memories by elderly women about Lithuanian lakes, which were important in their lives. The first part frames memories of the artist’s mother. She remembers the lakes near Siauliai, where her parents have been living since their youth. In the second part, a famous Lithuanian film star Vaiva Mainelyte tells a story about the lakes, which made her famous, when she as a young woman starred in “Devil’s Bride” (1974), shot on location at the Aukstadvaris lakes: which acquired cult status in Lithuania during the 1970s.

Different memories about lakes, narrated by two women who are contemporaries, document the subjective experience of the past and redefine the symbolic realm of femininity in relation to the visual footage of frozen over, and thereby inaccessible, lakes.