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POMERANZ COLLECTION

DEIMANTAS NARKEVICIUS

Whatever You Play, It Sounds Like the 1940s
2009
Turntable, amplifier, speakers
Dimensions variable
Unique
Inv. Nr. 103

Born in 1964 in Utena, Lithuania
Lives and works in Vilnius, Lithuania

A sculpture graduate at the Vilnius Art Academy in 1991, Deimantas Narkevicius mostly works with film, video and installation, experimenting with the film structure and conceptualizing the weight of subjective memories and personal revisions of History, using found documents, objects and footage. He represented Lithuania at the 2001 Venice Biennale.

Whatever You Play, It Sounds Like the 1940s consists of an audio-system made from Telefunken AD1 triodes/tubes, Klangfilm (Siemens) speakers, and other radio components of the forties. The audience can bring their own vinyl record, pressed at any playing speed (33, 45 or 78 rpm) and rediscover the quality of sound generated by the equipment produced during one of the most oppressive political regimes. The artist sees this as “an example of anachronistic technology” which highlights a paradox, fascinating and frightening at the same time: “during very inhuman times, technological brilliance was sometimes achieved.”