The story of the unknown artist ergo not successful artist is an old one. It is accompanied by the myth of the gifted artist. Art and artists have become a symbol for an alternative bohemian lifestyle, a romantic counter concept to the banal everyday. But unfortunately this idea is fundamental to the logic that only a few can reach fame and high income. Otherwise it wouldn’t be so desirable. The art field is a winner-takes-all market and for most of the living artists it is the bitter truth that their efforts will not pay off in the long run.

In her film about an unknown artist (Filmas apie nežinomą menininkę, Lithuania 2009, 11', 16mm, color), Laura Garbštienė touches a delicate topic, a topic that became more and more relevant in our society, even beyond the art field. In today’s society, everybody has to be young and successful. But most of the people aren’t, and especially more than 90% of all artists aren’t. Her film character, being the artist herself, seems to be on the odyssey of placing herself in this environment questioning if one has to suffer in our success-oriented society today, if one even has to develop a guilty conscience, if one stays unsuccessful and unknown? By positing herself in different environments, she creates a tragic-comical character of an outsider who tries in vain to be part of high society.

The film is based on an earlier work by Konstantinas Bogdanas, born 1962 in Lithuania. In 2007, Bogdanas made a memorial plaque to “The Unknown, Unappreciated, Forgotten Artist”, located in the backyard of Vilnius Art Academy. An art academy is the very place, where talent is discovered, educated and formed in order to develop a successful career. But some doubt is appropriate. We have no absolute proof of the presence or absence of talent, because we do not know exactly what talent is, because we do not know how to measure it independently of what it produces – works - and because measuring the value of works is not a simple and natural process that would be invested with an incontestable objectivity. Evaluations diverge, they change, artists’ value can be revised upwards or downwards, and so on. How, then, has the artist to handle it? Bogdanas opens up many questions, from the fierce competition in its own country opening up to the Western market, to his own doubts or to the usefulness of art for society.

But the main question here seems to be the artist’s own vulnerability and artificiality. Laura Garbštienė, in referring to the piece herself, takes on with this question in a rather humorous and self-reflective way. We see her speaking and singing in an comprehensible language, standing in front of the altar of a church, running around in a wedding dress, searching for the Virgin Mary and in the end praying for salvation and miraculous power. By putting herself in rather pathetic situations, she examines on one hand her personal limits and on the other hand searches for the misrepresentations and miscommunications in society. Garbštienė calls the “getting famous” – part an ethical dilemma. She finally arrives in Paris, at the river Seine, in the old place of artistic fortune, years before New York took over. She finds a companion which whom she earns money – as a pole dancer. One now can ask the question why one has to prostitute oneself to earn money but the fairy-tale ends by her finally earning the money to make her film. Is this really the prize to become a famous artist? Is it all about becoming a prostitute in an environment with limited star capacity?

Maybe there is just nothing romantic about being an artist. But she is making the best out of it. The sociologist Pierre-Michel Menger stated, that a work of art is a discovery of yourself, a masterpiece of your own life. Success in this type of work is more a derivative, not a predefined goal. It is unpredictable. If you look at just the financial situation of an artist, choosing such a career might look like a bad evaluation of the risks. But it doesn’t take into account the non-monetary value of a potential huge gratification, a relative autonomy and the diversity of the tasks involved in the job. How to resolve the dilemma depends on the artist’s own vision of society. The film - multilayered and witty – resolves the dilemma by offering multiple ways to succeed by asking the right questions at the right time and inviting us to join in a humorous adventure in a star-studded society and its very own paranoia.

Bettina Steinbrügge, 2010

Laura Garbštienè, born 1973 in Vilkija (Lithuania) lives and works Vilnius (Lithuania). In recent years, she received the Nordic-Baltic Mobility grant (2009), the grant of the Künstlerhäuser Worpswede (2007) and the Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen grant (2006). She recently has been awarded the International Critics’ Prize (FIPRESCI Prize) at Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen (2010). She had among others a solo show at Vartai Gallery, Vilnius (2009) and participated in biennials like the Baltic Triennial in Vilnius (2009) and the 3rd Prague Biennial (2007) and in group-shows at Cité des Arts in Paris, the ACC Gallery Weimar and Kunstraum Düsseldorf.