” IN SITU ” brooch
In situ (Lat. in the original position) refers to traces of history that have reached our days by chance, thanks to which we can get to know the past. The remains of ancestral culture that have survived on the earth for hundreds of years, their documentation in find-sites provide important scientific knowledge and help researchers to reconstruct the past. However, In situ as a whole, the arrangement of archaeological artifacts in space has not only an informational but also a natural aesthetic form captured in photographs or sketches. The interpretation of these documents depends on the context and the point of view chosen, so how can we look at objects for the work of historians through an artistic prism and translate them into the language of jewelry? It is this issue that has become the main axis of the In Situ project.
In search of inspiration in the rich and systematic materials of Lithuanian archeological research from the second half of the twentieth century , the aesthetic properties of the documents attract attention – while browsing the archives, it was noticed that the excavation documentation had become a kind of creative practice and artistic testing space for the students of the Vilnius Institute of Art. These archival values not only provide access to the results of archaeological research, but also encourage a return to accidentally aesthetic In situ situations and the continuation of an artistic experiment. That is why we do not see an attempt to restore the alleged authenticity of archaeological artifacts in this whole creative project. The collection of jewelry objects freely play with the material experience of that history and turn to the application of traces to our everyday life, as well as the documentation of the viewer observing the aforementioned objects, an act that captures the essential aspects of In situ – place and time.
Thus, the In Situ project, based on archaeological research, helps to rethink the culture in which we live and to integrate traces of the past into today’s life. This life of the past requires constant experiments of thought that prevent history from turning into an idol preserved by canonical view. The ability to remember and rethink the signs of history on a daily basis inserts them into ourselves, but living memory no longer reaches the times presented in the archeological expositions of museums, we can only know this past with our eyes. Thus, the author’s desire to translate archeological sources into modern plastic language betrays the need for today’s man to re-witness his roots and discover stability in a rapidly changing world. It is jewelry that allows us to recreate a sensual, bodily relationship with the past seen in museum showcases and to create a new connection through the overall material experience of history.
