48: 29,7 x 21 cm, graphite on paper
(from the project “Survival”)
The project has been produced in cooperation with a sizeable team of pupils from the Vilnius Justinas Vienožinskis Art School. Their choice of heroes has a great deal to say about the aspirations, hopes and fears of their generation and the general state of their worldview. Their selection of heroes also reflected gender and age biases: and the fact that there were more female than male participants in the group. This counteracts the tendency within 'official' Lithuanian culture to be male biased: and a corresponding male domination of official Lithuanian 'ancient' or 'traditional' history. A principal marker of social value, banknotes, is absolutely dominated by male iconography plus the public image associated with the "Tree of Solidarity" produced to mark the 2009 millennium of Lithuania. Typically, men dominated the committees that made those public decisions.
Authors (from left to right, starting at the top): Kristina Suvorova, Jonas Karvedis, Aistė,
Ana Miniajeva, Mykolas Parulskis, Viltė Bražiūnaitė
Meanwhile, in the '"avenue of heroes" there are more women than men – which is also reflective, somewhat ironically, of recent opinion that women are better managers in times of crisis and have recently been elevated to significant posts in business and public life.
The heroes are grouped according to four categories: global personalities, local personalities, personal heroes, and fictional (mythological) figures.
The boys would mainly choose world famous personalities. Girls chose mostly heroes from their personal milieu. The results show that for male teenagers the global context is much more important than for the girls. Female teenagers in the meantime chose their heroes from a closed familiar circle (mainly mothers and other relatives) that may indicate the importance of family values.
Strikingly, it seems in analysis that we are inclined to remember those representatives of cultural life that have recently passed away (for example, the young people mentioned Lithuanian artists such as Vytautas Kernagis and Leonidas Muraška). Unsurprisingly, they tended towards local figures that regularly appear on TV (Ramunė Piekautaitė and Kęstutis Rimdžius) and Hollywood stars (Penelope Cruz, Angelina Jolie, Eva Longoria and Jim Carrey).
Atypical choices did emerge. One of the girls chose a young and eccentric character living in MySpace, an American Jeffree Star Someone chose a fictional character Toru Watanabe, from the novel Norwegian Wood by the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. Although the heroes, chosen by these girls are quite different, both of them are dealing with psychological problems and identity crisis which is a relevant issue for young people. In the search for identity, one has to face existential questions, which is why a number of the young people selected religious figures – two participants of the project portrayed Jesus Christ and a third one Mother Teresa.
The most startling choice, for a young person, whether joking or not, was the Russian revolutionary Lenin: I wonder how they understand the dramatic twists of Russian history a century ago, that were so crucial for our nation and the state?
Maybe, the common man, the nameless hero, the trolleybus driver chosen by one of the youngsters is more deserving of our utmost respect?