Diržys Redas
g. 1967
The artist Redas Diržys lives and works in Alytus and is known for his social interventions, performances and socially engaged artistic practices. Presently he is the director of the Art School of Alytus. Redas Diržys is considered to be one of the most controversial Lithuanian artists. His social actions and curated events (Alytus biennial being among the best known http://alytusart.w3.lt) are usually oriented towards social issues. Redas Diržys can be considered a member of the Left discourse. In his social and artistic practices (which usually are inseparable) he criticizes the existing social standards, the rules of art market, he deconstructs the power mechanisms and capitalist „power centers“. Much of the artist‘s work is concentrated on the critique of concepts of „the illusion of freedom“, official culture, civic society taken as an obvious natural given. However, this critique has a subversive value – with a degree of irony and sarcasm, the artist often borrows the means of expression and organization from his objects of critique thus creating an artistic intervention or social action that provokes reaction, tension and dialogue. Redas Diržys lives and works in a periphery of the mainstream cultural life – in the town of Alytus, where he initiates the alternative for artistic and pedagogical practices. Apart from that, he also actively collaborates with other Lithuanian and international artists.  
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