Suzon — both an expanded reprint of Raimundas Malašauskas sold-out anthology Paper Exhibitions from 2012 and a new collection of writings by the Lithuanian curator and writer — offers a window onto Malašauskas’ worldview, based on collective improvisation, congregation and continuous drift. It includes essays, exhibition guides, personal letters, song lyrics, an opening speech and a cocktail recipe – together offering a glimpse of what perhaps in a few years we will look back upon as L’esprit du temps.
The book’s title refers to the woman who was the model for Édouard Manet’s A Bar at the Folies-Bergère (1882), a painting that fascinated Malašauskas from childhood on. “At some point I came to realize that many of my writings came from a similar starting point to Suzon’s work at the bar – most were made to order. As a writer, I sometimes tend to misplace an order and prepare a surprise drink or dish instead. You can think of the writings in Suzon as returns or requests; some were prepared as suggestions.”
When growing up in Vilnius, then capital of Soviet Lithuania, Raimundas Malašauskas wanted to become a chef on a trans-oceanic ship, but ended up studying art history and theory at Vilnius Academy of Arts. He was particularly drawn to the period of Mannerism in the sixteenth century but ended up writing a study of art criticism in the 1970s and 80s.
