Donatas Tretjakovas is a Lithuanian-born, Netherlands-based multidisciplinary artist working in performance, sculpture, video, and writing. Rooted in anxiety, his work dissects the horrors of interpersonal drama, abject economies, and methodologies of violence.
Using dark humor, the artist blends daily tragedy, spiritual ecstasy, and dysfunctional advertising campaign into a collage-like body of work, gently rubbing existential doubt—an itch that bothers many and arouses a few. Drawing influences from (un)pleasant encounters, Butoh, “white trash” lifestyle, slapstick cinema and Theatre of the Absurd, the artist procures uncompromising blobs of self-irony, soaked in honesty and hope.
Would it be a renowned institutional exhibition or private low-budget gender reveal party, Donatas proudly embraces the archetype of the Holy Simpleton—who seeks refuge in the obscene and profane while fantasizing of the grandiose, ceremonial and sacred. Inevitable flop, fall and collapse systematically follow the precarious Donatas. Yet, seemingly undisturbed by ongoing apocalyptic tendencies, he nonchalantly continues to pick at the cuticles of common sense.
CV