Alnis Stakle

LOST: PARIS The cities of the world are concentric, isomorphic, synchronic. Only one exists and you are always in the same one. It's the effect of their permanent revolution, their intense circulation, their instantaneous magnetism. Jean Baudrillard (2003) Cool Memories I am interested in the urban environment as a phenomenon, which is basically a product of social experience. The existence of any city is rooted in basic human needs – to be warm, safe and part of one’s community. Nowadays, however, the cities have turned into immeasurable agglomerations in whose social and consequently architectural constructions people have found not only shelter and security, but also disorder, alienation and loneliness. The work series “Lost: Paris” is both documentary & autobiographical psychogeography based investigation into complicated ties between human beings and their physical environment. I discovered that the sense of being lost is the most common meaning that describes the existence of a contemporary human being in a self-created urbanized environment. My moving about the city environment can be described as irrational and often aimless. I do not look for tourist attractions, the beautiful or the ugly. Instead I allow the urban environment with its constituent elements (buildings, signs, people, etc.) to “guide me”, becoming familiar with the environment. I would describe my approach to experiencing the urban environment as one based in contemplative experiences at the basis of which lies a peculiar merging with the surroundings. With my works I do not wish to recount a particular event in a specific space and time. My practice explicitly includes the search for new methods of apprehending urban environment. The most important reason for my choosing this approach to studying urban environment is to construct subjective experience and knowledge that is visually and conceptually not based on a traditional editorial approach or documentary storytelling strategies used in photography.