Redas Dirzys is the Director of the Alytus Art School in Lithuania, which was accused by the Ministry of Education of anarchism and excessive free-thinking.
Mr. Dirzys also organizes the Biennial Art Strike, where anarchists and artists collaborate on not making art. Links: www.divus.cz/umelec/en/pages/umelec.php?id=1023&roc=2006&cis=1

Email from Martin Zet to Redas Dirzys, October 29, 2000, 9:30 a.m:

Dear Redas,

Things are starting to get hotter than I ever expected.

My performance (in Lublin, Poland, October 2000) consisted of about thirty young assistants screaming, "FMZ!" in English and Polish, standing in the room with a big banner FREE MARTIN ZET! facing the audience, walking around the banner, in the house of the cultural center and on the main boulevard of the city, still screaming of course. It was not possible to stop them. The young people really enjoyed it, but some of the people around, including me, were really frightened. They really substituted me for their desire for freedom - I became, for a moment, the representation of their fight for freedom - it's so fucking easy to manipulate, man. I also made some T-shirts, and they sold them - to make it more obvious - propaganda and business always go hand in hand, don't you think? I spoke individually with intimacy to a few people throughout the whole thing, but it was just bullshit. The young people wanted to scream and, among the silent or almost silent performances, this was the only excitement for them. It was really almost impossible to explain to them afterwards that they were just being misused. They didn't want to hear it, and I was a hero for them. They lack such activities.

� So, Redas, I see that there are two (in fact one) big themes for me (for us) now: manipulation (misuse) and freedom. Very dangerous and exciting work. (Bigger and bigger problems with my conscience - but I feel, as I said to you, that I must sometimes do things I don't agree with.)

Martin

Both REDAS DIRZYS and MARTIN ZET are planning to use political and personal connotations of specific dates, and take responsibility on all possible mis-interpretations. Their appearance at Grace Exhibition Space in early October 2009 celebrates the 11th Anniversary of their first meeting in New York, and is spaced in-between two special dates

September 11th (very important date for one of them personally) and November 7th (October Bolshevik Revolution anniversary).

One more key element of importance is that one of those cultural operators had declared a one-year-long Art Strike campaign against �serious art� structures for the period from January 1st, 2009 through December 31st, 2009.

Redas Dirzys and Martin Zet are performance artists who have been collaborating for over 10 years, continue to create solo work as well collaborating with others. They have performed internationally in galleries, mueums and festivals for 15 years.