On Friday at the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress CenterLitexpo"ArtVilnius'23, the largest contemporary art fair in the Baltic States, begins. 70 art galleries and institutions, 300 artists from 18 countries of the world will be located at the fourteenth edition of the fair. The theme of this year's "ArtVilniaus'23" is performativity.
"We always emphasize the educational, cognitive function of the ArtVilnius'23 art fair, but at the same time we say that selling works of art is also art. For more than ten years, we have worked so that as many art collectors as possible visit the fair", said Diana Stomienė, founder and manager of the fair, president of the Association of Lithuanian Art Gallerists, at the press conference held on Thursday.
Speaking at the press conference about the most interesting galleries, art director of "ArtVilnius'23", art researcher Sonata Baliuckaitė had no doubt that performativity will be felt in the works. She enjoyed the famous and dynamic program of students and teachers of the Vilnius Academy of Arts in the "5 mills" gallery, the works that will be presented by the galleries participating in the fair for the first time - "TÜTAR gallery" from Tallinn, "Art & Tonic" from Tartu, "Foreign territory" from New York.
The space of the Union of Lithuanian Artists, gallery "Drift", "EHU Art Space", Kaunas art gallery "Drobė" will also make their debut at the fair.
"We notice how regional galleries from Panevėžys, Molėtai, Dusetė, Ukmergė, Palanga, Telšiai, Šiauliai prepare more and more seriously for the fair every year", said S. Baliuckaitė, who was happy at the press conference that the most interesting Lithuanian photography galleries, presenting the best artists of the country, have returned to the fair works.
Four galleries from Ukraine will also participate in the fair.
This year, the Young Collector stand returns to the art fair program. It will exhibit small-format works of art, the price of which does not exceed 500 euros. Young collectors, art lovers or those just beginning to be interested in art will be able to discover and purchase their first work of art or add to their collection here.
European film forum "Scanorama" will for the first time present discussions about the relationship between these arts at the art fair and reveal the premieres of two recognized Lithuanian video artists - the documentary film "Modern Apartment" by Dainius Liškevičius, laureates of the Lithuanian National Culture and Art Prize, and the first Lithuanian feature-length 3D film by Deimantas Narkevičius.
"Whistling soul".
The gallery of films about world-famous artists will be complemented by Wim Wenders' documentary film about Anselm Kiefer, "Anselm - The Timekeeper", presented at the Cannes Film Festival, Quentin Dupieux's film "Daaaali!", presented at the Venice Film Biennale, and Henrik Martin's
Dahlsbakken's original artistic biography Munch.
Contemporary art curator, writer Valentinas Klimašauskas named the project zone program of this year's international fair "ArtVilnius'23" "Today, yesterday, tomorrow". The program is dedicated to events, the possibility and impossibility of repetition, today, which is affected by yesterday and which will undoubtedly affect tomorrow.
Curator of contemporary art, writer V. Klimašauskas named the project zone program of this year's international fair "ArtVilnius'23" "Today, yesterday, tomorrow". The program is dedicated to events, the possibility and impossibility of repetition and the nonlinearity of time.
"Even now, what we are doing at this press conference is about performativity. The concept of performativity seems to require a constant renewal of identity. Especially in today's age of multifaceted crises, identity is not stable, it asks for constant confirmation, we are faced with interpretations of identities, therefore, in the modern world, identity must be recreated and reconfirmed every time. What is not in social networks, notes, as if does not exist or no longer exists. Although we have many instruments to capture reality, it is increasingly slipping out of our hands. So, such questions as who is an artist, an art creator, what it means to participate in the art scene and create one's identity are mandatory and very relevant at this fair", said V. Klimašauskas, Curator of the Project Space, at the press conference.
For the first time, an exceptional institution of contemporary art will participate in the fair's Project Zone - "EA Shared Space" from Tbilisi, the art space "Medūza" and "Draugu Vardai" from Vilnius, the prestigious Georg Kargl Gallery from Vienna, "Kim?" center of contemporary art from Riga, Vilnius Performance Art Biennale.
The fair should be interesting for the public theater sketches "I and others" by the students of the Theater Art Expression and Acting Course of the Vilnius-based European Humanities University based on the play "The Persecution and Murder of Jean Paul Marat by the Inmates of the Charenton Asylum, Led by the Marquis de Sade" by playwright Peter Weiss. . They are like a reference to what is currently happening in Belarus and in Ukraine.
The Vilnius Performance Art Biennale presents the performance "Egghorsecizmus" by Robert Narkaus, the artist who represented Lithuania at the Venice Art Biennale last year. Prose writer, poet, essayist, "ArtVilnius'22" best artist Paulina Pukytė will follow fairy tales, read forgotten poems and express other opinions in the Project Zone. It will be possible to meet the writer, curator Monika Kalin and the artist Agne Jokše at the readings of the author's texts.
New projects specially created for the fair will be presented by the Jonas Mekos Center for Visual Arts and Vilnius Contemporary Art, the Krakow Museum of Contemporary Art MOCAK, and the Stasys Museum in Panevėžys.
There will be a trail of sculptures, installations and performances inside and outside the fair. Curator of the "Takas" exhibition, head of the VDA Sculpture Department doc. Vytenis Burokas selected 16 artists from Lithuania and abroad for this exhibition. "The trail presupposes the genre of a walk. We set up the exhibition in such a way that it will inevitably lead somewhere, maybe even to a dead end, where time will stop in an installation based on the endurance of choreographer Aira Naginevičiūtė's body, where the dancers, and maybe the audience, will be immersed in the experience of their frozen body. The works of the exhibition, even in cases where they are static, sculptural or installation, have in themselves a map of the artist's actions, the duration of the performance and the time spent with the work, and the visitor will be able to experience the works here physically, not only mediated through the screen."
At this year's Take, it will be possible to meet well-known artists of the country, and to get to know the variety of genres and materials of the younger generation of creators.
As every year, the best participants of the art fair "ArtVilnius'23" will be selected. They will be selected by an international commission - art critic, curator, prof. Dr. Raminta Jurėnaitė, curator, Zane Onckule, program director of the "Kim?" contemporary art center in Riga. Art historian, curator and coordinator of the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow, Mirosława Bałazy, Melanie Wagner, one of the managers of the Georg Kargl Fine Arts gallery in Vienna, founder and manager of the Crème de la Crème Haute Parfumerie boutique chain, art collector Andrius Remiševskis.
The awards ceremony will take place on Friday, October 13, at 18 p.m., at the LRT studio. It will award the best young artist of ArtVilnius'23 (patrons of the fair, law firm COBALT prize), the best artist of ArtVilnius'23 (Crème de la Crème prize), the best sculpture/installation of ArtVilnius'23 (sponsors of the fair , Scandinavia fintech company Vipps MobilePay bonus), the names of the best will also be awarded to the 7 best galleries of ArtVilnius'23. All artists will receive cash prizes.
On Sunday evening, the laureates chosen by the audience will be awarded - "ArtVilnius'23" audience gallery" and "ArtVilnius'23" audience artist".
On Friday evening, when the doors of "Litexpo" close, visitors are invited to the city of Vilnius, where the Art After Hours art festival for night owls will take place. 9 galleries and art spaces will participate in the festival, 7 will be held events.
At ArtVilnius'23, the very popular tours of the fair continue with art experts who will professionally help navigate the halls and stands of the event and introduce visitors and art buyers to the most important highlights of the fair.
The contemporary art fair "ArtVilnius'23" is organized by the Association of Lithuanian Art Gallerists. The manager of the fair is Diana Stomienė, the art manager is Sonata Baliuckaitė. "ArtVilnius'23" is financed by the Lithuanian Council of Culture. Caring for Vilnius city municipality. Patron - law firm COBALT, main partner - Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Center "Litexpo".
