For viewers and connoisseurs. With this slogan, the fourteenth international contemporary art fair "ArtVilnius'23" will welcome visitors this year. October 13-15 at the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress CenterLitexpo300 artists, 70 art galleries and institutions from 18 countries will be located.
"There is no quick success. The contemporary art fair "ArtVilnius" had to travel a long decade, discover its audience, its artists and collectors, so that we could finally observe the results. Every year, as soon as we close the fair's doors to visitors, we open them again for ourselves. We start considering the idea of each fair from the content. This year, we want to talk about performativity in a broad sense - not only in art, but also in the art environment, in the decisions of the cultural community. I hope that the discussions about this at our fair will be very hot, and its context will allow us to look at the concept of performativity openly and creatively", says Diana Stomienė, the manager, inspiration and organizer of the ArtVilnius''23 fair.
Variety of media and genres
Sonata Baliuckaitė, Art Director of ArtVilnius'23, promises an extremely diverse gallery program. Although the audience at the fair will see many performances or paintings that dominate all art fairs, this year the galleries will present a variety of media and genres. "At the gallery stands, I would like to draw attention to the materiality of contemporary art: installations, glass, bronze, textiles and many other materials. The variety of art genres reflects the direction in which modern art is moving. It is not for nothing that this year there are institutions presenting dance, music, cinema, and literature among the participants of the fair. The boundaries of art genres are disappearing and expanding at the same time, we aim to reflect their diversity and actualities", says S. Baliuckaitė.
Along with the program of contemporary art galleries, the fair "ArtVilnius'23" will also present a number of special projects. The 4th hall of Litexpo will turn into a creative Project Zone. Exhibitions of institutions and artists will be presented there by the curator, art critic Valentinas Klimašauskas.
Art fans will be introduced to the works of 16 artists in the "Takas" exhibition of sculptures, installations and performances prepared by curator Vytenis Buroks.
This year, the Young Collector stand returns to the art fair program and will present its news Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, the film forum of European countries "Scanorama" and publishing institutions important to the art market.
The gallery program features guests from Dusetia and New York
At ArtVilnius'23 stands, visitors will see their favorite galleries Māksla XO from Latvia, Galerie Nivet-Carzon from France, Lithuanian galleries Kristina Norvilaitė, Terra Recognita, Contour art gallery, The Room, "AP Gallery", "The Rooster Gallery", KADS Gallery "Baroti", even six galleries of the Lithuanian Artists' Union and six galleries of the Vilnius Art Academy and many others.
This year's program includes as many as 10 international galleries participating in the fair for the first time: TÜTAR gallery from Tallinn, BILOUS gallery from Vienna, Foreign territory from New York, Vilnius galleries TEMA Projects, Drifts, Galerija T.2 ", space of the Union of Lithuanian Artists, "Drobė" art gallery, Audrias Gražis art gallery, "EHU Art Space".
A large number of galleries from the regions accepted the invitation of the organizers of the fair: Panevėžys will be represented by the Panevėžys City Art Gallery, LDS Gallery "Galerija XX", as well as "A Gallery", Dusetėi Art Gallery, Molėtai Art Gallery, "Vilkamirgės Gallery" / "Artless" will set up their stand. gallery" from Ukmergė, Palanga "Ramybės Galerija", Šiauliai LDS gallery "S_IN.", VDA Telšiai gallery and others.
In the project area - interpretations of performativity
"ArtVilnius'23" Project Zone has been handed over to contemporary art curator and writer V. Klimašauskas for the second time. The three-day Project Zone program "Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow" will present a program of various institutions and guest authors related to the interpretations of performativity.
The "Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow" program is dedicated to events, the (impossibility) of repetition, participation through testimony and other events related to the passing of time," says the curator of the program V. Klimašauskas and tells that three days in a row, at the same hour, the audience will see the same performances on the same stage.
The Theater of the European Humanities University will invite the audience to participate in public sketches based on "The Persecution and Murder of Jean-Paul Marat" by Peter Weiss, performed by a troupe of actors from the Charenton Asylum, directed by Mr. de Sade. Konstantinas Bogdanas will organize stories on stage stand up'ah. Prose writer, poet, essayist, the best artist of "ArtVilnius'22" Paulina Pukytė will follow fairy tales, read forgotten poems and express other opinions. It will be possible to meet writer, curator Monika Kalin and artist Agne Jokše at readings of their original texts.
This year, for the first time, ArtVilnius'23 and the Project Zone will be attended by exceptional contemporary art institutions - "EA Shared Space" from Tbilisi, the prestigious Georg Kargl Gallery from Vienna, Riga-based "Kim?" center of contemporary art, "Medūza" and "Friends' Names" from Vilnius, Vilnius Biennale of Performance Art. New projects specially created for the fair will be presented by the Center for Contemporary Art and the Jonas Mekos Center for Visual Arts from Vilnius, the Krakow Museum of Contemporary Art MOCAK, the Stasis Eidrigevičius Art Center "Stasys Museum" from Panevėžys.
The exhibition "Takas" features experienced art wolves and newcomers
The traditional international exhibition of sculptures, installations and performances "Takas" will be held in the fair spaces. For the third year now, it has been supervised by the artist, curator and head of the VDA Sculpture Department, doc. Vytenis Burok. The exhibition will present 16 individual projects of artists.
"Just like every year, we will visit the ArtVilnius fair again and, probably, we will follow one or the other path," says V. Burokas. - At this year's "Take" it will be possible to meet well-known artists of the country - Severija Inčirauskaitė-Kriaunevičienė, author of the best installation of last year's "ArtVilnius'22" Žygimantas Augustinas, Eglė Rakauskaitė. The audience will have the opportunity to get to know the variety of genres and materials of the younger generation of creators. We will encounter our own and others' bodies, as their states change, in an installation based on the endurance of the body of dancer, choreographer Aira Naginevičiūtė. We will have the opportunity to observe the changes in the encephalogram (EEG) that occur when the performance artist Marija Griniuk experiences the works of other authors at the fair. It is possible that this will be a clear proof that works of art affect us, the observers, in a tangible way."
There are many events during the fair weekend
At the "ArtVilnius'23" fair, an international commission of art professionals, as well as visitors, will select the best participants of the fair - galleries, artists and works. The prize for the best young artist of "ArtVilnius'23" was established by the patron of the fair, law firm COBALT. An award was also established for the best artist(s) of "ArtVilnius'23" - the "Crème de la Crème" prize. The best/best author of the sculpture/installation of "ArtVilnius'23" will be awarded a prize by the sponsor of the fair, Scandinavia fintech company Vipps MobilePay.
Special awards have also been established for the "ArtVilnius'23" audience artist and "ArtVilnius'23" audience gallery - the audience will choose the artists and galleries they like the most during the three days of the fair.
Discussions, lectures and announcements about art will be broadcast live from the interactive LRT studio. Even better, visitors will be able to get to know the works presented at the fair during excursions with art historians.
In the electronic catalog of fair participants, Artvilnius.com/lt/katalogas, it is already possible to choose artists' works and arrange your own fair routes. On the weekend of "ArtVilnius'23", on October 13, Friday, Vilnius residents and guests of the city are invited to spend the night in selected city galleries and institutions at the Art After Hours art festival. Visitors can already purchase tickets to the fair on the "Bilietai.lt" portal.
