Creators of ArtVilnius: 15 Years Ago It Was an Ambitious Plan

“We have always gone hand in hand with life, and we thought it was important to nurture art viewers and future collectors, to educate them, to tell them what is happening in the contemporary art market in Lithuania and the world,” says Diana Stomienė, the founder and director of the international contemporary art fair ArtVilnius. Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, the fair invites artists, gallerists, collectors, and art lovers to celebrate art.

 “Celebrate art!” – this is the motto of ArtVilnius’24. “A celebration can be both the theme of art and the reason for its creation. In general, fairs tend to be festival-like and bustling,” says writer, art historian, and curator of the fair’s Project Zone, Dr. Valentinas Klimašauskas.

 The fair has withstood all adversities

When the doors of the first international contemporary art fair ArtVilnius opened in Vilnius, the art critic V. Klimašauskas had recently published his dystopian novel Alfavilnius and had been working as a curator at the Contemporary Art Centre for at least five years. “Curating projects at fairs is not in itself something very unexpected in my profession, but the format of the fair is something special because it clearly intersects the paths of art and capital, which are still very different discourses in our region,” he says and recalls that the first fair was created during the financial crisis when it received one-time funding from the project Vilnius – European Capital of Culture 2009. “Be that as it may, it has survived the adversity and is successfully planning its future. This means it was and is needed.”

Valentinas Klimašauskas. Photo by Andrej Vasilenko

 Professor Raminta Jurėnaitė, an art historian, who was at the origin of the international contemporary art fair ArtVilnius, says today that Vilnius – European Capital of Culture in 2009 was a good opportunity to launch the art fair. None of the Baltic countries had a contemporary art fair, so the organizers of the first ArtVilnius set out with an ambitious plan to create an event that would endure beyond the European Capital of Culture year. “It happened, ArtVilnius is the only event from that period that has had continuity and survived even in the most difficult years,” says the professor, adding that despite the strange skepticism, which is still present today, the first ArtVilnius fair attracted a large number of galleries from abroad. 

 “It was clear to me that if you invite professionally, the galleries will come, which is very important in the art world. Diana and I were both successful in doing that, we overcame a lot of obstacles. From today’s perspective, we were very brave – it was the first time we were organizing an international art fair, let alone a contemporary art fair, there was no statistical knowledge, no tradition of logistics. We could only offer our professionalism to the art galleries, nothing else, and we told them about the growing art scene, interesting Lithuanian galleries and collectors. I didn’t promise foreign galleries anything that we couldn’t deliver, I tried to be as honest as possible. I had incredible professional solidarity and support from my colleagues, and we had a lot of strong galleries and big names at the fair. The organizing team worked very well and the fair was a great success. It was so successful that it was absolutely impossible not to do it the following year,” recalls Prof. Jurėnaitė of the fair fifteen years ago.

Raminta Jurėnaitė. Photo by Audrius Solominas | ArtVilnius

 The founder of ArtVilnius and president of the Lithuanian Art Gallerists’ Association D. Stomienė remembers the creation of the first fair well: “In 2009, when we were launching ArtVilnius, the head of Frieze London, a contemporary art fair founded in 2003, was visiting Lithuania. Someone from the Lithuanian art community asked if it was wise to start an art fair in Vilnius during the economic crisis. “Now is the best time to do it, because the crisis will pass and the fair will have already been established,” was his answer. The oldest and most influential art fairs in Europe, such as the Cologne Fair in 1967, Art Brussels in 1968, and Art Basel a few years later in 1970, were founded by gallerists, just like ArtVilnius, so we are continuing the tradition of European art fairs.”

D. Stomienė emphasizes that the Vilnius – European Capital of Culture 2009 project gave the fair a historic opportunity to create a continuous event. The team spent two years developing the model and structure of the international fair.

 It took ten years to gain a foothold 

Every year, the art fair brings new things and new content. The founder likens the art fair to cultural industries, which undoubtedly boosts tourism – the fair is on the calendars of gallerists, artists, collectors, and art professionals. This is the aim of the fair’s organizers – to stimulate the art market, to activate synergy between art and business, to develop international networking, and, above all, to create a tradition and a framework for art collecting. 

ArtVilnius director Diana Stomienė | Photo by Mika Savičiūtė

D. Stomienė estimates that ArtVilnius took at least ten years to establish its name and position. “We did not set out to compete with the big European art fairs, but the fact that today there still has not been a bigger art fair within a 1,000-kilometre radius of Vilnius is our achievement. People travel a lot around the world, they see what is happening in the best galleries and museums, and the demands of visitors are growing every year. At the same time, it is becoming even clearer how important art fairs are becoming as players in the art field, with the most renowned art museums and private collectors acquiring works there,” the fair’s director is convinced.

An important point for art collectors

If it wasn’t for the pandemic that had gripped the world and the war that has broken out in Ukraine, Vilnius would be a very important point on the map of European art fairs ArtVilnius. Today, the geopolitical situation of Lithuania often prevents foreign visitors from choosing Vilnius as their destination.

 “Naturally, the galleries that are going to take part in the fair want to sell their works, and we have to make sure that the buyers come to the fair. Even the famous art fair ARCO Madrid used to pay travel expenses for hundreds of collectors and art professionals. So, year after year, they have built up their own army of fair fans. ArtVilnius is following this path, cooperating with the Lithuanian Institute of Culture and the Lithuanian Cultural Attaché in foreign countries, and with the help of our sponsors, we pay for the travel expenses of special fair guests. We are an association, a non-profit organization, and it would be really helpful if we could get much more funding from the state for targeted visits of foreign guests. After all, when state organizations invite experts to Lithuania, their travel is paid for. We have a lot to show and show to our guests in Vilnius – many good museums, interesting galleries, cultural events, beautiful nature, excellent restaurants and hotels. Many of our guests come back later, either for a fair, to explore the city and our culture more, or perhaps for a holiday. Collectors are wealthy people, they leave a lot of money in Lithuania, and their money comes back to the state with taxes,” says Stomienė.

 Prof. R. Jurėnaitė agrees: “Galleries go to art fairs to earn money. It is a natural need for them, which ensures the existence of the gallery and the artist. Collectors could certainly assemble their collections without art fairs, but there is a tradition in the world that it is at such art events that fellowship, acquaintances, and, of course, transactions are forged.”

 The professor is convinced that at the ArtVilnius International Art Fair, collectors from all over the world can discover artists that they cannot find anywhere else. That is why the commercial side of the fair needs to be strengthened even more. The visitor is very important, but it is even more important that the art scene – gallerists, collectors, art critics, art critics – come to the fair. “Art is something that generates money, and more art is sold at art fairs around the world than in galleries,” says Jurėnaitė, adding that she would like to see more galleries selling art at ArtVilnius. 

Sonata Baliuckaitė. Photo by Mika Saviciutė

 ArtVilnius artistic director, art critic Sonata Baliuckaitė, was also at the origin of the fair. She started as a coordinator of the fair, later curating the sculpture and installation exhibition The Path and the Project Zone, and today she is organizing the fair for the 14th time.

 As S. Baliuckaitė, the fair’s artistic director, says, working with ArtVilnius is an extremely unique, dynamic, and enriching experience in the international field of contemporary art.

 “We have always learned from the best. We are constantly traveling, visiting the most famous art fairs in Europe, such as Art Basel, Frieze London, ArcoMadrid, etc., and have made important international connections over the past fifteen years – without them, it would be impossible to organize an international fair of the scale of ArtVilnius,” said S. Baliuckaitė, recalling that when she was still a student, she was recommended to the fair’s director, D. Stomienė, by the fair’s artistic director at the time, Prof. R. Jurėnaitė, to join the ArtVilnius team. 

 As the exhibition curator and fair organizer emphasized, it is an invaluable experience for her to work with world-renowned artists and renowned art curators, whom ArtVilnius has invited to be part of the fair.

 “In 2015, the artistic director of the fair was the Frenchman Eric Schlosser, who still comes to ArtVilnius every year; we celebrated the tenth anniversary of the fair with prestigious Parisian galleries and artists invited by the curator Aurelie Faure; and in 2015 the focus was on the video art, working with the curator of the Videonale video art festival from Germany, Tasja Langenbach. In 2016, the fair’s first artistic director Prof. R. Jurėnaitė curated ArtVilnius’ highlight – the Polish contemporary art scene, thus establishing a long-standing partnership with the Mocak Museum from Krakow. All of these people have become long-standing friends of the fair and permanent ambassadors of Lithuanian culture and ArtVilnius in the world. We are part of the global art community,” said S. Baliuckaitė.

Photo by Mika Savičiūtė

 This autumn, guests are especially welcome – artists from Northern Europe, together with Lithuanian artists, are ready to rethink the questions of aesthetics, politics, and statistical positioning raised by belonging to one or another region. The fair’s artistic director has no doubt that getting to know the Scandinavian galleries, of which there have not been many at the fair, will be interesting and useful.

 The 15th edition of ArtVilnius’24 will take place on October 4-6 at the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre Litexpo. More than 300 artists, 67 contemporary art galleries, and 15 institutions from 14 countries will celebrate art. The fair is organized by the Lithuanian Art Gallerists’ Association. The fair’s director is Diana Stomienė, art director is Sonata Baliuckaitė.

The event is financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and patronized by Vilnius City Municipality. The fair’s Maecenas is the law firm Cobalt.