Draw Your Art Map: Must-Sees at ArtVilnius’23

This weekend, the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre LITEXPO will become the largest art gallery in Lithuania. 70 art galleries, institutions and 300 artists from 18 countries will be housed in the three main halls of the centre and outdoor spaces, covering an area of 12,000 square metres. The organisers and curators of the international contemporary art fair ArtVilnius’23 have prepared a programme for visitors with the main focus of performativity.

What is not to be missed in the abundance of ArtVilnius’23? Which artists from Lithuania and abroad should one make time to meet? Which events to attend? We hope the following navigation tips may answer some of these questions. 

Check out the galleries in Halls 3 and 5 

The main ArtVilnius’23 stands and gallery programme will be located in Halls 3 and 5 of LITEXPO. There, visitors, art collectors and buyers will be welcomed by the fair’s veterans: Māksla XO and Agijas Sūnas Art Gallery from Latvia; Galerie Nivet-Carzon from France; galleri NB from Denmark; UUS Rada Gallery and EKA from Estonia, and from Lithuania, Gallery Kristina Norvilaitė, Contour Art Gallery, AP Gallery, The Room and the VVJ Art Gallery. 

As many as 11 galleries of the Lithuanian Art Gallerists’ Association will participate in the fair including Kaunas Photography Gallery, The Rooster Gallery, KADS Gallery Baroti, Kauno Langas, Terra Recognita, Menų Tiltas, Aukso Pjūvis and Meno Niša among others. Also participating will be six galleries of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association and six galleries from the branches of the Vilnius Academy of Arts. 

Several galleries are joining us from Kyiv, Ukraine—Tsekh, Shcherbenko Art Centre and RA Gallery. Bilous Gallery, a recently opened gallery in Vienna representing contemporary Ukrainian artists, and YA Gallery from Lviv will also be present. 

The organisers of ArtVilnius’23 are delighted to welcome new participants. For the first time, international galleries such as TÜTAR Gallery from Tallinn, Art & Tonic from Tartu and Foreign Territory from New York are coming to Vilnius.  Some Vilnius galleries are also making their debut at the fair, including the Lithuanian Artists’ Association Space, Audrius Gražys Art Gallery and EHU Art Space. 

This year, the Young Collector’s stand returns to the art fair programme. It will exhibit small format artworks priced up to €500. Young collectors, art lovers or those who are just beginning to take an interest in art will be able to discover and purchase their first artwork or add to their existing collection.

 

Today, yesterday and tomorrow collide in Hall 4 

Valentinas Klimašauskas, a curator of contemporary art and writer, has named the programme of this year’s ArtVilnius’23 Project Zone Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow. The programme is dedicated to events, the possibility and impossibility of repetition, to today, which is influenced by yesterday and will undoubtedly affect tomorrow. 

By slightly changing the usual linear sequence of time, the organisers of the Project Zone want to emphasise the importance of the present moment. Each day, at the same place at the same time, the same artists will perform the same performance. The audience of the day, the mood, lighting and temperature of emotions will undoubtedly make each repetition unique. 

For the first time, the fair’s Project Zone will host contemporary art institutions including E. A. Shared Space from Tbilisi, the art space Medūza and Draugų vardai from Vilnius, the prestigious Georg Kargl Gallery from Vienna, Kim? Contemporary Art Centre from Riga and the Vilnius Biennial of Performance Art.

The Project Zone will feature public theatre sketches Me and Others by students of the Theatre Arts Expression and Acting course at the European Humanities University in Vilnius, based on the play ‘The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sad’ by playwright Peter Weiss, referencing the ongoing situations in Belarus and Ukraine.

The Vilnius Biennial of Performance Art will present Egghorsecism, a performance by Robertas Narkus, who represented Lithuania at last year’s Venice Art Biennale. The performance will invite visitors to an ‘egghorsecism’ session, saturated with black humour and absurdity, with a man going through a mid-life crisis at its epicentre.

On top of this, Paulina Pukytė, a novelist, poet, essayist and the recipient of the Best Artist of ArtVilnius’22 Prize will follow fairy tales and read forgotten poems, while Monika Kalin and artist Agnė Jokšė will share readings of original texts. New projects specially created for the fair will be presented by the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Centre, Vilnius Contemporary Art Centre, MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow and Stasys Museum in Panevėžys.

A path of sculptures, installations and performances will be carved out

The sculpture, installation and performance exhibition The Path always offers pleasant artistic surprises. The curator of the exhibition, artist and Head of the Sculpture Department of the Vilnius Academy of Arts, Assoc. Prof. Vytenis Burokas selected 16 artists from Lithuania and abroad for this year’s exhibition.  This year’s The Path will offer the opportunity to meet well-known artists from Lithuania and get to know the variety of genres and materials used by the younger generation of creators.

Severija Inčirauskaitė-Kriaunevičienė, one of the most prominent creators of contemporary textiles, will present her object Meadows, Žygimantas Augustinas, the recipient of the Best Installation Prize at last year’s ArtVilnius’22, will return to the fair with a new installation The Cooling Radio, and Eglė Rakauskaitė will present the new performance Trap. Expulsion from Paradise.

Dancer and choreographer Aira Naginevičiūtė’s installation based on the endurance of the body will allow you to encounter others’ bodies and yours in their changing states of being. Visitors will be able to observe the changes in the encephalogram (EEG) of performance artist Maria Griniuk, as she experiences the works of other artists at the fair. 

The best of the best

Same as every year, a jury will be selecting the best participants of ArtVilnius’23. The international jury will consist of art critic and curator Prof. Dr. Raminta Jurėnaitė, curator and program director of the Kim? Contemporary Art Centre in Riga Zane Onckule, art historian, curator and coordinator of the MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow Mirosława Bałazy,  art historian, one of the directors at Georg Kargl Fine Arts in Vienna Melanie Wagner, and founder and director of the Crème de la Crème Haute Parfumerie boutique chain and art collector Andrius Remiševskis. The award ceremony will take place on Friday, October 13 at 18:00 in the LRT studio. Prizes up for grabs include Best Young Artist (sponsored by the law firm COBALT, Maecenas of the fair), Best Artist (sponsored by Crème de la Crème), Best Sculpture/Installation (the award of the fair’s sponsor, the Scandinavian fintech company Vipps MobilePay), as well as the Best 7 Galleries. 

On Sunday evening, the winners of the ArtVilnius’23 Best Gallery Audience Prize and ArtVilnius’23 Best Artist Audience Prize will be awarded. 

For the night owls

On Friday evening, when the doors of LITEXPO close, visitors are invited to the city of Vilnius for the Art After Hours festival. The festival will open the doors of Vilnius’ art galleries, institutions and spaces, offering opportunities to meet with artists and gallerists, as well as guided tours of exhibitions with art critics. 

Nine galleries and art spaces will take part in Art After Hours, with seven events taking place. Two free gallery tours with art critics have been prepared for visitors and the galleries and museums invite guests to stay until 23:00. 

Tours and tickets

Tickets for ArtVilnius’23 can be purchased from Bilietai.lt. The organisers recommend avoiding lines and purchasing tickets in advance, which will get more expensive on the days of the fair. The price of a one-day ticket is €16 and a two-day ticket is €24. 

ArtVilnius’23 will continue its popular guided tours with art critics, who will use their expertise to help visitors and art buyers navigate the halls and stands of the fair and introduce them to the fair’s highlights. The price of a day ticket with a guided tour is €35. Guided tours for groups of up to 20 people are scheduled for October 13 at 17:00, October 14 at 12:00 and 17:00, and October 15 at 12:00 and 15:00. 

On Friday, October 13, ArtVilnius’23 will be open to visitors from 14:00–20:00, on Saturday 11:30–20:00, and Sunday, 11:30–18:00. For more information about the fair, its programme and participants, please visit artvilnius.com/en/.

 

– ArtVilnius’23 is organised by the Lithuanian Art Gallerists’ Association
– The fair’s director is Diana Stomienė and the artistic director is Sonata Baliuckaitė
– ArtVilnius’23 is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and is under the patronage of Vilnius City Municipality.
– The fair’s Maecenas is the law firm COBALT
– Main partner is the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre LITEXPO