IMPRESSIVE ARTVILNIUS’16 PROGRAMME – ON THE YELLOW CARPET

May 28, 2016

Last week, the team of ArtVilnius’16 rolled out the yellow carpet in front of the jazz club Paviljonas launching “Meno Pusryčiai” (Art for Breakfast). The event presented the news and programme of this year’s art fair. Held for the seventh time, the international art fair will be waiting for visitors on 9 – 12 June. The Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre Litexpo will host dozens of galleries displaying hundreds of art works from all over the world.

According to Mrs. Diana Stomienė, director of ArtVilnius’16, visitors will discover lots of interesting things to see. Expositions of galleries will occupy an area covering 12 thousand sq. m area, with artworks and galleries arranged in three Litexpo halls. “This year we will continue with the tradition established last year to invite guest countries to the art fair. This year it will be Polish art. We will have a great opportunity to take a professional and deep look at the impressive stage of the Polish art which is still underexplored for many of us”, said the director of the art fair.

Sonata Baliuckaitė, Diana Stomienė, Ernestas Parulskis

Sonata Baliuckaitė, Diana Stomienė, Ernestas Parulskis. Photo by Marius Žičius

Prof. Dr. Raminta Jurėnaitė, curator of the Polish programme, notes that Polish art has successfully established itself in the global market; Polish artists may be proud of their exhibitions and artworks displayed in famous galleries or museums of the world. ArtVilnius’16 will showcase 12 most interesting Polish art galleries and institutions. Most of the galleries are based in Warsaw: galleries local_30, Czułość, Le Guern, and m2 will help us to feel the pulse of this city. Krakow’s art stage will be represented by such galleries as Art Agenda Nova, F.A.I.T and Zderzak. The latter will bring to Vilnius the most romantic exhibition in Eastern Europe, with vampires in the centre of it. We will also see the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow MOCAK offering a great opportunity to get to know the most prominent Polish artists. The Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art will present spectacular paintings by Arkadiusz Sylwestrowicz.

Ernestas Parulskis, Andrius Kerulis, prof. dr. Raminta Jurėnaitė, Indrė Tubinienė
Ernestas Parulskis, Andrius Kerulis, prof. dr. Raminta Jurėnaitė, Indrė Tubinienė.  Photo by Marius Žičius

“We are very happy to have with us the Polish Institute in Vilnius and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw who have contributed to this amazing programme. This year the Institute commemorates its 20th anniversary. So, it is a kind of gift for ourselves and a gift for us from the art fair. This great job simply proves once again that Lithuanian institutions in Poland are extremely valuable and open to joint project”, said Mr. Andrius Kerulis, project coordinator of the Polish Institute.

According to Sonata Baliuckaitė, art project coordinator at ArtVilnius’16, a fragment of performance “Complex” performed during “Art for Breakfast” by Monika Dirsytė, winner of the audience award at „ArtVilnius’15“, is a small prelude to a large exhibition of sculptures, installations and performances entitled “TAKAS” (PATH). The exhibition will present 24 artists from Lithuania, Latvia, the Netherlands, Polish, Germany, and Denmark.

Performance “Kompleksas”, Monika Dirsyte. Photo by Marius Žičius

Visitors of the art fair will also see an extended space for projects. World’s renowned artist Vladimir Tarasov, currently residing in New York, will show his new audio-visual installation. Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Centre will present an involving project entitled “Generating the substance of proto-creative swarms/Converter & 3D”. Visitors will have an opportunity to get familiar with artworks by Vytenis Jankūnas, Stasys Eidrigevičius and famous Polish artist Zuzanna Janin. The exclusive partner of the art fair, Lewben Group, will display the collection of the Lewben Art Foundation: curator Francesca Ferrarini (Italy) will present the viewers an exhibition entitled “Shaping Ideas: Sculptures”.

“Our collection will present works by nine world-renowned art stars. Hans Op de Beeck, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Michael Dean, Marcel Dzama, Kendell Geers, Petrit Halilaj, Thomas Houseago, Bertrand Lavier, Mandla Reuter – their works have been presented at such art institutions as MoMA PS1 in New York, the Palais de Tokyo contemporary art centre in Paris, Tate Britain museum in London, and the Centre Pompidou in Paris”, commented Mrs. Indrė Tubinienė, director of the Lewben Art Foundation.

Finishing “Art for Breakfast”, art critic Ernestas Parulskis, member of the jury panel of the art fair, noted that Lithuanian galleries participating in the art fair mad the sample of supply universal to a maximum extent. I.e., they are customer-oriented in terms of various criteria: financial, social, experience-based. According to the art critic, it is one more step forward taken by the participating institutional galleries: they display artworks oriented not only towards buyers, but also to a symbolic capital. These are the works oriented towards critics, art journalists, audiences, and educational mission they pursue.

“As for this year’s ArtVilnius’16, I would like to emphasise the effort of the galleries which serves their key mission: to present art works to advanced dilettantes and collectors. What is the criterion for such artworks? It is artworks that are totally local and absolutely global at the same time. Such works and artists are difficult to find. I guess it’s not easy to entice them to art fairs, even such universal ones as ArtVilnius’16. I think that this year we will see more than one artwork of this type”, said Mr. Parulskis in conclusion of “Art for Breakfast”.

Patron of the art fair – Vilnius City Municipality, main sponsor – the Lithuanian Council for Culture, exclusive partner – Lewben Group, maecenas – Law Firm COBALT, parter Litexpo.