cac iNterviu - Šiuolaikinio meno centras

Transcription

i s s u e N1r
6 .- 1176 - 1 7
2010/2011
cac
interviu
conversation
about art
20
c a C In t e r v i u
conversation about art
Cover image:
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Dainius Liškevičius If at First You Don’t Succeed,
Try, Try Again 2003, installation: curtain with
photographic prints, fans, window caption.
Photo (detail): Arturas Valiauga
Centre image:
Deimantas Narkevičius Feast–Calamity 2001, light
installation. Photo: Arturas Valiauga
Editorial
It is a norm nowadays that survey or thematic exhibitions present as many
(or, perhaps, even more) questions than answers or interpretations. It could be said,
that the exhibition ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010: Ten Years’, which took place at the
Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius in the autumn of 2010, has proved this notion.
Doubts lingered in the air long before its opening, and when it did finally open the
criticism flowed, carrying with it a strong emotional charge. A perennial question –
how can one territory or another be defined and where do the margins begin?
Much has been said and written about national exhibitions and other
strategies of defining and positioning art. But the fact that these exhibitions are still
around, and that the discussions and criticisms around them continue to stir up local
and international art communities pushes forward a thought that perhaps this topic
is not yet exhausted and there is still more to converse about. Otherwise, having
firmly affirmed the relative nature of reality and collectively agreed on the impossibility of one story and one truth, we could disperse and get on with our own things.
This issue of CAC Interviu is in large part dedicated to the exhibition
‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010: Ten Years’. However, when talking about particularities
and familiar cases, if we are lucky, we touch upon something else – that which
through the distance of time or space appears as a generality, a tendency or a
symptom. Thus, in this case the ‘Lithuanian Art’ exhibition provides a pretext and
an occasion to propose a few subjects for a conversation and to return to the
‘uncomfortable’ problematics of representational exhibitions once more.
CAC In t e r v i u I s s u e 1 6 - 1 7
Like a widening spiral, in this issue of CAC Interviu, conversations revolve
around the functions and problems related to such confirming and systematising
representational exhibitions (Austėja Čepauskaitė and Tautvydas Bajarkevičius); auEditors:
© Contemporary Art Centre, the artists
Linara Dovydaitytė
and writers, 2010
Asta Vaičiulytė
thorities, the change of concepts in the art field, and the right to tell stories (Skaidra
Trilupaitytė and Agnė Narušytė); new reflections upon art contexts, the roles of pre-
No part of this publication may be repro-
sent day art institutions and curators, and the importance of the mediation in con-
Design:
duced without prior permission of the
temporary art projects (Eglė Obcarskaitė and Maria Lind); the meaning of nationality,
Jurgis Griškevičius
publisher compatible with fair practice.
geocentrically-constructed exhibitions and the ethics of contemporary art practices
Translation:
ISSN 1822-2064
Gajauskas and Jonas Žakaitis).
Jurij Dobriakov
Asta Vaičiulytė
(Gemma Lloyd and Anthony Downey); as well as the corner that ‘is not yet’ (Auridas
Edition:
1000
Lithuanian language editor:
As a rule, survey exhibitions are criticised for what they do not include in
their story; therefore it was interesting to ask which artwork the artists participating
in this exhibition thought was missing. Presented in the following pages are the
Renata Dubinskaitė
The views expressed in INTERVIU are
artists’ answers to this CAC Interviu question.
English language editor:
not necessarily those of the publisher
Gemma Lloyd
or editors.
Printer:
Publisher:
the event is documented here for the first time in the form of drawings and hand-
Logotipas
Contemporary Art Centre
recorded thoughts of the parents about their children-artists, their childrens’ art and
Vokiečių g. 2, LT-01130 Vilnius, Lithuania
the present cultural situation.
T.: +307-5-262 3476
Finally, we are publishing extracts from ‘Artists’ Parents Meeting’ (Darius
Mikšys) that took place in Vilnius, in autumn 2010. Un-videoed and un-photographed
F.: +370-5-262 3954
www.cac.lt
Asta Vaičiulytė
Contents
5
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Representation and
Lithuanian Art in the
21st Century
Representation and Lithuanian Art in the 21st Century
Austėja Čepauskaitė in conversation with Tautvydas Bajarkevičius
14
Austėja Čepauskaitė and
Tautvydas Bajarkevičius
Artists of the exhibition ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010: Ten Years’
talk about the functions and
answer the CAC Interviu question
problematic nature of
representative exhibitions
22
On Writing Art Histories
Skaidra Trilupaitytė in conversation with Agnė Narušytė
31
Artists’ Parents Meeting
38
Austėja Čepauskaitė:
Since this conversation began with your response
to an ‘illegal question’ that I asked you before we even started this official conversation, I must now explain that it was concerned with the introduction in the exhibition
catalogue of ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010: Ten Years’. I wrote: ‘Don’t you have the impression that the catalogue’s intro is very cautious? There are a lot of disclaimers and
excuses in it – as if the curators felt slightly uncomfortable about having put together
such an (representative) exhibition.’
I have to apologise for confusing the pri-
On Contexts, Curators and Mediation
Eglė Obcarskaitė interviews Maria Lind
vate and ‘representative’ conversation genres and you having to explain yourself,
Tautvydas Bajarkevičius:
of course. Yet I think that this question is indeed important, since the answer to it
48
Auridas Gajauskas talks to Jonas Žakaitis
53
may contain the key to the problem we’re about to address – the various aspects of
representative exhibitions and their relationship with the exhibition ‘Lithuanian Art
2000–2010’. Furthermore, it might be that it is precisely the question that this text
partly answers.
The curators seemed to approach the representative exhibition format as a
complex one from the outset, taking into consideration its conventional and alternative possibilities or problematic aspects. Surely, phrases like ‘the Contemporary Art
Geocentric Conundrums: Aesthetics and Ethics in Contemporary Art
Centre couldn’t resist the temptation…’ (to organise another review exhibition) or ‘…
Gemma Lloyd interviews Anthony Downey
exercises in writing the history of art’ (this is how such exhibitions are referred to),
61
featured in the exhibition’s press release, are not categorical and seem to make an
excuse for any possible pretentiousness or, in other words, representative weight,
which leads to an ambiguous situation. In the context of the exceptionally ideologi-
Book review / Intellectual Race With Oneself
cal (no matter how much I would like to call it ‘post-ideological’ here) premises of
Viktoras Bachmetjevas
the heterotopic and omnidirectional world of contemporary art, influenced by various
‘decentralising’ forces and impulses, the very notion of representation, let alone representation ‘from the positions of power’, has something illegal, false, bureaucratic,
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4
2
5
3
1-5
‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010: Ten Years’
exhibition view. Photos: Arturas Valiauga
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unromantic at the very least, or even reactionary about it. Yet what is inefficient in
will switch to a different one. In this way, there may be more of the previously ‘un-
regard to certain ideological perspectives that are well-established in the art world
represented’ included each time. Besides, new curatorial practices and perspec-
is inevitable in a broader context, which constantly demands the legitimisation of
tives on the history of art may emerge over time on the basis of pre-existing ones.
the existence of this fairly marginal sphere. What’s more, paradoxically, the art world
For instance, one of the current projects dedicated to the problems of the history of
itself employs such representative strategies to determine the value of certain works,
2
‘The Invisible History of Exhibitions’ is part
artistic practices, or entire artistic trends – thus representative projects are at the very
of the international project ‘Art Always
least significant in the context of the art market and art history.
Has Its Consequences’, which has taken
place in Central and Eastern Europe since
Therefore, the curators’ caution that you’ve mentioned is more than likely
2008 and is realised by What, How and for
just an expression of scepticism in relation to the review exhibition format and the
Central and Eastern European art, ‘The Invisible History of Exhibitions’2, seeks to investigate the region’s art history through analysis of the ties between the art scene’s
participants, movements, and institutions (as opposed to the history of representative
exhibitions).
Whom/WHW, Kuda.org, Tranzit.hu, and
the Muzeum Sztuki , Łódź.
dominant narrative, hinted at in the phrase that ‘it is still interesting to do one of the
See: http://www.artalways.org
many possible exercises in writing one of the many possible histories of art’ and
TB :
Perhaps one can look at a representative exhibition from two perspec-
tives in this instance. One of them reveals how it attempts to reflect the current situ-
accompanied by an attempt to shift the emphasis from representation to creative
ation of the art field in one way or another and ‘inscribes’ its interpretation into the
interpretation – although the status of such an exercise is ‘by default’ determined by
map of the former. Precisely because of that the second perspective is ‘read’ like a
the institution’s symbolic weight, which often appears to be an uncomfortable truth
symptom, conclusion, or pretext to look deeper into and rethink the general situa-
for the institution itself.
tion, the past, and the future prospects. Yet this ‘reading’ often takes place exactly
through the things that are lacking in an exhibition, or through various premises
According to Jonas Žakaitis, director of Tulips & Roses gallery, art can be
said to ‘…resemble a blend of science and sports. It resembles science because
and conditions from which its content emerged. In this case, ‘absence’ is a nega-
it tackles the problems of perception and possibilities for action, and expands the
tive element only at first sight. In fact, it is quite productive, since the very fact of an
sphere of things that can be thought of and represented. Yet it also resembles sports,
exhibition’s emergence usually acts as an impulse for broad reflection that often far
since it provides people with physical experiences and allows them to feel tension
and empathy’1.If we extend this analogy and include the institutional conditions for
the existence of art and its meanings, we can say that decadal review exhibitions
based on representative strategies (or their interpretations) are an equivalent to the
Olympic games – with all the predictable and unpredictable consequences.
9
surpasses the exhibition’s initial intentions.
1
Boris Symulevič interviews Jonas Žakaitis,
‘Jonas Žakaitis: Tulips & Roses kelionė į
Briuselį’ in artnews.lt, 21 April 2010
Biennials are quite important among the exhibitions you’ve mentioned. Com-
ing back to the local context, it is interesting to focus on the relationship between the
decadal national exhibitions that review Lithuanian art and the Baltic triennials that
do not limit the nationality of the participants. It seems that the triennials attract the
same amount of attention as ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010’ – at least that’s the feeling
AČ :
The analogy with the Olympics is also very interesting in the sense
while the impressions of the latter are still fresh. Yet it has to be said that, despite the
that it allows one to see the difference in the interpretation of both events. Analysis
somewhat artificial principle of showing the work of exclusively Lithuanian artists in
of sports competitions usually focuses on what happens and emerges during the
a single exhibition, this perspective indeed appears to be saturated with ‘recogni-
competition. Meanwhile, art ‘Olympics’ are often evaluated on the basis of what is
tions’ that expand the horizon of the exhibition’s interpretations (especially for those
‘lacking’. I haven’t yet had the opportunity to see a single national review exhibition
who consistently follow the context of contemporary art), yet provides them with a
that would not be met with remarks about ‘absence’ of some kind. For instance, the
different, ‘retroactive’ dimension. I would definitely agree with your statement about
quinquennial ‘British Art Show’, which took place for the seventh time in 2010, has
the ability of such exhibitions to ‘consolidate’ the art community – in the broadest
been criticised, at different points, for being an advertising campaign for the Saatchi
possible sense. Many phenomena, practices or works that played some kind of role
collection or an exhibition of ‘white (male) artists’, and for failing to include British art-
in the international context acquire an additional character of things that have been
ists living outside Britain (by the way, the (privately funded) Russian Kandinsky prize,
and still are taking place nearby. The ‘national sign’ that you’ve also mentioned is
awarded annually to a contemporary Russian artist and accompanied by an exhibi-
important in a way as well. Such exhibitions inevitably produce a certain ‘common
tion of the nominees’ works (there is no separate ‘national review exhibition’ in Rus-
denominator’, and although it does not contain any obvious unifying axis (like the
sia) is also criticised for the fact that the candidates are selected only from Russian
‘Lithuanian school of art’, for example), it can still create a certain context or at least
artists who live in the Russian Federation and are its citizens). The USA’s Whitney
a version of it, enabling a more productive use of categories of the ‘local’ (combining
Biennial, meanwhile, has been accused of failing to represent feminist, political, po-
the local with involvement in international processes).
pulist and non-white art alike… While, during the opening of the French art triennial
‘La Force de l’Art 02’ [The Power of Art 02] in 2009 a petition titled ‘The Weakness of
Art’ (‘La Faiblesse de l’Art’), criticising the triennial curators’ lack of attention to the
the sense that it allows the viewer to experience an art exhibition as his or her ‘own’
work of female artists, was circulating in the press and on the internet. Nevertheless,
history and memory. This is where the common (communal) denominator you’ve
review exhibitions still take place, regardless of doubts about their ‘representative-
mentioned originates. When we see an exhibition and recognise it as our own, we
ness’ – for reasons such as those you’ve mentioned, and among others like the
inevitably also recognise each other as belonging to the same community (at this
legitimisation of the art sphere in the wider social context and systematisation of art
moment, even the factor of impossibility of a ‘national school of art’ ceases to be so
phenomena. The consolidation of national identity, production of certain national,
important). By the way, this is why the problem of (non-)representation becomes a
institutional and other ‘recognition signs’, etc. can be mentioned as well. On the other
personal experience (of inclusion or exclusion), rather than a mere ideological issue…
hand, by being what it is not or lacking what it does not aim to represent, a repre-
sentative exhibition potentially becomes a place that generates new discourses (or
problem and an aspect of review exhibitions that presents itself first, the project’s
changes in existing ones) – in any case, it partly functions as a periodical… There
‘creative’ aspect could indeed successfully compete with the representative one.
is never a full stop: one issue can focus on a particular range of topics and the next
Earlier, when we were discussing the reception of ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010: Ten
AČ :
The retroactive dimension of a national review exhibition is unique in
Nevertheless, although this is and will probably always remain an important
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1
Involved, 2001-2006, documentation
presented in the exhibition. Photo: Arturas
Valiauga
2
3
CAC TV, 2004-2007, documentation
presented in the exhibition. Photo: Arturas
Valiauga
3
Projection of Evaldas Jansas’ video Prick,
2001, in the exhibition. Photo: Arturas
Valiauga
4
Installation of Eglė Rakauskaitė’s video
series Another Breathing, 2001-2002, in
the exhibition. Photo: Arturas Valiauga
5
Exhibition view of Donatas Jankauskas’ exhibition ‘Retospective’ at the Contemporary
Art Centre in 1999. Photos: CAC archive
2
5
Image selection: CAC Interviu
4
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Years’ in the press, you said that an obsession with institutional issues obscured the
the perfect catalyst for the community’s consolidation). Indeed, today many national
exhibition and the decade itself. I found a similar point in Agnė Narušytė’s text, in
review exhibitions invite foreign curators. Likewise, the coordinators of national pa-
which the author comments on the critique directed at ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010’:
vilions at the Venice Biennale increasingly invite international curators to put together
‘When one sees another work by [Deimantas] Narkevičius, [Artūras] Raila or [Juozas]
their expositions. Yet, coming back to representative national reviews, one may ask
Laivys in the exhibition, one may argue that the CAC venerates the heroes it has created. Yet one may also agree that these are interesting works that have left a trace in
the collective memory and speak to our times’3. True, Narušytė speaks about individual works, yet if we look at the exhibition as a whole and interpret it as an integral
work (there was an attempt to make it function like one, after all), we cannot ignore
how much a curator that does not have any ties with the local art scene will see and
what he or she will make of it. Besides, how much do we ourselves want him or her to
3
Agnė Narušytė, ‘Apie skaitymą. Paroda
find out something about us, and what exactly? Of course, these are first of all theo-
„Lietuvos dailė 2000–2010“ ir jos kritika’
retical questions; there are no right and wrong answers to them. Still, such specula-
in 7 meno dienos, 28 October 2010.
Available at: http://www.7md.lt
tions take me back to the importance of the moment of viewing an exhibition, which
the fact that it speaks of our time just as well, and that it gives birth to certain narra-
you earlier (unofficially) referred to as the ‘actualisation of recognition’.
tives and images. These can be more or less compelling – that is already a matter of
the ‘creative project’s’ success. For instance, I am curious whether ‘Lithuanian Art
2000–2010’ would have been perceived differently if its title had reflected the concep-
comparison of this exhibition with ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010’ is particularly accurate
tual approach chosen by the curators? I mean, if the title had been ‘Five Aspects of
and says a lot about how one’s ‘own’ memory and history interacts with that of the
Lithuanian Art. 2000–2010’. That’s a rhetorical question, isn’t it?
‘other’. I just wanted to mention the aspect of nostalgia associated with this relation-
TB :
The situation of ‘Self-esteem’ appears to be very relevant, while the
ship, which is prominent in such retrospective shows in one way or another. Nostalgia
TB :
I tried to imagine some alternatives to the actual set of five thematic
is also a value that is difficult to objectivise. It is especially evident in different cases
fields in the exhibition. Yet in the end the structure chosen by the curators, reminis-
of ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010’ – such as when you see the flyers piled under the
cent of Italo Calvino’s collection of essays and consisting of the keywords Appropria-
stand presenting Involved, the artistic and art-boundary-crossing initiative, or when
tion, Fiction, Collaboration, Documentary, and Institutional critique, proved to be a
you watch the pilot shows of CAC TV and see the off-screen artefacts testifying its
tough match for my imagination (although when you reminded me of the real titles of
existence in the Collaboration section, that refreshes the memory of the atmosphere
Calvino’s essays – Lightness, Quickness, Exactitude, Visibility, Multiplicity – that had
of some past communal event, which envelops you here and there in the Institutional
become the titles of the Italian writer’s lectures on the values of literature, accor-
critique section, or when you watch the video works made by Eglė Rakauskaitė or
ding to the catalogue’s authors, my imagination gradually began to prevail, offering
Evaldas Jansas in 2001 which have already become historic, and so on (this sentence
a daring appropriation – a literal quotation of the ‘values’ that would turn them into a
could be very long or even endless if continued). Of course, the principal generator
tool for the classification of contemporary art instead of literature; yet, again, regard-
of nostalgia is the individual memory of the viewer. Meanwhile, the dual nature of
less of how attractive this vision might appear, it is unclear how it would meet the
the retrospective genre, or the fact that as a genre it is also open to appropriation, is
requirement of representation). Analogies and their conditional, contextual nature are
demonstrated by the fondness of the catalogue’s editors and authors in the various
always interesting. Things that go beyond the objective ‘reflection of the situation’,
versions of the text Becoming Oneself, essentially inspired by ‘Retrospective’, an
even make it impossible. This aspect of the exhibition is especially intriguing – in fact,
exhibition of works by Donatas Jankauskas – a young artist at the time – curated by
it constitutes the very essence of the exhibition, and as a viewer I am much more
Raimundas Malašauskas. It is logical that in this case it is the retrospective strategy
interested in this aspect than in those of the status and representation; it does integrate them, but rather as a component of the creative project instead of its ultimate
objective. Since we, too, discuss the problems of institutional evaluation (the problem
of representation is an object of the institutional critique genre), we also leave aside
the exhibition as a ‘living organism’, yet I believe we are influenced by the impression
left by that living organism when we are speaking.
itself that is deliberately conditional and ‘revised’, interjected somewhere between
fiction and appropriation. On the other hand, the meaning of that which is subjective
4
As described in the accompanying text
only reveals itself in full to those taking part in that subjectivity (in this case, retro-
for the exhibition ‘Self-esteem. Lithuanian
Art 01’ on the CAC website.
spective nostalgia), thus this strategy can contribute to a creation of a fairly hermetic
See: http://www.cac.lt
field of meanings, or at least lead to differing degrees of involvement (this always
generates tension between this subjectivity – which is either unavoidable or simply
5
For instance, Erika Grigoravičienė wrote:
AČ :
Our discussion is certainly influenced by that impression. Besides, as
we’ve already gathered, we were both intrigued by the exhibition’s ‘creative’ aspect
and its, let’s say, potential power to activate the retro formats, providing them with
new contexts and a possibility to generate new meanings. This is where our opinion
seems to obviously diverge from the critical (in regard to representation) position
something without which everything would be pretty boring – and the power to ex-
‘Anders Kreuger is not only independent
press this subjectivity in a certain way in institutions that apparently have an obliga-
from any institution. Most importantly, he is
tion to seek objectivity, sometimes understood in a simplified way and imposed on
independent from the most recent history
of Lithuanian art and photography, as
well as the traditional understanding of its
them in a straightforward fashion). Yet this is characteristic of the contemporary art
processes and the prevailing stereotypes.
field as a whole – its language is a language of a cultural island of sorts, the vocabu-
Thus the way in which Kreuger sees many
artistic and cultural phenomena is differ-
lary of which is fairly specific. Whatever the situation, such art always requires a cer-
expressed in most reviews of ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010’. That said, I would like to
ent from that prescribed by the esoteric
tain form of active involvement, an intention or, sometimes, an effort to understand,
recall the 2001 CAC show ‘Self-esteem’, put together by the Swedish curator Anders
word-of-mouth knowledge […]. Kreuger
and knowledge of the contextual premises of this comprehension.
Kreuger, which was also a part of the ‘Lithuanian Art’ series (yet was not a ‘review’
or a ‘representative’ exhibition4). Most critics mentioned the curator’s independence
(from the local population, local art institutions, local art scene, etc.) as one of the
factors that possibly guaranteed the project’s success (the difference was that some
thought it had justified itself, while others didn’t) . It’s interesting that the curator’s or
5
the curators’ independence from any local discourse can indeed facilitate the reading
of an exhibition in a way. One’s reflection in the eyes of the other may be much more
interesting (and alluring) than one’s self-image (besides, an outsider’s view may be
is well aware that the presented images
and their sequences not only represent
individual and collective self-images, but,
most importantly, produces the very perception of these self-images. Meanwhile,
this perception is fairly different from what
we knew until now, so we feel slightly
confused about whether we should stick
to our earlier knowledge or revise it.’ Erika
Grigoravičienė, ‘Nacionaliniai savigarbos
ypatumai?’ in Dailė, 2001 / 2. Available at:
http://www.culture.lt
This leads to one more characteristic feature of representative exhibitions –
T a u tvydas B ajarkeviči u s
they usually attempt to speak in a more universal language and do not avoid explana-
is an art critic and curator, presently working
tions that could appear overly illustrative in other cases. In my opinion, ‘Lithuanian
at the National Gallery of Art (Vilnius).
A u st ė ja Č epa u skait ė
is an art critic, currently researching and
writing her PhD thesis on art histories and
national identity.
Art 2000–2010’ was very successful in accomplishing this task.
Nr. 16-17
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versions of the exhibition as such. What could it have been or still be, and why?
Instead of one work, I would choose not to show more than a half of those that
had been selected for the exhibition. Not because some of them are better or
worse than others, but because I see it as the only way to construct an exhibition
Artists of the exhibition ‘Lithuanian Art
2000–2010: Ten Years’ answer the question
or a text. Each narrative is a collage of rejections, which is never absolutely democratic or just, yet it can be either more or less articulate and relevant. Instead of a
retrospective show at the CAC [Contemporary Art Centre] (which is the greatest
contradiction of all), I would like to see a very subjective exhibition (perhaps not
What artwork, in your opinion,
was missing from the exhibition
‘Lithuanian Art’? Why is it important?
even containing a single Lithuanian artist) that would reflect the changes and the
most popular ways of thinking in the recent decade, or would not reflect them at
all and instead choose to show the opportunities that are completely overlooked in
Lithuania. The CAC, which had always been an institution dedicated to presenting
international art, did not take any risks this time and ended up in a total discursive
wasteland. Precisely because it is a centre rather than a museum, this exhibition
appeared as a fiction/ghost of the NDG’s [National Gallery of Art] collection.
Should the desire to do a review exhibition arise sometime in the future, I
think that the preparation process should take about as much time as the reviewed
period itself. This would enable the combination of different disciplines and the refusal of historicism – everything would take place simultaneously and would be tied
to real situations. A conclusion arises that an actively working centre (any, really)
partakes in the decade of its own activity insensibly.
L a u r a G a r b š t i e n ė
It’s great that the exhibition has generated wide interest and triggered
discussions!
I can’t imagine what (work) this exhibition lacks. Perhaps one of the easiest
ways to ‘fix’ it would be to put its title in big quotation-marks, so that a naïve visitor
Dainius Liškevičius
would read it precisely as a title as opposed to the Truth.
The answer has suddenly emerged in my head; I didn’t have to think about
The thing that disappoints me the most is the fact that these exhibits’
it for so much as an instant – the missing work is Jonas Gasiūnas’ The Grand
authors work without pay and therefore cannot be considered the curators’ col-
Duchy, painted in 2004. I think it is enough to recall this work (for those who have
leagues. There are no works of art either (with a few exceptions), since an artist that
seen it and remember it) to make a case for its conceptual and formal integration
works as an idealist volunteer without being paid cannot be called a contemporary
into the exhibition ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010: Ten Years’.
artist. Thus it appears to me that it is a crafts show.
A r t ū r a s R a i l a
M i nd a u g a s L u k o š a i t i s :
The question provokes an answer that what was missing was not the
I have been busy with my own projects and I couldn’t comment on the
general situation in Lithuanian art. Regarding the presentation of my own activity,
imagination of those who had put this exhibition together, but rather just some
the work that was definitely missing was Under the Flag (1999–2000). The show’s
unnoticed artist… Allegedly we had overlooked the respectable artist Mr. Parakas
curators had a similar opinion; they had been waiting for the outcome of the ’deci-
Trotilavičius… Oh, and that’s why the show didn’t work!
sion’, yet, by the request of the participants of Under the Flag, this video will remain
un-shown in Lithuania for the foreseeable future.
Š a r ū n a s N a k a s
It might be that the inclusion of Under the Flag would have changed/influ-
enced the intensity of the exhibition. Surely, the opinion of the art critics – that is,
What was possibly missing…? Perhaps only a massive Lithuanian tricolour
[flag] at the entrance and a pocket edition of the Constitution distributed to each visitor.
the experts and observers of Lithuanian art as a whole – regarding its importance
would be more objective.
K r i s t i n a In č i ū r a i t ė
Laura Garbštienė’s video performance Home version / circles with melody
Gintaras Didžiapetris
to let a squirrel wander (2007) was missing.
I think that a straightforward answer to this question would only become
an extension of the exhibition. I find it more interesting to think about alternative
Laura Garbštienė is an artist who exploits her corporeality and subjective
experiences in a subtle way. Acting as the protagonist in her own films, stuck in a
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1
Jonas Gasiūnas The Grand Duchy, 2004,
acrylic, canvas, drawing with smoke of
17
4
burning candle, 300 x 1160 cm. Photo:
archive of the author
2
Artūras Raila Under the Flag, 2000,
2 channel video installation, 20’. Videostills
3
Laura Garbštienė Home version. Circles
with melody to let a squirrel wander, 2007,
video performance, 3’11”. Videostills
2
5
3
4
Warner Bros. publicity photo for the film
The Jazz Singer, 1927, featuring its star
Al Jolson. Source: Wikipedia (http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Jolson_black.jpg)
6
5
Exhibition view of S & P Stanikas’ exhibition
at the Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius in
2001. Photos: CAC archive
6
‘Last minute’ tour (organised by
Cooltūristės) of the ‘Lithuanian Art
2000–2010: Ten Years’ exhibition.
Photos: CAC archive
Nr. 16-17
context that is neither familiar nor foreign, Garbštienė talks about the narrowness
logue of the exhibition ‘Selfobjects’ (2006))
of context and a parallel world free from linguistic and behavioural conventions,
yet full of unarticulated melancholy. In my opinion, her work can be compared with
2006 (The Passionate Textile of Lithuania book, 2009)
Evaldas Jansas’ performative pieces. Although Jansas is more expressive, the work
of both artists bear signs of existential pain.
monthly, 2006/1)
I see this video performance as a metaphor for the present situation in
19
Eglė Ganda Bogdanienė (with Ahmad Husain), Passport,
Cooltūristės, Mis(s)appropriation, 2005 (Kultūros barai
Aistė Kirvelytė, Female Artists at Easels and Artists’
Lithuanian contemporary art – riding round in circles inside a wooden house ‘with
Self-defence Squad, 2007 (7 meno dienos weekly)
melody to let a squirrel wander…’ Looking forward to the sequel.
Jurga Barilaitė Indispensable Defence, 2001 (catalogue of
the exhibition ‘The Salt of Life’ (2004))
C o o l t ū r i s t ė s :
Myself, 2007 (7 meno dienos weekly)
We do not count the gaps, we fill them! This is why we organised a ‘last
Alina Melnikova Recognition. Don’t Kiss Me, I Can Do It
minute’ tour of the exhibition ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010’ to test the institution’s
openness to ‘institutional critique’. In for a penny, in for a pound!
book, 2010)
During the tour, the unofficial guide – critic and curator Laima Kreivytė –
Kęstutis Grigaliūnas, Death Diaries, 2010 (Death Diaries
Kostas Bogdanas, Klajda / Mistace, 2008 (visualisation of
embedded an alternative exposition in the structure of the existing exhibition. This
the unrealised project)
performative action stood for the:
Laisvydė Šalčiūtė, Mona Lisa’s Photo Shoot. That What
a) coupling of curating with criticism;
Makes Us Believe, 2008 (catalogue of the exhibition ‘Propa-
b) inclusion of marginalised trends and artists into a live narra-
ganda. Transformations of Dreams’ (2008))
tive of contemporary art history;
c) transformation of a static collection of works into an open work;
tory, 2000 (catalogue of the exhibition ‘Innocent Life’ (2000) in
d) expansion of a range of documentation forms: augmentation
the layout of Veidas magazine)
of visual information (the wallpaper of installations) with appro-
priations from printed media – reproductions of works torn out
Forest, cinema critic’s Živilė Pipinytė purchase in Kalvarijos
of magazines and catalogues which were posted during the tour;
market (painting)
Patricija Jurkšaitytė and Leila Kasputienė, Beauty Labora-
Anonymous folk artist Frida Kahlo / Painter Shishkin. Pine
e) a combination of an interactive and passive relationship with
the audience: if you’re not with us, you’re one of us!;
E l e n a N a r b u t a i t ė
f) tour as an artistic practice;
I will answer this from a different perspective.
g) contemporisation of history – the last minute lasts for ten years.
A period of ten years does not necessarily create a retrospective compo-
sition – it can transcend and extend its own borders; the exhibition would clearly
The body as a conceptual artistic material, as well as errors falling out of
profit from endowing the period with more features than it really had.
the context of ‘postconceptualism’, were missing from ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010’.
Gesture and crafts were rejected regardless of their conceptual and alternative
zano, Italy. It was dedicated to Sonic Youth and the artists and writers associated
quality. The emphasis was put on the young generation, the legitimation of which
with the band. The show was very diverse, it created an impression that everything
follows patriarchal principles: the ‘sons’ directly and indirectly repeat and copy their
was happening and is still happening now. You can take a look at it here: http://
‘fathers’ instead of killing them.
www.sonicyouth.com/main/includes/sensationalpop.html. I often remember this
exhibition in the context of other retrospectives. It doesn’t mean, of course, that
What was lacking was an outsider’s view that stripped the institutional
In 2008 I saw a very intriguing exhibition called ‘Sensational Fix’ in Bol-
structure bare instead of entrenching it, as well as a view of the processes at hand
this approach should be copied, but it can be a good mental exercise and a source
from a perspective other than the CAC’s own. The ‘Apropriation’ section lacked
of different conclusions.
‘(Mis)appropriation’ – a feminist deconstruction of dominant power relations by
appropriating and switching cultural contexts. A textual example – the conversation
J u o z a s L a i v y s
‘Apie normalybę, tėvus ir teroristus’ [On normality, parents and terrorists], a rewrite
of the conversation from the exhibition catalogue, published in 7 meno dienos.
Mikšys.
I think the most fluent answer to this question could be given by Darius
The list of reproductions posted during the ‘last minute’ tour of the exhibi-
tion ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010’:
Gintaras Didžiapetris, Houses, 2006 (catalogue of the
Ž i l v i n a s L a nd z b e r g a s
In my view, the exhibition’s title ‘Lithuanian Art’ can be regarded as slightly
exhibition ‘Selfobjects’ (2006))
misleading. That is to say, it delineates a wider geographical and aesthetic field,
while what we see in this retrospective are mostly projects that had previously been
Jurga Barilaitė, Storm in a Teacup, 2003 (Lithuanian
Culture Express, publication, Nr. 5, 2008/2009)
exhibited at the CAC.
Marta Vosyliūtė, Boxes, 2007, and The Sect, 2010 (cata-
Besides, I missed the Stanikas artist duo, which had represented Lithuania
Nr. 16-17
21
at the Venice Biennale with the CAC’s backing not so long ago. I don’t think that
And r e w M i k s y s
their contribution can be ignored in an overview of the decade, and their absence in
the exhibition points to the existence of some kind of subjective selection criteria.
The exhibition itself appears to be very successful and interesting. I was happy to
see more than one work by some artists, since it gave me an opportunity to get a
or replaced by the abundance of people and things that have come into existence
more in-depth view of their work. Meanwhile, the most important thing is that the
in the last ten years. In fact, it’s impossible to get your arms around this emptiness
exhibition had a strong educational basis, and it allowed the viewer to re-approach
and it’s as unavoidable as the black monolith in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The void
the whole period and grasp the idea behind the exposition.
is filled with the histories and peoples who have been forgotten; minorities intentio-
nally deleted from history, murdered or those simply lost to emigration. Sometimes,
For sure, the exhibition was not flawless. I missed consistency in the
Answer: A statue of Al Jolson in blackface, in Seredžius, Lithuania
There is a void in Lithuania. It’s huge and its size could never be reduced
works’ exposition itself. Walking through the exhibition’s halls, I felt an urge to swap
small globs of the void reappear in far off lands, but the threads are difficult to
some things round in order to better reveal the works’ content: I would have done
follow unless you are looking for them. I was thinking about this the other day after
it differently. There was a bit too much photography in the main hall; the exhibited
a friend suggested I watch The Jazz Singer (1927) starring Al Jolson (thanks Jake
series of photographs were alike in both their format and character. Besides this,
Levine!). Just watch it. Crazy good. Then I went to Wikipedia to read more about
maybe the video cabins should have been left un-curtained, since the light from the
Jolson, the guy many consider the first ‘rock star’ long before the invention of rock
projectors would have been powerful enough, and in this way the exposition would
music, the Elvis of the 1920s helping introduce African-American music to white
be more welcoming for the viewer.
audiences. I was shocked to learn that he was from Seredžius, a tiny village on the
Nemunas [river] where I took many photographs of Gypsies for my BAXT project
What I did like was the colour of the exposition panels and the whole
‘crimped’ aesthetic – I think that it was a very appropriate passé-partout for this
that was in the exhibition ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010: Ten Years’. I imagine Jolson
exhibition.
arriving in New York in 1894 at the age of eight still with a little dirt on his shoes
from Seredžius; small bits of earth that would contribute to a growing Lithuanian
Darius Mikšys
void landing in the New World. And then I thought, ‘Shouldn’t there be something
Looking in retrospect, the work most obviously missing was the one that
in Seredžius celebrating this hometown hero?’ Kinda a no brainer, right? I suppose
hadn’t been created.
current cultural and, even, artistic politics make this a bit complicated for some.
Jolson was Jewish. Lithuania was part of the Russian Empire when Jolson was
Deimantas Narkevičius
born. But let’s stop these false erasures. Personally, I consider these facts as small
There are too many works and too many artists featured in this exhibition.
footnotes in Jolson’s life of incredible awesomeness. This guy built the first runway
The same artistic strategies could have been presented with a smaller number of
stages that extended into the audience and then ran up and down them sing-
artists. Maybe screening five or more video works in one booth would have been
ing and driving the audience wild. Hello!? Are we talking about Freddie Mercury?
unnecessary then. This is a diminishing of the genre. After all, photographs or paint-
Jolson pioneered the techniques that were later used by stadium rockers from Van
ings are not exhibited in stacks. Besides, the partition of the exhibition into themes
Halen to Iron Maiden that I worshiped as a teenager. Holy crap! There is absolutely
looks artificial and formal, and in many cases it simply narrows the field of interpre-
zero irony in my proposal to erect a statue of Jolson in blackface in Seredžius. Why
tations of a work.
does the void keep growing in Lithuania? Because a Lithuanian like Al Jolson is
relegated to discussions about minority histories and ‘otherness’. It’s laughable.
The excessive number of participants forces me to question the accuracy
of selection. A thought naturally arises: why not invite, say, twenty more artists
(Likewise, I never pointed my camera at a Gypsy with some thought in my head
whose work fits into one of the exhibition’s thematic sections? After all, appro-
about the ‘otherness’ of the person standing in front of me. All I could think was
priation, collaboration, documentary, fictions and institutional critique are artistic
‘You’re fucking amazing!’) You don’t have to take my word for it. Erect the statue of
strategies that have developed over time and have their own genesis and dynam-
Jolson and invite Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, and Bob Dylan to the dedication to talk
ics – this wasn’t reflected in the exhibition at all. A more accurate documentation
about Jolson’s influence on them. I’m sure it would be 100 percent rock and roll.
of the evolution of ideas would have minimised the number of works and, pro-
And, perhaps, the void will finally reveal itself for what it really is: a treasure hiding
bably, artists. Some artists experimented, when using these strategies as a novelty,
in plain sight.
whereas others operated within them as a given. Such institutional correctness
towards all participants is not ethical when composing a collection of the decade.
It is not a themed exhibition – it is a story about the development of Lithuanian
art. And every story has its beginning, end, and specific story lines. There were no
works missing from the exhibition; what was missing was proper attention to the
ones that were included.
Nr. 16-17
23
states as (private and silent) lessons, instead of turning one’s hurt ambition into a
weapon of guerrilla warfare against monopolies. In general, the very application of
the concept of a ‘monopoly’ in relation to the CAC looks suspicious to me. A monopoly is an enterprise that has sufficient control over a particular product or service (such as gas or heating) to increase its price without any resistance. However,
On Writing Art Histories
the CAC, while being the largest contemporary art institution, is far from being the
only one at the moment. If we take into consideration the recently opened National Gallery of Art, which also reflects on today’s art, it’s no longer the only large
institution. This whole uproar about ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010’ reminded me of
Skaidra Trilupaitytė in conversation
another exhibition; ‘Selfobjects’, which we organised together with Dovilė Tumpytė
with Agnė Narušytė
and Rūta Pileckaitė at the Radvilos Palace of the Lithuanian Museum of Art (thus
turning one more institution into a contemporary art space – at least temporarily).
Our exhibition was followed by an exhibition of artists that had been rejected by us
(curated by Vidas Poškus) – a gesture of resistance to our destructive power.
S . T .
I doubt that back then Poškus thought that the artists in his exhibi-
tion were really more interesting in any aspect. I had a feeling that it was simply a
re-enactment of the salon of the rejected – this phenomenon has its own periodicity
and has been recurring since the time when curators took over the task of writing
the history of art, previously assumed by artists. In this year’s ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010’
exhibition, it is not ‘playing with democracy’ in the selection processes that is
prominent, but completely different (unfortunately, undisclosed) ways of determining which artists make it into the exposition. I want to draw attention to another
association – the 1995 exhibition of Lithuanian art that caused heated discussions
S k a i d r a T r i l u p a i t y t ė :
To begin our conversation, I would like to cite a
at the time, particularly because its ‘multi-stage’ process of selection (of artists and
phrase by Valentinas Klimašauskas that I found in the publication celebrating the
their works) involved big trade-offs with and concessions to the traditional artist
CAC’s 15th anniversary. The art critic’s words were intended to describe the work
community (meaning the Lithuanian Artists’ Union). The organisational principles of
of the young generation of artists presented in the project ‘2 Show’ (2003), interes-
this exhibition were, however, harshly criticised by both the traditionalists and the
tingly the curatorial team of this year’s ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010’ exhibition is more
contemporary art critics who favoured new curatorial models.
or less the same, and the phrase uttered seven years ago seems to apply equally
as well to the present situation: ‘The six curators of Lithuanian art emphasised the
A . N .
this particular term wasn’t actually used; I can only remember my impression of the
need to present the youngest generation of our art, who is not aiming to prove the
legitimacy of the existence of art. What they care about is other things.’1 Likewise,
the CAC today does not aim to prove the legitimacy of its existence. You probably
In the context of ‘Selfobjects’, too, the curators’ dictatorship (maybe
1
CAC – 15 years, Vilnius: Contemporary Art
Centre, 2007, p.315
critique) was mentioned by the critics, although in reality everything was very simple:
we selected works by young artists that we deemed more interesting than others,
remember that in the late 1990s the members of the CAC’s team (Deimantas Narke-
not intending to push a universally ‘right’ point of view. Can anybody claim to be in
vičius, Kęstutis Kuizinas) made a firm statement to the local cultural community: we
possession of the ultimate truth in a non-totalitarian state? However crippled our
weren’t joking [this phrase was mentioned in the text by Kęstutis Kuizinas in the ex-
democracy is, nobody forbids us to say what we think and debate with each other…
hibition catalogue Lithuanian Art 1989–1999: Ten Years] . Still, today some people
... and whatever we may say about the mission and vision of a particu-
again take to protecting the rights of artists ‘wronged’ by the CAC, questioning the
S . T .
legitimacy of the monopolist centre’s actions, and so on. I think that the periodicity
lar centre, influential exhibitions or institutions don’t (and cannot) have any single
of self-establishment and self-affirmation is practically unavoidable in the art field.
‘positive’ image. The diversity of images is not a bad thing in itself. I believe that
What do you think?
eventually the CAC will have a new director, a new team, and possibly a different
‘style’ of activity. The CAC’s symbolic centralism in Lithuania might be superseded
Agn ė N a r u š y t ė :
I believe that inevitably we all do wrong to somebody –
the moment you make a decision somebody is wronged by that decision. You do
by a new wave of decentralisation, while new forms of interregional cooperation
could modify the way in which the history of contemporary Lithuanian art is written.
wrong to somebody by writing a text. You do wrong to somebody by putting togetAt some point, the CAC’s team will inevitably change; besides, in my
her an exhibition. The reason being that when you choose something, something
A . N .
else (and there may be a lot of it) is left out. If you kep thinking about it, you’ll be
view, it is changing constantly, and at a much higher frequency than some of the
unable to utter a single word. Still, I think that one should understand marginal
teams of other institutions. Except for the director – and it is precisely the perma-
Nr. 16-17
2
1
1
‘Selfobjects’, 2006, exhibition poster
2
Patricija Jurkšaitytė Maria’s Bedroom,
2006, oil on canvas, 138 x 70 cm. Courtesy:
Modern Art Center, Vilnius
3
Patricija Jurkšaitytė Landscape for a Revelation, 2009, oil on canvas, 104 x 217 cm.
Courtesy: Modern Art Center, Vilnius
3
25
Nr. 16-17
27
nence of his figure that creates an impression of a lack of change. Yet this change is
and constantly emphasised the difference between ‘today’s art’ and ‘contemporary
associated with a longing for a ‘different’ style of activity… First of all, I’d like to see
art’ ([Lithuanian art critic] Alfonsas Andriuškevičius was among those who insisted
a proposal for this kind of activity in order to understand in what way its style would
on distinguishing between these two things). Today, neither the need for radical
be superior to the present one. Otherwise it all sounds too abstract or too personal,
demarcation nor the radical difference itself seems to exist, at least on the level of
or maybe it is an expression of natural human inclination to be dissatisfied with the
expression. Even if we did use the rhetoric referred to, it would be too abstract –
present state of things. Meanwhile, the present state of things is this: we have an
nobody can determine the dividing line anyway, while the artists themselves will cer-
institution that has reached a certain level, built an international reputation, and be-
tainly resist being divided into the ridiculous camps of ‘dailė’ and ‘menas’.The critics
come a centre that, as far as I heard, is the envy of Latvians and Estonians, while
would probably get accustomed to exclusively using the term ‘dailė’as a derogatory
everybody has been arguing about its status and the style of its activity.
one, yet it is an obviously unproductive way of saying that something is simply not
interesting. I believe that a good painting or an assemblage are just as good exam-
S . T .
The activity of the CAC itself is measured not only in decades – mile-
ples of ‘contemporary art’ or ‘contemporary fine art’ (call it what you like) as a good
stone events, anniversary publications, projects that become the ‘statements’ of
video installation, photograph, ink drawing, etc. The words’ etymology, which was
recent art history, and curatorial practices all assume the role of chronological refer-
once emphasised so much, has definitely ceased to be intriguing today.
ence points. We should also add the linguistic shifts in the field of art, which are
I’ve already grown unconcerned about the differentiation between ‘the
not always obvious. Have you noticed that notions such as ‘conceptual exhibition’
A . N .
have long disappeared from the problematic vocabulary of the critics (since nobody
fine arts’ and ‘contemporary art’, since otherwise I would have to feel retrograde –
curates ‘non-conceptual’ contemporary art exhibitions anymore)? At some point,
after all, at the moment I work at the Vilnius Academy of Arts [Vilniaus dailės aka-
the so-called ‘personal’ exhibitions became ‘solo’ projects at the CAC, and so on.
demija in Lithuanian], and I previously used to work at the Contemporary Art Information Centre of the Lithuanian Art Museum [Lietuvos dailės muziejaus Šiuolaikinės
A . N .
Right, today a phrase like ‘I’m curating a conceptual exhibition of
dailės informacijos centras in Lithuanian]... Still, I agree that the inclusion of the
contemporary art’ says nothing. Yet sometime in the past the term ‘conceptual ex-
word Lithuanian in the exhibition’s title was a politically wrong move – suggesting
hibition’ replaced the term ‘thematic exhibition’, and that linguistic shift marked a
all those that hadn’t ended up in the exhibition were not Lithuanian, while in reality
moment of liberation from ideology and an opening of borders (on the other hand,
the participants mostly represented Vilnius and the CAC; thus it was the CAC’s
do we still remember the difference between their definitions?). Back then, virtually
decade, not Lithuania’s. Yet if we become so specific, then it will be impossible to
every conceptual exhibition became a landmark one, and most of those are still
write the history of Lithuanian art, since any history is built upon the rejected ones.
mentioned when telling the story of the origins of contemporary art in Lithuania.
Remember how Hitchcock put it: ‘Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.’ This ap-
And what are the milestones today? Who decides which exhibitions become a part
plies to writing history as well. An objective and comprehensive list of facts doesn’t
of history and which are silently omitted? I suspect that it’s not the CAC’s director,
make for a narrative. Such a (hi)story would be impossible to read. It wouldn’t be a
not the Ministry of Culture, and not even the journalists’ attention (or the lack of
(hi)story at all. But who would be content with being a cut out dull bit? This is where
it). Is it those who write this history? Or is it each of us to some degree; when we
the debate about the right to tell stories begins. I believe that everyone has the right
speak about one thing and remain silent about another or respond to some phe-
to tell stories, as well as the right to give them whatever title one likes. After all, we
nomena (whether exhibitions or texts) and ignore the others? Besides, it is clear
both want to reserve this right too, don’t we?
that by publishing CAC Interviu magazine and, for instance, commissioning us to
Let’s also address what is referred to as the ‘method’ in this exhibi-
do this conversation, the CAC secures a place for this exhibition in the hard drive
S . T .
of collective memory.
tion. The attempt to divide the decade up along the lines of creative methods or
strategies might serve a purpose, yet it is perfectly clear that strategies are only
S . T .
I agree with some reviewers’ remarks about the irrationality of the ex-
conditional, especially when many artists fall into at least two or three strategies
hibition’s title, which was probably the biggest source of problems. The fact that
at the same time. The strategies that divide the exhibition into five similar sections
the exhibition (or the institution) professed to present an overview of Lithuanian art
are not equivalent – in some cases, what is presented as one of the strategies (or
provoked some people’s righteous indignation. I think that the majority of critical
even sub-strategies) in an artistic practice can also be interpreted as ‘yet another’
reactions to this event would have lost their relevance had its title stated that it was
theme. Should we think that, for instance, the documentary strategy is character-
an exhibition of artists symbolically supported and even produced on more than
istic (almost solely) of photography, video art and cinema? The issue of expressive
one occasion by the CAC. Having spotted a fairly ‘funny’ element of the title, Emilija
means was the one that baffled some critics – for example, Kęstutis Šapoka felt
Budrecka asked a rhetorical question: ‘Does it have to be explained additionally
that 2000 and 2010 are separated by ten years?’2 Still, I don’t see any problem with
compelled to ask: ‘Why is Patricija Jurkšaitytė the only representative of painting
2
3
the term ‘dailė’ [literally meaning ‘the fine arts’ in Lithuanian, but now usually trans-
Emilija Budrecka, ‘Edukacinė ŠMC retro-
Kęstutis Šapoka, ‘Demokratija, simuliacija
spektyva, arba Dešimtmečio ataskaita’ in
ir manipuliacija – sudėtingas ŠMC dailės
lated simply as ‘art’ (menas in Lithuanian) into English] that also annoyed the critics.
Literatūra ir menas, 29 October 2010
dešimtmetis’ in Kultūros barai, 2010 / 10,
A while ago, when the CAC engaged in a symbolic struggle against the Lithuanian
Artists’ Union and the ‘traditionalists’, it used a fairly strong rhetoric of dissociation
p.34
in the exhibition?’3 According to the critic, if there is no good Lithuanian painting
except for her work, perhaps painting shouldn’t have been shown at all. The issue
of the proportion of a traditional art form’s inclusion didn’t matter to me, since the
exhibition followed completely different principles. Yet I think today we can already
speak about the revival of genre or thematic narrative in different shapes, since
Nr. 16-17
29
3
1
1
Andrew Miksys BAXT, 2000-2007, 49
colour photographs, dimensions variable.
Installation photos: Arturas Valiauga
2
Akvilė Anglickaitė XXXX, 2006, 16 colour
photographs, dimensions variable, texts.
Installation photo: Arturas Valiauga
2
3
Ugnius Gelguda Living Together. Contemporary Conventional/Unconventional Family,
2004, 11 black and white photographs,
75 x 100 cm each, texts. Installation photo:
Arturas Valiauga
4
Mindaugas Lukošaitis Resistance, 2003,
100 drawings: pencil on paper, 21 x 29,7 cm
each. Details. Courtesy Louisiana Museum
of Modern Art, Humlebæk
4
Nr. 16-17
31
‘strategy’ definitely isn’t the only appropriate category for describing the diversity
of today’s art.
A . N .
I agree that it isn’t. Just as art forms and genres have ceased to be the
principal categories used in discussion around the processes of contemporary art. I
Artists’ Parents Meeting
believe that the curators chose Jurkšaitytė not because they needed someone to represent Lithuanian painting, since there was ‘nothing to show’ in this category – we all
know perfectly well that there are things worth showing. What compels us to notice
this disproportion is our old habits – the old hegemony of painting that dominates the
history of Western art. And what we have here is simply work that portrays the deserted setting of old paintings, as if the people crossed over to video and photography.
In the autumn of 2010 Artists’ Parents Meeting took place at the Contem-
porary Art Centre, Vilnius as part of the exhibition ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010:
Speaking of strategies, they seemed non-equivalent to me as well. Maybe
that’s why they became mixed. Documentation, appropriation and participation are
Ten Years’. On the invitation of artist Darius Mikšys the parents of other
already established creative methods of contemporary art, yet their employment
artists featured in this exhibition had a get together. According to Mikšys,
does not determine the work’s subject matter, concept, idea, and content. Similarly,
artists’ parents are artists too, since their children are their works of art.
the creation of fictions doesn’t point to a particular theme; it can be concerned with
This was the first time Artists’ Parents Meeting – which has previously been
practically anything, but it isn’t even a strategy that is specific to contemporary art –
organised as part of the Lyon Biennale, Sydney Biennial and Performa 09
every story told by humankind, even the story of humankind itself is a fiction, thus
festival in New York – took place in Lithuania. During these meetings artists’
everything fits into this category. Perhaps that explains why I constantly realise that
parents interact with each other and discuss ways of successfully raising
I forget about this strategy’s presence in the exhibition – in fact, it is not a strategy
an artist, and what it takes, as well as their general motivations. With kind
at all, because it is all-encompassing. Documentary, appropriation and participation
permission of the participants of the meeting in Vilnius, extracts of the
also generate fictions. Meanwhile, when you say ‘institutional critique’, it is alrea-
conversation are presented.
dy clear what you’re going to talk about; it is a strategy that has its object and a
widely exploited topic. Maybe that is precisely why the CAC became the focus of
the critique, since the exhibition itself offered a single well-developed theme that
was presented in its various aspects. All other artists, it seems, speak about a wide
variety of things, and formulating common themes would take a critic to construct
his or her own version of the exhibition’s narrative in the first place.
Darius and five artists’ parents – five women and one man – are sitting at
a table. There are 11 wine glasses, 5 coffee cups, a plate of cheese and olives, a
Yet the most important thing is that the theme and the narrative do
S . T .
recording Blackberry phone and a pair of glasses.
not disappear anywhere. Of course, compared to the earlier decades, artists today
are concerned with different problems, which generate different (more socially
selves, having briefly explained the motive for the meeting.
Darius introduces himself and leaves the parents to converse among them-
relevant?) themes. The protagonists of the new themes include marginalised social
groups (members of religious communities, the Roma, LGBT people, society’s
I want to thank everybody for attending this meeting. I’ve
outcasts, etc.) or even the post-war Lithuanian resistance fighters. It might be that
some critics have a point when speaking about trendy themes pushed by local and
probably already said everything I wanted to in my letter and in the invitation. I didn’t
foreign curators, or art that, according to Erika Grigoravičienė, continues to ‘provide
just write a letter to my mum. She knows everything anyway, of course. It’s her sec-
answers to yet-unasked, insignificant questions, and touch upon debatable issues
superficially’ ahead of time.
4
4
Lithuanian Art 2000–2010: Ten Years,
Vilnius: Contemporary Art Centre, 2010,
p.189
A . N .
‘Pushed’ or ‘copied’, ‘faked’ or ‘adopted’ with the aim of conform-
included in the exhibition, or the history of Lithuanian and global art? If somebody
said ‘insignificant questions’, I would ask: insignificant to whom? You never know
which previously and absolutely irrelevant issue will become the dominant idea of a
certain epoch. ‘Touches upon debatable issues ahead of time’ or notices something
sooner than the majority that hasn’t yet begun discussing it? Sometimes, it seems
ond meeting already. The first one was supposed to take place at the Lyon Biennale,
but my mum was the only participant who turned up. Other attempts were more successful, and here we are having our fourth meeting, which is starting right now.
ing to the current discourse, establishing oneself as a contemporary artist, being
Darius Mikšys:
I intend this meeting to be for parents only, thus there are no spectators. I
am probably the only one, and my presence is completely unnecessary. The reason
A gn ė N ar u šyt ė
is an art historian, photography and art
critic and curator. She is a lecturer at the
Vilnius Academy of Arts.
S kaidra T ril u paityt ė
is an art critic and art historian. Her articles
to me that the critique of institutional power itself starts speaking in an excessively
on art institutions, cultural policy and
loud voice; preventing us from hearing what art has to say.
Lithuanian and foreign academic press.
cultural identity are published in both the
is that it would probably be difficult for you to talk about me and your children as
objects of your creation in our presence, or you would talk differently if they were
not present. I would like you to begin this meeting. You don’t have to talk in a
formal way. The central issue is this: how to produce an artist, how to do it more
effectively? (Keeping in mind that it is you who are the artists, while your children
are your works.) Someone will probably start the conversation now. I will leave you
alone to talk.
Genė Juodienė:
Nr. 16-17
Children’s freedom of self-determination produces
ania exhibitions are still relatively closed. They don’t attract so much media cover-
children-artists. However, I was personally against my children becoming artists. I
didn’t really want it, since I thought that an artist’s life was very difficult. I didn’t ap-
age – neither the Latvians nor the Polish come to make reports about an event. Yet
1
preciate the freedom that comes with it, however. But, well, material life… as I told
Drąsius Kedys is a double murder suspect
them: kids, kids, if you’re going to be famous artists, you will become acclaimed
of Kaunas District Court Judge Jonas
believed to be responsible for the murder
Furmanavičius and his ex-girlfriend’s sister
only after your death…
Violeta Naruševičienė. Following a manhunt
and significant media attention, his body
Others join the conversation.
33
was found in the Kaunas reservoir in April
2010.
reporters do not need a special invitation to go to the house of Drąsius Kedys1, for
instance.
I r e n a M a t e l i e n ė :
Journalists are journalists. An artist is an artist. The
greatest challenge that an artist faces is to survive in a society that does not care
about him or her. Maybe the state could support artists so that they wouldn’t have
to concern themselves with sales?
V i t a l i j a B u s m o n i e n ė :
There was more freedom after 1990. Yet a dis-
position for the arts does not emerge in the 11th grade. When Darius was 3 or 4, he
would say: ‘Look how blue this forest is!’ while we were driving through the pine-
anyone can learn how to copy.
Yes, after all, not everyone can be an artist, while
wood. That forest did indeed look like the sea. He had a very keen eye for colour.
Daina Narbutienė:
Our children went to the Čiurlionis art school. There
was no deliberation, since everyone – aunts, grandparents – was from that environ-
ents, then it will be easier to fight against such frauds as the Palace of the Grand
2
ment, but we didn’t think that our children would become artists themselves. We
This refers to the replica of the Royal
just made sure they went to school and received an education. Later they wanted
(originally built in the 15th century and
to go there themselves. Three of my children went to an art school; it was only the
oldest one who didn’t go to a creative school. Later, probably when he was 18 or
19, he asked: ‘Why didn’t you let me go to a music school? I wanted it so much.’ He
works with video projections now.
We should unite and establish a society of artists’ par-
Dukes of Lithuania2.
Palace of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
demolished in 1801) which was recently
erected in Vilnius. The State financed the
Let’s unite. There will be someone to rock the
government’s boat at last.
reconstruction despite many arguments by
historians who claimed that reconstruction
It won’t work. They showed it on television. There is a
was unnecessary and unsupported by
K o s t a s J u o d i s :
sufficient archeological and historical data.
certain type of eye disease, and in the last three years they didn’t buy the medication needed to cure it. Nothing can be done about this. People write requests, but
J a n i n a S k e r s i e n ė
switches off her ringing phone and remembers that
an uncle was a photographer: We did not force our daughter, we gave her the free-
the ministries don’t buy the medication. Until someone important gets this disease,
there will be no medication for it here.
dom to choose. She chose it herself. Like her uncle, she was leaning to photography.
A new minister, who is an artist, has been ap-
pointed. He doesn’t need to be told how things work in this field. We should ask
You have to have luck too. One has to try it and
see how it goes. The path of human life is a curious thing.
him how we can help. For instance, we can use satire and humour to let people
know. It was in this way, that people found out our President bought a painting by
[Šarūnas] Sauka.
Are we as parents satisfied? I’m satisfied with my
daughter. Since childhood, she cared only for drawing. Yet she doesn’t make com-
mercial art so she can hardly support herself by doing what she does.
about it?
How could you not be satisfied if your child does
well? If he or she feels good, I feel twice as good.
Daina Narbutienė:
But would a child be happy if he or she was socially
secure but not an artist? There were many personalities at the Čiurlionis art school.
I could support my daughter, but would she feel good
It’s a terrible feeling. We should organise our-
selves and ask the Parliament to release a law.
Daina Narbutienė:
The Parliament does not release laws, it only passes
them. We should bring our own decree for them to approve.
Maybe some were more likable than others, but everyone had something to say.
This is very important, since people are more tolerant there. It isn’t an issue of liking
J a n i n a S k e r s i e n ė :
or disliking some colour.
something.
I had a chance to visit the Lyon Biennale exhibi-
Daina Narbutienė:
Let’s collect money and find someone who can do
So what are the propositions?
tion. A couple of days before the opening everything was still upside down – they
all still had so much to do, you should have seen it… The most impressive thing
What can the six of us possibly do?
was that on the first day the exhibition was open only to the media. There were so
many journalists. Later it was shown on television. An army of journalists. In Lithu-
Three is enough for a start.
Nr. 16-17
Drawings:
Virginija Januškevičiūtė
35
As we say in Samogitia: the moon does not care for
barking dogs.
The most active of us have gathered here, and
this is important. We can do a lot together.
Mr. Mikšys has sent a letter to everybody, indeed a lot
of people have learned about this event.
I’m interested in this, I could take on the job of estab-
lishing a commune of artists’ parents.
Genė Juodienė:
37
The price of honey increased this year, and they
solved this problem in a very practical way.
Nr. 16-17
If you don’t speak up, it will appear to them that nothing
needs to be changed.
So what shall we agree to do? Should we bring a pro-
ject to the next meeting?
On e o f t h e m o t h e r s :
I’m not sure whether other parents have the same
problems. Maybe your children have a business and have income?
But the quality of art suffers if it is combined with
business.
We have to make a list, share the questions, and
make some decisions at the next meeting.
But all great artists lived in poverty.
Daina Narbutienė:
We have to ask Darius to send us all the ideas from
our meeting. We would have a large pool of opinions. There would be particular
Daina Narbutienė:
So what do you suggest?
That artist Darius Mikšys announces one more meet-
ing and invites more people. Let’s come up with an idea and meet next time.
Ok, when do we meet next time? We only need
the will and the inspiration to do it. If our children have been through so much, we
individuals who could help with particular issues. We are still too few.
Yes, there is too much work to do. We should encour-
age others to participate.
Daina Narbutienė:
The idea of this meeting – that the artists’ parents
are concerned about the fate of their children – has to be clearly formulated.
really need to do something.
That art is not supported.
Prime Minister [Andrius] Kubilius will say that there is
no money. We have to write up a declaration. If we intend on starting this informal
movement, then we need to have at least a draft by the next meeting.
take part. It will be more concrete.
One aim is that the government has to give money to
the artists.
Daina Narbutienė:
Then there will instantly be more people willing to
I think that we have to write up the minutes to start
with, and ask Darius to send them to everybody. We need a sheet of paper and a
pencil.
On e o f t h e m o t h e r s :
If you can’t come in through the door, go through
the window, as the saying goes.
Through the keyhole. If we’re speaking about fi-
nancing, there are two ways. The first source is to get the state to give us whatever
it can. The second source is Lithuanian businesses, the entrepreneurs. Many are
interested, but they lack knowledge. An artists support fund. The artists, our children, could even host a series of lectures. Give something in return to the businesspeople, promote exchange, so that they don’t just support artists like basketball. It
could reach a large scale. There’s also the European Union.
I read something interesting today. The beekeepers
of Kupiškis organised a concert, invited the singer Radzhi, and sold small jars of
honey as tickets. We should organise a concert and sell paintings by the artists, at
least small ones, as tickets. Then the money would go to the artists support fund.
That’s a very interesting idea.
D ari u s M ikšys
is an artist based in Vilnius.
Nr. 16-17
Eg l ė O b c a r s k a i t ė :
39
We have both been invited to talk about the context
of an exhibition which has a very clear structure, constructed by the curators of that
exhibition. All of the five sections (Appropriation, Collaboration, Documentary,
Fictions, Institutional critique), in which over 70 artists were presented, at least,
according to my interpretation, provide a model of institutional conceptualising
On Contexts,
Curators and Mediation
through the contextualising. In other words, framing the artworks and artists within
a certain logic of conceptual understanding.
I would like to start from a real context. In the interview ‘Post-post-Soviet
2
‘Post-post-Soviet contemporary art, artists,
and the audience’, Eglė Rindzevičiūtė in
conversation with Lolita Jablonskienė
and Kęstutis Kuizinas, in Lithuanian Art
2000–2010: Ten Years, Vilnius: Contempo-
Eglė Obcarskaitė
rary Art Centre, 2010, p.117-127
interviews Maria Lind
contemporary art, artists and audiences’2, published in the textbook which accompanied the exhibition, the director of the National Gallery of Art, Lolita Jablonskienė,
says that contemporary art in Lithuania faces challenges that are political, institutional and not socially recognised in the contemporary art field. In the same text the
director and curator of the CAC, Kęstutis Kuizinas, mentions the ever-lasting need
for contemporary art in Lithuania to justify its existence (within the local context).
It looks like this brings up the role of a curator as having to be a sort of missionary (not just an educator), who not only exhibits the pieces of art, but also articulates, proposes strategies and even tools for interpretation. What do you think about
this role? And what would you say about a contemporary art centre (not a museum)
taking on this function?
M a r i a L i nd :
It is a good thing when exhibition spaces like art centres do
things that museums traditionally do, and vice versa. We should not take traditions
for granted and subscribe to certain functions for only one specific type of instituThe conversation you are about to read has its roots in a very technical fact:
tion. It depends on what is needed at a particular time and in a particular context.
its starting point was the exhibition ‘Lithuanian Art 2000–2010: Ten Years’ that took
The way I read this exhibition at the CAC in Vilnius is an attempt to historicise
place at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius. However, this text was not intended
the recent past, by people who have been involved with that development during
to become a review of the show. Rather, it started by touching upon a specific con-
that period. My first impression of the exhibition confirmed what I already felt and
textual aura created around (or should I say in parallel to?) the exhibition.
thought before; namely that the art being made in Lithuania from the early 1990s
Thinking of that context, I felt automatically inclined to think about the
was extremely strong. Trying to compare it internationally to other contexts, I can
discourse around it, and thus the object through which the discourse primarily
only think of one other example where, considering the amount of artists, the level
manifested itself. I am talking here about the textbook Lithuanian Art , published
1
as a book but what we usually refer to as an exhibition catalogue.
is so high. And that is Glasgow in the 1990s. I was reminded of this when seeing
1
Lithuanian Art 2000–2010: Ten Years,
the exhibition in Vilnius in November which included works by a number of strong
Vilnius: Contemporary Art Centre, 2010
The retrospective-historic character of the exhibition, its structure as de-
individual artists like Deimantas Narkevičius, Artūras Raila, Laura Stasiulytė, Nom-
veloped through five concepts that group and summarise Lithuanian artistic prac-
eda & Gediminas Urbonas, and many others. You asked in your email what it means
tices of the last decade, and finally the textbook-catalogue itself reveal the act of
to have themes, that perhaps do not have so much to do with the local context
establishing a context and lead me to the question the practice of curatorial con-
of Lithuania, pasted onto this exhibition of art from Lithuania. I would argue, that
textualisation. It coincided beautifully with the (dare I say) mystical role of a con-
an artist like Deimantas Narkevičius has been at the forefront of formulating, on
temporary curator, as it is (un- or mis-) conceived in the general public discourse
an international level, what documentary practice can mean. What it can mean to
in Lithuania.
work with biographical material without becoming private. And how to combine
But how can we contextualise it within the international discourse of con-
the personal with the geopolitical. In that regard, he is absolutely one of the most
temporary art? In an attempt to do so, the curator, researcher, writer and teacher
important artists of the last two decades.
Maria Lind was invited to participate in a conversation. I sent the first inquiries to
her by e-mail, which largely referred to the nature of a retrospective exhibition of
3
contemporary art in a context such as Lithuania, and the show’s particular struc-
Simon Rees, ‘Nothing you can believe is
ture – namely identifying through concepts the major developments in Lithuanian
2000–2010’, in Lithuanian Art 2000–2010:
art of the last decade; thus these concepts not only performed an act of documen-
not coming true. The case of Lithuanian art
Ten Years, Vilnius: Contemporary Art
Centre, 2010, p. 128-136
EO :
Indeed, Simon Rees, in his article3 published in the same exhibition text-
book, has demonstrated an approach towards Lithuanian art becoming international.
And of course, he did not neglect to draw a critical line towards the very notion of the
national as related to nowaday’s corrupted and criticised universalism of the enlight-
tation and seemingly determined the situation but functioned furthermore as a
enment. What do you think, when it comes to contemporary art, is there any sense
form of education (or, maybe it’s even better to say – edification). This was the ini-
in talking about national art? Or is the tag ‘Lithuanian art’ just a technical term to
tial proposal, and the dialogue took its own way.
define a group of people that have been based in Lithuania at one point or another?
Nr. 16-17
3
41
1
Deimantas Narkevičius The Dud Effect,
2008, 16mm film transferred to HDV,
15’40”. Film stills. Courtesy the artist, gb
agency, Paris, Jan Mot, Brussels, Barbara
Weiss, Berlin
2
Artūras Raila Forever Lacking and Never
1
Quite Enough, 2001-2003, 3-channel video
installation, 36’. Installation photo: Arturas
Valiauga
3
Laura Stasiulytė From the life of young ladies,
2001, slide projection comprised of 80
slides. Installation photo: Laura Stasiulytė
4
Gediminas & Nomeda Urbonas Transaction,
2000-2004, interviews with women, psychiatric sessions, film and voice archive
(DVD, VHS, CD-ROM), website, slides,
various objects. Courtesy the artists, and
Lithuanian Art Museum, Vilnius. Installation
photos: Arturas Valiauga
4
2
ML:
It is a border in a way; a slice of the earth which has a history and par-
Nr. 16-17
43
you install work. It is about the colour of the walls, the density of works, how you
ticular set of rules connected to it. Of course, it is not irrelevant that it is the nation
light the space, what kind of written material is present in the space or on the web-
of Lithuania. But perhaps it would help to think about it precisely as art from Lithu-
site; whatever material you can take into the space and bring back. It is also what
ania, and not Lithuanian art, if you see the difference. I am always a bit uncomfor-
kind of personal encounters you can make in conjunction with visiting an institu-
table when people introduce me as a Swedish curator. I am certainly a curator from
tion and an art project, such as gallery tours, lectures and panel discussions. All of
Sweden, but am not sure what it means to be a Swedish curator. Although condi-
these things are forms of mediation. We have to be more precise in how we media-
tions in a particular geographical context, at a certain point in time, might be very
te. Some mainstream museums over-emphasise a certain kind of mediation which
specific, we shouldn’t emphasise the national aspect.
is over didactic, and which practically stuffs things down your throat; whereas other
places are perhaps not generating enough contact surfaces between the work
You referred to the interview with Lolita in which she wrote, as you quoted,
about art having a hard time in Lithuania. I think that is absolutely the case, and
and people wanting to experience the work. Thinking about concrete examples of
it is a situation that Lithuania shares with many other contexts as well. If it is not
where they do interesting mediation work I immediately think of the New Museum
a global phenomenon, then it is at least a phenomenon in Europe, and the rest of
in New York and their educational department, where in my opinion their events are
the Western world. We are living through some radical structural changes in terms
more interesting than the museum’s exhibition programme. This is also partly true
of how societies are being organised, and contemporary art is affected by that as
of the Serpentine gallery in London where their programme department run several
well. Which doesn’t mean that you cannot do things. For me, this contemporary art
highly interesting projects, and one of them is the Edgware Road Project. I am also
centre in Vilnius has for the last fifteen years been an interesting example of how
thinking of something like the Mercosul Biennial; a biennial in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
you can work consistently, in a developed way, with contemporary art, in a location
In 2007 their chief curator Gabriel Pérez-Barreiro decided to turn the tables with the
right in the centre of a capital city. How you can really be a part of the fabric of the
biennial, to give it a different significance in the city. Instead of adding mediation on
city. In a way, this situation is a really good situation to be in.
top of the exhibition, and at the end as an afterthought, he decided to use mediation as the starting point. He worked closely with what he called a mediation cura-
EO :
But what you say here just proves the paradox that the work being
tor, namely the Uruguayan artist Luis Camnitzer. Together, they shaped the biennial
done here looks like it is getting much more appreciation not only within the local
in such a way that many more people were engaged with the biennial, and people
context, but internationally.
not necessarily trained to get engaged with art and not only that but they also did it
in rather different ways to what is normally the case.
ML:
It was also the case in Glasgow in the 90s; maybe it is the same in
Malmö right now, and in other contexts. I don’t think that it is very unusual.
EO :
But what is it that should be mediated? An introduction to art as such?
Or the things that art is also mediating, like the social, the political and so forth?
EO :
What do you think working under such paradoxical conditions means
to people working with art? Is it a challenge that somehow affects their work?
ML:
Mediation can be all the things that you mentioned. Sometimes all in
one project, and sometimes just one at the time. It’s more about being precise in
ML:
Yes, I think it does affect their/our work, and it should. What you are
terms of how you mediate each individual project. There is too much campaign-
describing and bringing up is a phenomenon that should perhaps stimulate us to
ing going on. Institutions decide that they are going to use, more or less, the same
think a bit more about what the function of art is and what art does in a society and
model for everything they do. Which is a Taylorist, Fordist model. We have to tailor-
culture. How we can work with art, and how we can create conditions for it to exist,
make much more than we do. And rather than talking about the role of a curator I
as well as contact surfaces with the rest of reality as it were. Here I would argue for
am interested in discussing what art is doing, how art is functioning. And how cu-
more emphasis on mediation. You call it education, I tend to use the word media-
rated projects function and operate. So put more focus on process, on the method,
tion because it is more open. Education is a part of mediation, but there are more
and the result.
forms of mediation than simply education, which tends to be quite didactic. Instead
EO :
Would you say that a curator or curatorial touch should not be visible?
more on each practice, generate more from each project and use the real potential
ML:
It can be, but it does not have to. I cannot give a categorical answer
of each project a bit more than we do already. Somehow we are in a mindset where
because I think you have to approach it from where you are standing, you have to
things have to be produced and presented so fast that we are trapped in a logic
work from the specifics of the project, think about the context in which it exists.
of coming up with forms of mediation, in our projects we have already been trying
to develop new, and much less didactic modes of mediation so we could capitalise
that looks very much like the logic of capitalist consumption.
EO :
Can you give more specific examples of what you mean exactly by
mediation?
EO :
The question about the role and function of a curator comes to me
automatically as we talk about arranging the mediation that you have mentioned.
But another component of this whole system, which is not transparent is, for me,
the audience. Thinking specifically in these terms, what role does the audience play
ML:
It can be built into a project. It is to do with how you select work, how
when retrospective exhibitions such as the one of Lithuanian art are constructed?
1
Nr. 16-17
45
6
4
Installation view from the ‘After Nature’
Image from Cairo manifestation of Susan
6th Mercosul Biennial: Educational space
exhibition at the New Museum, New York
Hefuna’s films of the Edgware Road, 2010.
in the Quayside warehouses, 2007. Photo:
in 2008. Photo courtesy: New Museum,
Photo courtesy: Edgware Road Project
Eduardo Seidl/indicefoto.com
New York
3
5
2
Film still from Free Cinema School (2009),
Nikhil Chopra Yog Raj Chitrakar: Memory
a film produced by artist collective no.w.here.
Drawing IX, 2009–2010. Photo courtesy:
The film was produced collaboratively with
New Museum, New York
50 participants from the Edgware Road
7
6th Mercosul Biennial: Panoramic view of
the Quayside warehouses, 2007. Photo:
8
neighbourhood who each made a ‘scene’
or contributed archives to the production
6th Mercosul Biennial: Luis Camnitzer,
Hiwa K’s Chicago Boys: While We Were
of the film. Photo courtesy: Edgware Road
pedagogical curator, speaking with the
Singing They Were Dreaming performance
Project
mediators (visitors’ guides), 2007. Photo:
3
5
in April 2010 at Shishawi, a café on the
Edgware Road. Hiwa K worked with local
musicians to stage a series of events
exploring music and the politics of London
and the Middle East in the 1970s. Photo:
Ben Brannan
1
4
7
2
8
6
ML:
Nr. 16-17
Sometimes it can be good not to think so much about the audience
EO :
47
But then it is pretty difficult, in certain smaller contexts, where the
and what the audience does, but to talk about how a public or semi-public space is
variety of institutions is not that big to call some of them mainstream and some of
being produced by the people who come to that particular place at that particular
them not mainstream – that wouldn’t really make sense in somewhere like Lithuania.
point in time. If there is a panel discussion in the context of such an exhibition what
kind of public space does that produce through the people who, in different capaci-
ties, are involved? That’s when it becomes interesting to think about the function
perhaps there are not that many traditions of how to run a museum of modern and
of the public institutions today. Art is in a very good position today to allow these
contemporary art. You can set the rules, you can invent a lot of things.
ML:
That’s a good point. I am thinking about being in a context where
things to happen. Contemporary art is, to a large degree, engaged with the surIn their attempts to structure the developments in contemporary art
rounding reality; it wants to address feelings and issues that are happening in our
daily lives.
from Lithuania the curators used five sections, under five headings that, according
EO :
to them, are very up to date generalisations of the state of play in contemporary
EO :
Would you say there are right and wrong ways of making that space
art. I would like to bring up one of them here – the section on documentary prac-
into a public space?
tices in art. And not only because of your professional interest in this field, but also
because, for me, thinking of documentary beautifully echoes what you mentioned
ML:
There are better and worse ways. It depends on the conditions people
at the very beginning of this conversation: namely, that this exhibition seemed to
are working in. I was thinking about one of your comments in which you talk about
you to be an attempt to historicise the recent past by people that have been living
Tate Modern [in the initial email there was a note about retrospective exhibitions
close to it. What I mean here is that maybe the relevance of this one section of the
produced by large museums such as Tate Modern, which use the same educa-
exhibition is endorsed by the resemblance to the nature of the exhibition itself.
tional/explanatory structure for exhibitions, no matter how different their content is,
whether it be an exhibition on Pop art, or an exhibition on Conceptual art – E.O.].
I know it is easy to bring up the CAC in Vilnius and Tate Modern at the same time
in contemporary art of the last decade quite accurately. Well, you could also bring
because both work with contemporary art. However, Tate Modern is more like a
up painting. But I don’t understand the re-emergence of painting over the last ten
mass medium, more like a television station, like Channel 4 or CNN. And the CAC is
years, particularly figurative painting, as coming very much from the artists them-
more like a small publishing or record company. Just because they are dealing with
selves. It is to a large degree generated by the market. Whereas the topics and
the same material (contemporary art) doesn’t mean that their structures have a lot
headings in this exhibition come strongly from the work itself.
in common. Luckily they operate according to an extremely different logic.
ML:
Firstly, I would say that all of the five sections reflect the developments
Documentary strategies is one of the strongest trends in art of the last two
decades. It is one which has quite systematically been edited out of the mainstream
EO :
Luckily for whom?
and I think this is partly to do with the fact that it is not so successful on the commercial art market. So it is something that is very present in terms of what is being
ML:
Luckily for art. I don’t think that a place like Tate Modern is particularly
produced, less present in exhibitions, magazines etc. So we need to bring it up and
good for art.
highlight it, because it is an important contribution to culture today. Particularly so
within societies that are undergoing a radical social and political change, because
EO :
But it does educate the public at least on the basis that people get
there documentary practices take on a special place. It is indeed in transformation-
into the habit of going to an art museum.
al societies that documentary practices flourish more. What we should remember
is that typically it is not documentary practices in the sense that they are trying to
ML:
It’s certainly a great PR machine for art. Particularly in a country like
be objective or trying to give a neutral image of something, but practices that want
Britain which historically has not had any substantial collection of modern art in the
to address the conditions in the real world, while simultaneously reflecting on and
national collections for instance.
questioning the means that they use to address this.
EO :
Do you think that using PR strategies would help to get wider audi-
EO :
But wasn’t this the task of art at all times? You are dealing with the
ences acquainted with contemporary art in Lithuania?
world and recording your way of looking at it. So what has specifically changed?
ML:
That’s a very interesting question, and a tricky one. Because generally
PR and promotion is so much part and parcel of mainstream institutions that work
in curating today. It more or less started with Alfred Barr being the director of MoMa
in New York in the 1930s where he learned a lot from an equally young advertisement industry. Individuals from the fields of public relations and advertisement were
ML:
When we use the term documentary practices, we typically refer to
lens based media. There is a particular technique and media, and then also an
M aria L ind
is a curator and writer based in Stockholm.
She is currently the director of Tensta
Konsthall.
on the board of MoMa. I think it is still a core feature of many mainstream institu-
E gl ė O bcarskait ė
tions. PR can be successfully used in many ways.
and member of Legwork collective.
is a cultural researcher and writer, co-founder
emphasis on wanting to address different conditions of very different kinds. There
is this desire to touch the real, in combination with specific techniques and media
and in combination with wanting to problematise the ways in which things are being articulated. This is different from just saying that art in general deals with human
existence. Which is of course true, but that’s less specific.
Nr. 16-17
49
Auridas:
So that I don’t have to repeat what has already been said
about, say, institutional critique, the politics of art, or the
politics of philosophy…
Auridas Gajauskas
in conversation with
Jonas Žakaitis
Jonas:
I know what you mean. I’m into Nabokov these days. I
have a feeling that he knew very well that one did not
need to write a novel in order to create it. For instance,
one can leave it as a pre-conceived and existing idea, and
then go on to do something completely different alongside that idea.
Auridas:
That sounds like two messages with no content. According to the old physicists’ assumption, travelling faster
In 2010 Tulips & Roses gallery – one of the most visible contemporary art
than light allows matter to retain its density and shape.
galleries to have emerged in the last decade with a clearly articulated prac-
Doing something alongside an idea is only possible if one
tice – relocated from Vilnius to Brussels. During its short period in Vilnius
maintains that the human psyche is material. Yet if you
the gallery introduced a group of young artists actively working and deve-
decided to go orienteering with somebody, you would
loping artistic strategies of minimalism and historic conceptualism to the
probably have to invent that as well?
Lithuanian art scene. Presented here is the Skype conversation between
Jonas:
the philosopher Auridas Gajauskas and Tulips & Roses’ gallery founder and
Invent the particular orienteering sport or the partner in it?
director Jonas Žakaitis, which could be read as a reflection on the discourse
Auridas:
which informs and is perpetuated by the gallery.
Think of a partner.
Jonas:
That’s a difficult one, but I would probably pick Kierkegaard as an orienteering partner. I’ve just remembered
his book Repetition, in which he describes his attempt
to repeat a trip to Berlin he had made many years ago.
The attempt ended in complete failure, but the idea itself
seems brilliant to me.
Jonas:
Auridas:
Do you believe that the interview genre could have
It appears to me that Kierkegaard managed to combine
emerged as the result of a time deficit? An interview as a
the ideas of the city and God. This had to be such an
conversation just before a train departs.
immense concentration of light that even the Leap must
have looked like a minuscule example compared to it. Do
Auridas:
Definitely; maybe that’s why some of them contain so
you believe in God?
much compressed time, and a peculiar density is felt in
Jonas:
the sentences, which usually disappears somewhere or
No. Do you?
remains as a condition of the interview genre itself…
Auridas:
Jonas:
Not anymore. I fell in love with the cosmos like the Virgin
... and while the interview is taking place, those participa-
Mother did.
ting in it are inevitably already doing something else. I am
Jonas:
going to Ariel Pink’s concert tonight.
I thought of the cosmos this morning too. I came to think
Auridas:
of it when I started wondering why the present was still so
Cool, and I have fifty traps of structuralism on the table in
important for people. Although all the evidence suggests
front of me.
that it does not exist, humankind has come up with billions
Jonas:
of ways to generate present moments. Just imagine what
That sounds like the title of a Taschen book. Why are you
it would be like if, for instance, the fashion or the music
thinking about structuralism’s traps?
industry completely rejected the notion of the present.
Nr. 16-17
Auridas:
Auridas:
A few days ago I watched Julio Medem’s Lovers of the
Sometimes I put a kind of sensitive object – a vertical
Arctic Circle; to be sure, the film had been made twelve
piece of chalk or a spoon – beside myself while I am
years ago, but Medem is still active as a filmmaker, and it
speaking; that object transmits its sensitivity to me, and
will be interesting to see what he has made this year. The
then I can maintain a certain state of speaking or think-
rejection of the idea of the present in his films is closely
ing… I believe that the reverse is possible too.
associated with things, which not so much ‘switch off’ the
Jonas:
present as fall into its trap. Yet it is precisely through this
I agree, this is a very important point. If a simple black mo-
channel that a meaningful simultaneity emerges. Saying
nolith could embody the limits of imagination for Kubrick
‘meaningful’, I have in mind at least somewhat furrowed
and Clarke, what could other things potentially do!
precision.
51
Auridas:
Jonas:
This power of an object’s consciousness is monolithic. One
Just to specify: how can a given thing fall into the trap of
can easily bump into it. It appears that categorical thinking
the present? I believe that the present is a matter of con-
about such an object is not wrong, but rather weak.
vention and hard work. It’s like a weird deliberate attempt
Jonas:
I remember reading about a person who had absolutely no
to reject almost all existing opportunities at once.
Auridas:
imagination and saw the same empty room in his dreams
I agree. Yet it also resembles the real-time organisation of
every night. I also read about another guy, who was so
memory. Repetition, then, may mean an emergence in the
unlucky that every time he entered the room, the room was
future of the same thing encoded in the past. Ultimately,
empty. In any case, your idea simply made me think that
any substitute is a substitute for something (Rousseau).
the room is one of the most powerful objects I can imagine.
Jonas:
Auridas:
It seems to me that this is exactly the way Kierkegaard saw
Why?
the present. That is why he re-enacted his trip to Berlin,
Jonas:
secretly knowing that everything would happen in a differ-
Because, although it had been invented as the place
ent way and the past would not repeat itself. If you were to
that one could enter, the room eventually started to do
do the same and re-enact an episode from your life, which
absolutely different things – structure thoughts, time, attention, etc. The room became a structural part of many
moment would you choose?
Auridas:
texts. And if you think about a room that is always empty,
Four years ago we were sailing from Bornholm; as a
matters become fairly serious.
storm was approaching, we had to seek shelter in a har-
Auridas:
That sounds like a glazed balcony.
bour near Gdansk, yet when we were passing through the
harbour’s gates, our engine failed and the sails became
Jonas:
entangled… We dropped the anchor, but the yacht con-
Being smashed with a hammer?
tinued to drift. A concrete ramp was ahead. We continued
Auridas:
to drift through the night; it appeared that the yacht’s
No, like the vibration of a clock-face, capturing and scat-
screw propeller had got caught up in an illegally cast fish-
tering reflections of light. An empty room as an object of
ing net. I felt an unbelievable lucidity of the mind in that
allusion to its own structuralism?
moment. I was into Heidegger back then. Adrenalin is a
Jonas:
perfect hangover for metaphysics. You?
No, not really. An empty room is not a structure at all.
Jonas:
Georges Perec, who wrote on rooms extensively, said he
I think that the most pleasant moment of my life repeats
was unable to even imagine an empty room, no matter
itself every night. It’s that moment before falling asleep,
how many times he tried.
when consciousness is about to shut down, but language
and images still remain. It is the most creative moment,
Jonas:
albeit completely unrecordable. Maybe I could think of a
Right at this moment I’m listening to Alice Coltrane’s
way to extend it?
Journey in Satchidananda – I suggest you play it too.
Auridas:
Great, thanks. I wonder if it’s possible that Perec failed to imagine
an empty room precisely because he was in the room himself.
Nr. 16-17
53
Jonas:
I don’t know. However, at the moment I’m trying to imagine an absolutely empty room myself and I must say that
I can’t either. Even the most unremarkable corner already
promises or projects something.
Auridas:
Yes, but if the objective of the exercise is to imagine an
empty room, I would say ‘not yet’ as opposed to ‘already’.
A corner that ‘is not yet’, which ‘switches off’ all those
variations you are speaking of. Colour, degree of the angle,
point of view – all of those already possess enough weight
Geocentric Conundrums:
Aesthetics and Ethics in
Contemporary Art
to determine a corner that does not yet exist space-wise.
Jonas:
Yeah, it’s probably possible that way too. But if we are to
Gemma Lloyd interviews
follow this to the end, maybe it is possible to get rid of all
Anthony Downey
visual and experiential elements?
Auridas:
But then there will be no room, there will be a thing without a room, a thing with a spatial potentiality.
Jonas:
There will be a room. As an absolute delay. Duchamp
was probably reasoning along similar lines when he said
that his Large Glass was a ‘delay in glass’. As an almost
unimaginable structure that is never fulfilled in one’s
As a member of the editorial board for Third Text you
experience, yet because of that it acts in the latter with all
the more intensity.
have played an important role in generating discourse and providing a platform
G e mm a L l o y d :
Auridas:
for thinking beyond the Eurocentric tendencies of art and visual culture. Subse-
Could this room be a symbolic Ithaca? After all, being
quently Third Text has expanded its remit to include Third Text Africa, Third Text
absolutely delayed, it is a source of allusions to reality and
Asia and Tercer Texto; the sister journal of Third Text. Where else or how else
authenticity. An ‘almost’ inhabited Platonic sphere of ideas.
would you like to see Third Text go from here?
Jonas:
Third Text has indeed contributed much by way of
I think that delay can be contemplated without resorting
An t h o n y D o wn e y :
to teleology.
debate and discussion about so-called non-western art. It has done so under the
Auridas:
stewardship of our founding editor Rasheed Araeen and the contributions of many
Delay as a condition of unfulfilment very much resembles
others so I feel a bit uneasy – given the collective underpinnings of Third Text –
the techniques of soul orthopaedics, when objects of de-
stating where I would personally like to see the journal go from here. However, it is
sire are intentionally swapped by exposing their ideologi-
obvious that the effects of globalisation are determining not only new avenues of
cal inseparability (albeit teleologically). Thus, God can be
thought but also – as reflected in the development of Third Text Africa, Third Text
a sparrow; a stepfather can be a father, and so on. On the
Asia and Tercer Texto – a more localised demand for texts written in a language
other hand, one can reason like Jodorowsky: the closer to
other than English. Third Text has always been conscious of publishing texts and
the other, the closer to oneself. This is the arithmetic of a
essays that would perhaps not find a voice elsewhere so I would expect us to con-
dichotomy. What direction are you thinking in?
tinue exploring the less well-trodden routes of debate and discussion.
Jonas:
Only my psychoanalyst could possibly answer this question.
2010 with an extended ‘special’ issue, the very terms that continue to define debate
A u ridas G aja u skas
is a PhD candidate in philosophy at the
Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas.
J onas Ž akaitis
is the founder and director of Tulips &
Roses gallery in Brussels.
I would also add that, having celebrated the 100th edition of Third Text in
in contemporary art practices – the political, the aesthetic, community, cosmopolitanism, ethics, technology, autonomy, eco-aesthetics, sustainability, radicality,
process, collaboration, civic society, history, and the notion of a centre and margin –
are all being redefined in relation to one another and our present post-colonial, neoliberal milieu, not to mention the realpolitik of our post-September 11th world.
Nr. 16-17
55
I would therefore expect Third Text to continue to play a pivotal role in the rede-
artist Thierry Geoffroy/Colonel, whose project is included in San Antón Prison,
fining of these terms and how they affect if not prescribe our understanding of
Cartagena delivers a direct provocation in response to the curatorial theme.
contemporary visual culture.
Geoffroy/Colonel invites North African artists to exhibit their work in his allocated space through what he calls ‘penetrations’. Power relations are clearly at play
GL:
Among your research interests you include ‘the potential for an
here, and exaggerated in the accompanying videos which were broadcast as ten
ethics of contemporary art practices’; what prompted you to initially immerse
10-minute episodes for Spanish television and show the artist in full colonial get-
yourself in this line of research?
up (including the colonial pith helmet) conducting interviews with people on the
streets of Cartagena in an attempt to establish whether or not there is a dialogue
A D :
One of the key areas of examination in postcolonial studies in the
between the two regions. What are your thoughts about this project in particular
late 80s and early 90s (that is, when I was an undergraduate) were terms such as
in relation to the ethics of collaboration and as a response to the curatorial prec-
difference, otherness, alterity and subalternity. I found, at the time, that work by
edent of Manifesta 8?
philosophers such as Jacques Derrida (specifically his engagement with the philosoI have yet to see this show and, although I have heard reactions to it,
pher Emmanuel Levinas) lent a degree of ethical purchase to what were often very
theory-laden discussions. The extent to which colonial and western-centric discourse
do not feel wholly qualified to comment. It sounded as if the stated curatorial inten-
tended towards forms of conceptual totalisation – the homogenisation of a region, for
tions, which were very interesting, were not wholly realised through the selection
example – and binary processes of thought – us (superior) versus them (inferior) –
process. I am not sure of the reasons for this, so will leave it at that.
AD:
seemed to me to be not only deconstructed but thoroughly disavowed by writers
In recent years in London, there seems to have been an influx of
such as Derrida and Levinas, and others such as Homi Bhabha and Robert JC Young.
The ethical, as a form of engagement with others and how we approach writing and
geocentrically themed exhibitions, perhaps one of the main protagonists/cul-
the criticism of visual culture, seemed both relevant and necessary in the context of
prits is the Saatchi Gallery, who supported the YBA movement in Britain, and
both these writer’s and much of what was then considered postcolonial theory.
seems to again desire the power to ‘represent’ both nations and continents via
neatly ‘packaged’ exhibitions of contemporary art from the USA, the Middle East,
I personally think ethics still has a part to play in criticism but the para-
GL:
meters have changed and the very meaning of the term has changed too. Firstly,
China, India and Britain respectively. What would you consider to be a positive
postcolonial theory, in its emphasis upon otherness and difference, seems less and
antidote to such geocentrically produced exhibitions?
less able to think beyond these tropes without engaging in forms of relativism. The
This question is a perennial one and not easily answerable. The ‘pack-
various debates about whether or not multiculturalism is an effective framework
A D :
for thinking through issues today, or whether the term has been instrumentalised
aging’ of art as a practice is an old if not particularly venerable activity. The profit to
by political forces to give the impression of inclusion and access, has produced a
be had between an advertising mogul’s vaguely defined interests and a peer group of
so-called ‘ethics’ that is often a barely disguised mode of normative response that
artists who were taught how to make effective and desirable ‘products’ was indeed
merely pays lip service to notions such as difference, alterity, or the other in the
timely. The excess that resulted was both mirroring and goading the excess we saw
name of ethical criticism and theory.
in our financial markets throughout the 1990s and 2000s. The appearance of so-
called emerging markets – we should pause here and ask: emergent in relation to
So, for me, ethics still has a role to play but it is a very different one to
what it was initially deployed to do – that is, relativise and reconfigure any easy
what exactly – and the need in a credit-fuelled society to fill various institutions and
notion of self and other, us and them, the west and the rest. But the role and exact
over-mortgaged houses again produced a serendipitous moment in the trading of art.
meaning of ethics as it is practiced needs to be prefigured in actual as opposed to
virtual or universal concepts. Ethics, I would suggest, needs to be situated. Alain
political need on behalf of, for example, China and India to market themselves
Badiou’s philosophy, for example, is not deductive nor rooted in an a priori sense
worldwide in cultural guises more familiar to an often wary west. It is arguable that
of ethicality or otherness, nor does it advocate any easy forms of the moral com-
we have seen a similar attempt by inter alia the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia to
munalism we see progressed by the rhetoric of multiculturalism. Ethics, for Badiou,
market themselves through culture – although it should be noted that, unlike China
is unknowable without appeal to a specific event-based experience. To paraphrase
and India, the latter grouping have done so not so much through the indigenous
his work, there is no ethics in general but only an ethics of processes by which we
growth of artist’s movements as they have through the development – some say
treat the possibilities of a situation. And it is this form of what I would term situated
‘parachuting’ in – of institutions such as the Louvre and the Guggenheim to oversee
ethics that continues to interest me in relation to contemporary visual culture and
cultural development. As to promoting alternatives to these ‘packaged’ shows,
art as a practice, nowhere more so than when we consider the emergence of col-
there are of course many, but we will always have shows such as this as long as we
laborative or participative-based practices that co-opt communities and the politi-
have the confluence of monied interests and the narrow interests of both politically-
cal rhetoric of access and inclusion.
motivated and PR-inclined decision-making processes.
GL:
This year Manifesta 8 proposed to create a dialogue between a
region in one country (Murcia) and the region of a continent (North Africa); the
Interestingly, the emerging markets seen in the west coincided with a
GL:
Would you agree that with the growth of the EU and the tendency
to become a homogeneous whole, there is an increased desire to identify and
Nr. 16-17
57
Catalogues to accompany the exhibitions
Thierry Geoffroy/Colonel ARTIST
‘The Revolution Continues: New Art from
COLONIALIST INVESTIGATING FOR TV: Is
China’, ‘The Empire Strikes Back: Indian
there a dialogue with the Spanish and you
Art Today’ and ‘Germania: New Art from
Northern African? Photo: Rian Lorenzo
Germany’, all held at the Saatchi Gallery,
London. Photo: Gemma Lloyd
Nr. 16-17
extract the ‘differences’ between nations when showing work from these
59
agree to participate in these shows?
countries?
A D :
A D :
I am not so sure about this. I have not seen many shows recently of,
Very little to be honest. Artists need to make money to support their
practice. Shows precipitate sales. No shows invariably means no sales. No sales,
say, Spanish art or Irish or German for that matter.
if artistic practice is your primary means of support, means penury – and I do not
think that serves the purpose of anything other than some romantic ideal of the
GL:
Whereas most exhibitions are approached with a degree of under-
starving artist in the garret.
standing that what is being presented is a subjective take on a given theme – a
‘right’ the curator exercises – there are clearly significant and dangerous hangovers related to shows whose participants have been selected on the basis of na-
1
tional identity and which are executed by the powerhouse’s of the art world, not
Anthony Downey, ‘Curating Africa: ‘Africa
only in terms of the exhibition but the accompanying publications which canonise
Wasafiri, No. 46, Winter 2005
Remix’ and the Categorical Dilemma’ in
GL:
At the end of your article ‘Curating Africa: ‘Africa Remix’ and the
Categorical Dilemma’1 you asked ‘what curatorial and organisational methodology can an institution exercise that avoids homogenising, spectacularising,
exoticising, or, indeed, prescribing a survey of contemporary African cultural
these shows in their authoritative presence in libraries across the world. Could
production?’ The question remained unsolved. Have you encountered any further
you perhaps comment on this and maybe identify some of the most notable at-
evidence, since you wrote that essay, which suggests that this particular (and
tempts to rectify this?
perhaps most difficult) curatorial challenge is closer to arriving at a solution?
A D :
The national model as a curatorial remit, as is the case with any
A D :
I think the situation has actually taken a turn for the worse. I just noted
identitarian model, will always present artists and curators with a conundrum: art-
that I wrote that essay in 2005 so I would have mostly likely have been researching
ists from, say, the Middle East or China must wear, if not the fixity, then the fixture
it in and around 2004; that is, 6 years ago. In that time, shows of African art have
of their otherness – their national, political, social and artistic identities – on their
decreased significantly. This would be a good thing if we were seeing more shows
sleeves if they are to enter artistic discourse in the west. The more specific prob-
of individual artists from, say, Malawi or the Congo, but we are not. It seems, after
lem is that the national model of representation, the model that takes a regional
the excitement aroused by China, that the so-called Middle East is attracting the
geographic rubric for interpreting practices, has been effectively nullified by the
most attention today – for better or indeed worse. And the same issues are arising
fact that it was a political model deployed by colonial and orientalist systems of
that we saw in the curatorial production of ‘African’ art: survey shows of artists that
thought: the region in question – defined as a vague non-western hinterland at best –
fail to note differences between regions, artists and, perhaps even more worry-
came to define and prescribe a whole group of people regardless of the cultural
ingly, the way in which their practices are often an explicit engagement with art as a
differences that existed among them. This served an economic function, of course.
practice in the first place.
Today, the legacy of such forms of totalising, reductive thought still define the criDo you think that exhibitions based on national identities will ever
tique of such shows when we see them in western institutions: how can we still talk
about Chinese, Indian, or Iranian art in such reductive terms? Surely there are huge
become exhausted, will we ever get over it and see artists as artists and not
differences between generations of artists in these countries not to mention prac-
what their passport prescribes or will the thrill of discovery continue to run
tices. And yes, this is true. But, perhaps, there is something to be still had in such
through the curator’s veins, much like the explorer? Conversely, would it be
models if they are applied with historical and heuristic nuance, and with an eye on
worse to ignore the artist’s nationality?
GL:
the fact that all art is made in relation to other art.
There have been shows that have managed to bypass these forms of
A D :
Perhaps this returns us to the notion of ethical criticism: to what ex-
reductiveness and go beyond simplistic national models while still managing to
tent does language, curating, criticism, and contemporary art theory prescribe our
retain both a sense of a dialogue with an artist’s background and the fact that art as
relationship to the work and thereafter offer a limited mode of analysing it that is
a practice often refers to other practices. Okwui Enwezor’s Documenta 11 stands
based upon institutional, economic, and political motivations? Can a form of ethical
out in this respect inasmuch as he managed to introduce artists to a western audi-
criticism, one that avoids normative, morally-inclined modes of critique, produce
ence without prescribing their work to any predefined tropes. Manifesta 7, which
a situated, case-by-case analysis of singularities that would allow nationality to be
involved an international group of curators including Adam Budak, Anselm Franke,
taken into consideration without it becoming a pre-determinate model of analysis?
Hila Peleg, and the Raqs Media Collective (Monica Narula, Jeebesh Bagchi,
I would suggest that ethics could be thereafter reinterpreted as a form of critical re-
Shuddhabrata Sengupta), also managed to put on an interestingly diverse show
sponsibility towards the object and the circumstances of its production rather than
that refused any easy forms of curatorial definitiveness. The nadir of recent shows
just another marketing tool in the production of a movement or regionally-inclined
that attempted to bring together artists from a ‘region’, however, had to be the so-
interpretation of art.
called African Pavilion at the 52nd Venice Biennale, a shockingly misconceived idea
both at the time and in retrospect.
ing the focus for western institutions and collectors alike. Curators are attempting
I am currently interested in the way in which the Middle East is fast becom-
to offer degrees of nuance to interpretations but it often seems that they are at
GL:
How much responsibility do you think should lie with the artists who
odds with institutional priorities. There is an argument to be had, given the west’s
NR. 16-17
61
refusal to understand the distinction between, say, Iran and Syria and Lebanon, that
a curatorial approach that draws attention to such distinctions would be welcome;
however, the national can never be used to somehow define what an artist does –
Book review
the practice of making art goes beyond such easy definitions.
GL:
Your forthcoming publication on the ‘aesthetics of the real’ will
examine artists who engage with issues such as community, ethnography, hu-
Slavoj Žižek
Welcome to the Desert of the Real
man rights, re-enactment, migrations, and terrorism. Could you tell us a bit more
Translated by Edgaras Klivis, Audronė
about this publication?
Žukauskaitė, Nida Vasiliauskaitė
Publisher: kitos knygos, Kaunas, 2010
ISBN 978-609-427-007-9 / 200 p.
A D :
Needless to say, this is work-in-progress and changing on a day-
to-day basis. On a very basic level, I want to explore the implications of artistic
practices co-opting a community or individual, sometimes consensually, other
times through cajoling or indeed for remuneration, into an aesthetic practice. I
want to also enquire into whether the aestheticisation of the real in contemporary
art practices, be it in forms of co-optation or the re-presentation of communities, reveal (somewhat paradoxically) a process of de-aestheticisation: a desire in
contemporary art practices to become more real than the referent – and, if so, why?
This is not, I should note from the outset, an attempt to rehearse the defeatism of a
Baudrillardian-inspired belief in the conceptual bankruptcy and devolved authority
of reality in the face of a simulated reality – the scenario whereby representations or
re-enactments of the real become the reality of the real – as it is to enquire into why
a significant number of contemporary artists, in their aesthetic practices, attempt to
elide any distinction between aesthetics (the mimetic representation of the real and
the regime in which we understand art today) and the so-called real.
The other key question that motivates this book from the outset is an
enquiry into whether the practices discussed throughout are, somewhat paradoxically, in the public interest inasmuch as they question, in the name of dissensus
Intellectual Race With Oneself
(disagreement), consensual forms of moral communalism (based upon the politics
of neo-liberalism) and the often trite use of the term ‘rights’ in such environments?
Viktoras Bachmetjevas
Or do they, conversely, merely parody or indeed mimic dissensus for the gratification of an art audience who remain seldom shocked, not to mention an art market
that subsists on the ‘shock of the new’.
December 2010
Ancient philosopher Zeno, in one of his famous paradoxes, tells of the
race between Achilles and the tortoise. According to the story, if the tortoise were
to start a bit earlier, Achilles would be unable to ever catch up, because during the
A nthony D owney
is the Programme Director of the MA course
in Contemporary Art at Sotheby’s Institute of
Art, London and an editorial board member
time needed for Achilles to reach the point where the tortoise is, the tortoise will
always have moved a little bit further. Cultural and intellectual climates of the Western and Post-soviet spaces could be seen as a contemporary version of this para-
of Third Text.
dox. Eastern European intellectuals, who have always had an inferiority complex
G emma L loyd
in relation to their Western counterparts (which has merely been increased by the
is an independent curator based in London.
She recently completed an MA in Curating
Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art.
Soviet rhetoric of ‘catch up and overtake’), must feel similar to Achilles – it does not
matter how much one tries to catch up with the Western tendencies and prevailing
discourses, however much effort one puts in order to remain with their intellectual
fashions, the tempo nevertheless is set up over there. One has still to hear of the
latest fashions, the latest books still have to be translated, the latest thoughts still
have to be understood, therefore it does not matter how much the transition period
is minimised; the problem will remain as long as this period will.
The story of the publication of Slavoj Žižek´s Welcome to the Desert of the
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63
of time are shown to have been one-day news sensations. Now, looking back from
Real is a good illustration of such a situation. The original version of the book was
the perspective of a few years, we can safely assert that September 11 has become
published in 2002 and by 2005 already a Lithuanian publisher was planning to pub-
an incomprehensible event in the same sense in which the assassination of the heir
lish it in Lithuanian. However, as it often happens, for various reasons the book was
presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne was. It wouldn’t be a surprise if some
finally published a further five years later. If one keeps in mind that during those five
fifty years later pupils in history classes were not able to understand how the at-
years Žižek had published at least another ten books, the Lithuanian publisher must
tack on two buildings led the strongest countries of the world to bomb Afghanistan
have been tearing his hair out (I should point out though that just recently another
for nine years and at the same time be completely incapable of finding the most
book – Violence – was published by the same author). Yet this delay has its own
wanted man on earth; as in contemporary schools the pupils are unable to compre-
positive side. It seems that the publication of a book – any book – is still an event
hend how the assassination of some sovereign in the backwater of Europe could
in Lithuania, a book has not become an everyday and one-day product, and the
lead to a war in which all self-respecting countries of the world felt duty-bound to
distance of time itself, for example, with the publication of Žižek’s original, creates
participate. The explanation in both cases is the same – chronology and connection
an opportunity to look both at the book and its author from a different perspective.
does not mean causality. It is rather that in both cases the situation was ripe for the
events to unfold and in a way anything could become a pretext for whatever had to
When Welcome to the Desert of the Real appeared eight years ago, the
events of September 11 had just lead everyone to become involved in ‘the war
happen.
on terror’ and the author of this book, Slovenian Slavoj Žižek, at the time famous
only in philosophical circles, wrote about these events because he needed to write
repeating the footage of the planes, crashing into two multi-storey buildings in New
about them. Eight years later, when we ask why this book appears in Lithuanian, we
York, it was easy to deceive ourselves that we were observing an epoch-making
have to admit that paradoxically the roles are reversed – in slight exaggeration we
event, an event that would change the world, an event after which ‘nothing is
can say that today for a book on September 11 to be published it has to be written
gonna be the same’. This did not happen though; the world has changed only in the
by Žižek. If eight years ago Žižek was feeding off the act of terror, then now the act
sense that the West, and the US in particular, came back to the state of permanent
of terror is feeding off Žižek. This assertion was confirmed by the introduction of
military alert, from which it had had a rest for a good decade. In essence the world
the Lithuanian edition – not a single question was asked regarding September 11 (if
has not changed – it is more precise to say that it came back to normal track from
we do not count (and we should not) the introductory, merely ceremonial question
which it had deviated for some time after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Similar
by the author of these lines), all questions were connected with and were ultimately
analysis can be applied to the statement of the media age that ‘nothing is gonna be
about Žižek, and the author himself did not demonstrate the slightest intention of
the same after this’. One has to admit that although September 11 has become an
coming back to the topic of the book.
event after which ‘nothing really was the same’, it was not the cause of this change,
but merely a pretence. If one goes back to the immediate weeks and even months
This ‘forgetting’ of September 11 is interesting in itself. First of all, one
When on September 11, 2001 TV channels all over the world kept on
might think that this is because the topic is spent; everything that could be said
after September 11, one will be astonished to find a multitude of possibilities, re-
about it has already been said. Yet the factual circumstances tell a different story: a
flections, deliberations and suggestions in the media of the US and other countries.
manhunt of a few fundamentalists that was supposed to be a short innocuous ad-
It is only natural that at least here, in the West, everyone was shocked and was
venture for a few soldiers, has turned into an occupation of an independent country
looking for a way to make sure that it would not happen again (the quality of these
that in turn expanded into an abstract, hardly measurable and, it seems, never end-
suggestions is a completely different matter). If one would have said at the time that
ing (because it’s equally impossible to win and to lose) ‘war on terror’. This ‘war on
the only results we would get after nine years would be a completely disastrous in-
terror’ is not limited to geographical determinations anymore. A recent report about
vasion of Afghanistan, a virtual ‘war on terror’ and yet uncaptured Osama bin Laden
a young terror suspect in the US, arrested by the FBI, who was set up and aided in
(George W. Bush’s declaration ‘smoke them out’, anyone?), undoubtedly all strate-
planning this act by the FBI itself, shows that September 11, as some commenta-
gists both on the right, and on the left would have said that such results would be a
tors guessed correctly (Žižek, to my knowledge, was not among them), allowed
complete farce and misunderstanding. For the crucial problem – reconciliation and
the Western countries to come back to the rhetoric of the Cold War in their inter-
mutual understanding of the two Worlds, that of the West and that of Islam – is not
nal information markets. We are observing a strange phenomenon – although the
solved this way.
events, that followed September 11, touched almost every citizen of the civilised
world in one way or another, it seems that September 11 itself is slowly fading into
Desert of the Real does not really concern himself with the events of September 11.
oblivion and is remembered reluctantly, even with a slight embarrassment. This
For him they are a mere pretext, a pretext to write a book. Therefore, if this book
date takes a place among other historical dates and events, which though initially
is not about September 11, what then is it about? Formally speaking, it is a critical
seemed to be the cause of the events to come, with hindsight begin to appear as a
attempt to explicitly demonstrate an inadequate reaction of the Western World to
mere pretext for them. In this sense the seizure of a few planes in the United States
the citizens of the Third World and to implicitly demonstrate, in the author’s opinion,
is comparable to the assassination of the Archduke on 28 June, 1914. Neither the
an adequate one. According to Žižek, the reaction of the Western world is inad-
former, nor the latter event had to be followed by what followed – they both merely
equate, because in their fight with ‘terror’ (in his opinion, for the West terror equates
became pretexts for the subsequent events. The events themselves, that appeared
to religious fundamentalism) the West gets so excited in this game that it starts to
so significant – epoch-making – in the immediate aftermath, from the perspective
sacrifice its own fundamental values. The example Žižek clearly loves and repeats
However, as mentioned in the beginning, the author of Welcome to the
often in the context of the ‘war on terror’ is the de facto legalisation of torture. One
can agree with him that this problem is real, yet it remains unclear why, in his opinion, ‘“terrorists” are ready to destroy this world out of love for the other, while our
fighters with terror are ready to destroy our own democratic world out of hatred for
the Muslim other.’ Here Žižek gets dangerously close to the sin of which he accuses
the Left in the West, namely, the idealisation of the Other. Whatever the case, the
adequate reaction, implicitly suggested by Žižek, would be a cultivation of interpersonal relationship between the westerner and the citizen of the Third World.
What this relationship would entail, remains unclear, although the author hints
that he is not happy with the Levinasian relation of responsibility; also the author
provides an example of the level of interpersonal relationship which entails an exchange of insults regarding each other’s mother and an ability to not get offended.
The reader, who is not willing to start ironising vis-à-vis this example, will have to
pull his own analytical powers together and try to imagine himself what this adequate reaction might look like. Apart from another two examples the author leaves
us empty-handed.
However, such a formal reading of this book is perhaps purposeless and,
having said that September 11 is merely a pretext for the book, let’s take another
step and let’s admit that the problem of the relationship between the Western world
and the Third World itself is merely a formal topic of this book. It is not developed
coherently, separate parts are connected artificially, and the essays themselves
contain more asides than observations on the topic itself. In other words, to read
this book in order to understand something on the topic, stated above, is a waste
of time. Such a reader would be advised to find himself another, more useful book.
Now, what makes this book interesting and readable, is the author himself. While
reading this book, one is unwillingly reminded of the scene in Spike Jonze’s Being
John Malkovich, in which actor John Malkovich finds himself within his own brain
and experiences a schizophrenic situation, where all the people he meets are
himself and language consists of only his surname, pronounced in various suitable
intonations. When one understands that the only topic, the only subject of
this book is the author himself, it becomes much easier to forgive its shortcomings –
incoherent, hopping, rushing enunciation, long asides and ‘spliced’ story-telling.
If we come back to the race between the Western and Post-soviet intellectuals mentioned in the beginning, we could compare Žižek to Achilles in full steam,
who, having been convinced of the truthfulness of Zeno’s paradox, has picked up
steam and joined the race so earnestly that he has not noticed that he overtook the
tortoise long ago, also crossed the finish line some time ago, and that actually the
race itself has been called off and the spectators are busy in some other matters.
Žižek is still running.
V iktoras B achmetjevas
is a PhD candidate in philosophy at the
Catholic University of Leuven (Belgium)
and a philosophy lecturer at the Vytautas
Magnus University (Kaunas, Lithuania).
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Transcription

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