Foyer: language and space at the border 14 11 – 31 12, 2008
press-conference: 5.00pm Friday 14 November vernissage: 6.00pm
Foyer is the Vilnius exhibition of a series of French-Lithuanian exchange projects being presented in collaboration between the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) and the FRACs (French Regional Art Collection) Grand Est as part of the cultural season accompanying the French presidency of the EU. Launched in June 2008, eight different projects involving both French and Lithuania artists, curators, and writers and works from the FRAC Grand Est collections have been presented in Lithuania and France (extending until December 31).
The Foyer exhibition challenges notions of boundaries, site, space, exchange, and language – and reflects the geo-political situation of Lithuania as a country that has been living with processes of cultural, linguistic, and territorial transformation for centuries. This continues today in relation to accession to the European Union, the migration of many Lithuanians to the United Kingdom and Ireland, and more recently Lithuania’s membership of the Shengen free trade zone.
Against this backdrop works have been selected from the FRACs Grand Est collections to reflect the principal themes of Foyer – including the latest generation of French artists now making their mark internationally – Adel Abdessemed, Cyprien Gaillard, Regis Perray, and Raphaël Zarka. Several Lithuanian artists who make work about language-and-space – including works that have been shown earlier in the French exhibition program – are being exhibited in Foyer. A special residency project “The Vilnius Constellation Walks” by French artist Jean-Christophe Norman is also being presented within the framework of the exhibition.
FOYER hopes to introduce the CAC audience to FRACs Grand Est collections and elucidate dynamic aspects of French and Lithuanian culture in the spirit of collaboration and cultural transformation.
FOYER is curated by Simon Rees (CAC) in collaboration with Beatrice Josse & Helene Guenin (Metz), Florence Derieux (Reims), and Eva Gonzalez-Sancho (Dijon)
Special events Artist’s and curator’s talk: 1.00pm Saturday 15 November
CAC Café Talk with Bernard Blistene: 6.00pm Wednesday 10 December
Dr. Bernard Blistene is Deputy Director and Chief Curator (emeritus), Centre Pompidou and Inspector General of the Dept. of Plastic Arts (DAP), of the French Ministry of Culture
For the First and the Second Time STROOM Premium artists and a retroactive exhibition of the works already there
XI. 22 - XII. 31 Opening: Saturday 22 November, 6pm
Curators: Virginija Januskeviciute and Valentinas Klimasauskas Organisers: STROOM Den Haag and CAC Vilnius
If you look at the works by the recent STROOM Premium artists closely you will notice that they sustain an observant dialogue with the history of contemporary and modern art. The new video film directed by Channa Boon, and shot in Vilnius, in an allusion to the myth of the death of painting. Kinetic piece by Bram Vreven, although mute, or perhaps for this reason especially, can be linked with experiments in the music of 50s and 60s. And Ton Schuttelaar carries out the gestures of ready-made in their purest form. Even long before the exhibition was installed these links have filled so much of the room that we decided to make more space – by inserting something between those works and the tradition of modernism, represented by the building of the CAC as well. Encouraged by various remnants of the contradictory internal dialogue that manifest in the building, we decided to stitch them together into one story.
In the context of daily activities of the Contemporary Art Centre this exhibition could be said to be a pseudo-museological endeavour. Most of the artworks referred to in the title as “already there” remain from previous exhibitions at the CAC but have lost their status of an artwork over time or are often misattributed. Among them are a puddle once constructed in front of the main entrance of the CAC, a light installation that was kept switched off, the painted-over works within the walls. Other works have turned into icons, integral to the building, or, on the contrary, have been produced in collaboration with the Contemporary Art Centre but for a variety of reasons were never shown here. The late author of the oldest works in the exhibition would have turned a hundred years old this year; his works are in the building since longer than the institution. The exhibition guidebook will help visitors finding works that are not possible to show in the exhibition room.
In a sense this is two exhibitions in one, and so it may come as no surprise that there are works that do not belong to either. The two-headed Roman god Janus, a figure that used to represent doorways and different aspects of time, can be said to be an inspiration for the inner contradiction of the double show. It is also inspired by something that the writer Italo Calvino used to say – that you can‘t read the same book in the same way the second (or the third) time. The exhibition considers revisionist art practices and the theme of cultural amnesia.
Artworks in the exhibition and the publication:
Jonas Basanavičius Portrait and Mowers of the XVII Century by Blažiejus Krivickas, 1977 and 1981 I am an artist / I love myself by Konstantinas Bogdanas, 1996 Special project for the Contemporary Art Centre by Ulrich Ruckriem, 2000 From Green to Something Else and Everyone is an Artist by Pierre Bismuth, 2001 Feast / Calamity by Deimantas Narkevičius, 2001 Puddle by Keith Wilson, 2001 What Happens In Halifax Stays in Halifax (in 36 slides) by Mario Garcia Torres, 2004-2006 The Spider Web by Benoît Maire, 2006 Beckett-Beaumont by James Beckett, 2007 Gerard Byrne's '1984 and Beyond' at the Art Exhibition Hall, Vilnius, 2008 by Gintaras Didžiapetris, 2008 This Isn't It by Ben Kinmont, 2004, 2008 Permanent Exhibition by Elena Narbutaitė, 2008 Special project for print by Goda Budvytytė with Akvilė Anglickaitė, 2008 Spin by Bram Vreven, 2008 Into Existence, Originally Placed and Sometimes by Ton Schuttelaar, 2008 Sasha by Channa Boon, 2008 and others.
Vilnius ’09 European Capital of Culture presents: Urban Stories: The X Baltic Triennial of International Art, Vilnius 2009
Prologue
The Baltic Triennial of International Art, Vilnius is the largest exhibition staged at the Contemporary Art Centre every three years. The X Triennial (2009) is launching this December in a series of introductory events featuring stories by the Triennial curators and artists.
“Urban Stories” invites international artists and researchers to leave the habitual and established representations of Vilnius behind. They are invited to live in spaces outside the city centre and to observe the life of Vilnius at the periphery – everyday routes, individual truths, new fictions, and the little discrepancies at the fringe, etc. The outcomes of these urban expeditions, encountered ambiences and stories of the residents will be mediated via the circuits of contemporary art: in, installation, film and video, as well as artistic actions and new media interventions – producing a new complex narrative for Vilnius European Capital of Culture 2009.
The X Baltic Triennial of International Art “Urban Stories” will open on the 4th of September 2009 at the Contemporary Art Centre. Up to its conclusion on the 8th of November the main exhibition at the CAC will be accompanied by special events and temporary expositions installed in diverse locations throughout the city.
The intention of this Prologue is to introduce the concept of “Urban Stories” to the public and to present some of the future Triennial projects.
Programme
Thursday 11 December, 2008
17.00 Ann Demeester (Amsterdam) & Kestutis Kuizinas (Vilnius): Curators’ talk and Triennial story. 18.00 Beatrice Gibson (London): Artist’s talk
19.00 Chim Pom: Ryuta Ushiro, Masataka Okada, Eri Ohata (Tokyo). Screening of the artists‘ collective films and performance activities.
Friday 12 December, 2008
17.00 Vera Lauf (Leipzig) & Ula Tornau (Vilnius) Vilnius-COOP: Presentation of the project 18.00 Ha Za Vu Zu “Stragedy” (Istanbul)
During the two days of the programme special event “Books for Burning?” by Kevin van Braak (Rotterdam) will be taking place in the ground floor gallery of the CAC (12.00-19.30).
