Olga Łojewska: Have the past two years of organizing ArtVilnus’22 amidst the global pandemic somehow affected the shape and development of this year’s edition? What were the challenges during the organization of the first full-scale event after these two years?
Diana Stomienė: The pandemic has affected everyone personally, and the art scene is no exception. It is an achievement for us as organizers to have been able to organize the 2020-2021 fairs in person. During the pandemic, many of the world’s art fairs did not take place at all or they became more localized. Culture is a very sensitive area, which is the most affected by all geopolitical processes.
This year, our aim is to return to the previous format of having at least 50 percent of foreign exhibitors. But the war in Ukraine has changed the situation again, affecting all of us, and the news in the world media that the Baltic countries might be the next target have slightly slowed down the foreign galleries. But it’s a good sign that this year’s fair program includes artists from 18 countries. The fair maintains its previous size, both in terms of exhibitors (70 galleries and institutions) and exhibition space on the territory of the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre Litexpo, which covers an area of 12,000 square meters.
ArtVilnius has grown qualitatively over its thirteen years of operation and is no longer just a traditional gallery art fair. Emphasizing the importance of art education, every year we introduce visitors to world-famous projects, artists, and ideas, both in the Project Zone, which has no analogs in the fairs of Eastern and Northern Europe, as well as in the sculpture and installation exhibition Takas (The Path). During the fair, we organize a program of discussions, lectures, talks, and other side events.
As a small country, we have to work twice as hard to attract the attention of the international art world and collectors.
OŁ: The theme of ArtVilnius’22 is ecology. Could you tell us more about what has driven the choice of the themes for the past editions and this one?
DS: We strive to be diverse, so each year the theme of the fair is either a particular country or an art medium. We have announced Germany as a guest country, as well as Latvia, Estonia, France, and Ukraine, which will be a guest country for the second time this year. In the past, we have also announced certain art media as the theme of the fair, such as photography, works on paper, and next year’s focus is on performance art.
The ecology theme was proposed by the renowned contemporary art curator Valentinas Klimašauskas, who was invited to curate the fair’s Project Zone this year, and who said that the ecology theme has changed the face of the planet and, undoubtedly, global and local contemporary art. According to the curator, this is a favorable opportunity to reinterpret both the work of various artists and the concept of ecology, as well as to change the activities of one’s institution towards sustainability.
In my opinion, the biggest challenge for democratic societies in 2022 is the war in Ukraine, which has touched all of us. The unstoppable threat of climate change to humanity is already ticking like a clock, striking the inevitable hour. In recent years, as humanity has lived through pandemics, ecological cataclysms, and the outbreak of war in Ukraine, the theme of Ecology has simply become inevitable. This theme is inherent in the work of the artists, and individual works have already been exhibited at previous fairs.
OŁ: In what way does the focus of the art fair – genres of installation and sculpture – correspond to the chosen theme? Do you think that spatial art forms are the most suitable to capture the ecologically pertinent issues?
DS: A fair is a living organism that reacts to the hottest current events. War, ecology, art – these are integral themes that excite everyone. Art constantly raises the most uncomfortable and burning questions for decision-makers.
Ecology is embedded in every area of our lives. Any genre of art allows artists to express their creative ideas on this subject. Since the very first fair, we have been organizing the large-scale sculpture and installation exhibition Takas. The large space of the Litexpo Exhibition Center is the place where artists can implement grandiose ideas and exhibit large-format works, as small galleries or exhibition halls limit the realization of ideas. The steadily increasing number of artists interested in exhibiting has encouraged us to present this genre more widely at the fair. Sustainability is always on our minds, works are created from unused materials, and objects, often materials used for the idea of the work are returned to the suppliers, etc.
The best reflection on the theme of ecology and installation is the work Nothing Sacred from the exhibition Takas (curated by Vytenis Burokas) by the best artist of ArtVilnius’21, Vytautas Viržbickas. The artist was awarded for his combination of conceptual and expressive approaches and the topical themes encoded in his work. This work was acquired by the MO Museum in Vilnius, and this work of art made of tires will be a constant reminder of what we leave behind in this world.
OŁ: Since the beginning, ArtVilnus has been hosted in the Exhibition and Congress Centre LITEXPO. How has the architecture of the space been envisioned for the past years? What are the plans for the organization of the space this year, given the focus on spatial art forms?
DS: We pay a lot of attention to architecture. ArtVilnius differs from other fairs in that we arrange the architecture of the exhibition according to the content of the art, rather than designing standard boxes that participants can choose from. This is time-consuming, because the architecture of the fair has to be to the liking of the exhibitors, and the coordination takes a lot of time.
For us, it is very important that the fair as a whole is complete, and, at the same time, we take into consideration the sound of each art work – the presentation, the harmony, and the right neighborhood. After carefully reviewing the art program of the galleries together with architects, Olga Voišnis and Raminta Vitkūnė (Very Good Architecture Company), the fair plan is being carefully laid out. The curators have their own vision, and we have a common goal of making the fair unique. The architecture of this year’s ArtVilnius used several main stand modules, from which the general composition of the exhibition stands was created. This solution allowed us to adapt as much as possible to the individual needs of the galleries and the specific exhibitions, and to create an interesting and dynamic architecture.
This year, the Project Zone is undergoing a radical change, with the theme of ecology being combined with the creation of a “city within a city” meta-ecosystem. This year, the visitor will be greeted by a spacious, open, and visually rich Project Zone. For the first time in the Project Zone, all art institutions and individual projects will not be presented separately but will be combined into a single meta-ecosystem.
Returning to your question of how spatial art forms are best suited to capture ecologically relevant issues, the concept of the Project Zone answers this question perfectly. For the first time at the fair, this open idea of the “city within a city” ecosystem will become a space – an installation – connecting institutions and artists.
OŁ: The guest of this year’s art fair is Ukraine. How does ArtVilnus plan to support the Ukrainian art scene and its artists during these politically turbulent times?
DS: We have had a special cultural relationship with the Ukrainian art world since the first art fair in 2009. Ukraine has been invited as a guest of the art fair ArtVilnius for the second time. Back in 2015, after the first Russian invasion, we reacted immediately and invited Ukrainians to the fair with our full support.
The war caught us in Madrid, where our team was invited to the 40th-anniversary edition of the prestigious art fair Arco Madrid. After the shock, we rushed to write and call the Ukrainians, offering them all the help we could. Back in March, the ArtVilnius team organized an auction in Vilnius of works by Ukrainian artists from the Tsekh Gallery, which has branches in Kyiv and Vilnius. I personally purchased two artworks that have great emotional value for me. All the funds raised at the auction help Ukrainians survive this tragic period.
This year we have invited Ukrainian gallerists and artists to participate in the fair as guests. We have found funding for them to attend the fair, for transport, accommodation, etc. We invited many more galleries to participate, but the situation during the war has been very difficult and not all galleries were able to come.
The Ukrainian gallery program will be represented by regular participants Tsekh, Ya Gallery from Lviv, Art14, and Ra Gallery from Kyiv, new names in the fair are Shcherbenko Art Center from Kyiv and Naked Room Gallery, which is representing Ukraine at the 59th Venice Biennale this year.
The Project Zone will feature a special program of videos dedicated to ecology and Ukraine, showing poetic, critical, anti-war, and other video works by Andro Eradze (Georgia), Dana Kavelina (Ukraine), Goda Palekaitė (Lithuania) and Adrijana Gvozdenović (Montenegro), Sashko Protyah (Ukraine), Anastasia Sosunova (Lithuania), and Miglė Vyčinaitė (Lithuania).
We are very grateful to the Embassy of Lithuania in Ukraine, Vilnius City Municipality, the Lithuanian Culture Institute, and the Lithuanian Cultural Attaché in Ukraine Ina Kniurienė for their prompt assistance in the organization of the Ukrainian art program for ArtVilnius’22.
OŁ: ArtVilnus has established a broad network of international collaborations. What is your strategy for providing a link between Western and Eastern art scenes?
DS: When the first fair was organized in 2009, the idea was to become a bridge between the Eastern and Western art scenes. The geopolitical situation changed in 2014, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and the recent anti-democratic processes in Belarus have driven talented artists and galleries out of the country. Bridges have collapsed. As far as the East and West of the European Union are concerned, we aim to present art from the Baltic states and the countries closest to them. We do not want to repeat the content of the big fairs, which have long been established on the international art market but to offer Western collectors and art professionals the opportunity to discover new names and new talents.
OŁ: What, in your opinion, will be the highlights of this year’s edition?
DS: 70 art galleries and institutions, 320 artists from 18 countries will be present in the three main halls of the Litexpo center and outside. Visitors, art collectors, and buyers will be welcomed there by the fair’s long-standing galleries Okapi (Estonia), Māksla XO (Latvia), Galerie Nivet-Carzon (France), the Lithuanian Artists’ Association Gallery Meno Parkas, Baroti (KADS), Meno Niša, The Rooster gallery, Galerija Kristina Norvilaitė, Terra Recognita, and others, as well as Galerie Intershop (Germany), Latvian gallery Look!, the Ministry of Art from Kaunas, and Tumo Gallery from Vilnius.
In the Project Zone, you will find the work of queer feminist Natalia LL (1937-2022) presented by the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow MOCAK, as well as the stage installation Injured Wind by Lithuanian artist Roberts Narkus, who is currently representing Lithuania at the Venice Biennale, and the group exhibition Do Octopuses Dream about People? by the Lewben Art Foundation, exclusive partner of ArtVilnius’22, which includes the sculpture Fat Car by Erwin Wurm, one of Austria’s most renowned artists, which explores the relationship between power, wealth, and body weight.
The Jonas Mekas diary 365 Days, presented by the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center to commemorate the centenary of the birth of the famous artist Jonas Mekas (1922-2019), is also a must-see, along with a program of video films dedicated to ecology and Ukraine. Twelve Ph.D. students of the Vilnius Academy of Arts will present parts of their practical research in the project Studies. Artists Danas Aleksa, Madeleine Andersson (Sweden), Anna K. E. (Georgia) and Florian Meisenberg (Germany), Oleksiy Radinski (Ukraine), and Marija Žiemytė will present their individual projects.
The international exhibition of sculptures, installations, and performances Takas has become a tradition at the fair. The curator of the exhibition, Assoc. Prof. Vytenis Burokas, is presenting 29 projects by individual artists. Monika Dirsytė, the favorite of the fair visitors, will show her new work Axis Code, which she will perform together with opera soloist Agnė Sabulytė. It will be an eight-hour dialog on the topic of the human axis, taking place on Friday and Saturday. The performance will take place outside Litexpo, at the entrance to the halls.
As every year, ArtVilnius’22 will also feature a selection of the best participants of the fair, chosen by an international jury. You can now choose your favorite works in advance in the online catalogue of the fair’s exhibitors at artvilnius.com/catalogue/artworks/. You will be able to save and download the selected works to your email. For those who cannot make it to the fair, you will have the opportunity to see the artworks and visit the galleries after the fair in an interactive 3D tour.
