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| Anita
Zabilevska Why Anita Zabilevska? The journalist looks inquiringly at me. At first I feel troubled by this questioning of my choice of artist, but then I see that it can be justified. On what grounds are artists selected? How do curators, art galleries or arrangers reason? I reply that it is because she is such a good artist. An obvious choice for the Baltic Art Center now being established in Visby. One of the foremost in the younger generation of artists, who is representing her country at the biennale in Venice this year. This new generation which is the first in the former Eastern Bloc without a past in the regime or the underground. Those who have grown up with open borders and a chance to travel, and who have an international horizon. An almost "normal" situation, but this normality is still so fresh. "Normal is new", as Anita Zabilevska said. The world is getting smaller today, increasingly uniform. It is often pointed out that we watch the same television programmes, listen to the same music, dress the same way, eat the same food. Some people fear a negative globalized standardization, erasing distinctive cultural features. This fear exists, sometimes expressed in nationalistic fundamentalism, but it also opens new opportunities for dialogue. In the past, art from the east, if it reached the west at all, was regarded with suspicion. Dialogue was made difficult because there were too few shared references and experiences; the lack of a common language. |
Now the cultures have come
closer together, and dialogue is in progress. Standardization? A destructive
globalization on unequal terms? Or a local and global –"glocal"–
awareness, firmly anchored in its historical and cultural heritage
and simultaneously with a window open on the world. A year ago I had a conversation with Anita about an exhibition on the concept of "Reflection". About reflections of light, sound, image or thought. Something hits a surface and comes back slightly changed, depending on the surface of the reflector. The artist as a reflector in today´s society, reinterpreting and rendering observations in the social, political or private sphere. Anita Zabilevska invites the visitor to enter a dialog with the place, with him- or herself, and with the artist. The title of the work plus/minus alludes to a step forwards or backwards – one small step and one has gained or lost. It is about territory and communication. With her origin in the flat surfaces of painting, she now chooses to work in three-dimensional space, with time and movement as further dimensions. The work is extremely interactive, or as Anita replied when people thanked her at the opening: "Don´t thank me, I must thank you for your participation." Art sometimes helps us to see. In a new way. Or perhaps just ourselves. Johan Pousette |
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| Dainius
Liskevicius The development of Dainius Liskevicius work reflects well the changes of Lithuanian art during this decade. He studied sculpture at the Vilnius Academy of Arts and during his first appearances in public in 1994–1995, he showed works situated somewhere between the sculpture and the object. He was a part of young Lithuanian artists who searched for new forms outside the traditional spaces of sculpture, painting, etc. The installations he created afterwards were one more step forward into the organisation of space and situations where object is only one part of the whole. During the last couple of years Dainius Liskevicius took part in several events, very close to performance art, thus leaving the object aside and engaging himself in the organisation of situations. If I try to point out some general features of his work, I would consider the investigations of social field as always present in his creation and certain easiness which characterises both earlier sculptural work and the later performative interventions. If we combine the social interests and this playfulness we will have an important artist´s strategy of post-communist societies. The world of totalitarian Soviet Union was ruled by a very rigid system of social values. It was a society of black and white, of a simple hierarchy of bad and good without any intermediary points. Theoretically you could only be a dissident or a conformist. As after the crucial changes of the beginning of the 90´s, the society became much more complex, and the general soviet type of world outlook could not cover all aspects of life. |
That´s why you will
not necessarily find this rigid value structure in most of the works
by younger artists who grew up in the chaos of social values. When
they explore one or another social phenomena it is not for evaluating
it. It is more often an attempt to provoke the reaction of the spectator
and to make her/him produce a personal opinion on the social aspect
pointed by the artists. This is the reason why so many young artists
try more to create situations where different people and meanings
mingle, but not a static work bearing a fixed sense in itself. The
meaning of these works by younger artists is formulated during the
complex interaction between a work and the spectators. This is one of the ways to see the last big project by Dainius Liskevicius "In/Out", first shown in the exhibition "Cool Places" at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius (1998). The structure of several automatic doors operating on the opposite basis is a metaphor of social context of the post-communist countries. It shows a clash between the offer of new social ideals and the fact the they are not accessible to a bigger part of society. On the other hand this work really functions only when the spectators create the playful situation, which is the content of the metaphor mentioned above. The playfulness of this work (kids especially like it) also reflects the important aspects of the "societe de spectacle" as described by Guy Debord. So "In/Out" is critical and descriptive at the same time. Jonas Valatkevicius Curator, Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius |
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| N55 Art and the vindication of everyday life N55 is a copenhagen-based artist group consisting of four Scandinavian members, who run their own exhibition space concurrently with their artistic practice. Their self-empowering stance balances between that of the alternative space and the self-defined, productive domain inside what Jeremy Rifkin has called "The Third Sector": people working in areas left unserved by government and corporations. n55 could be said to be a small parliament of social design, in which a magnification of artistic behaviour meets an emphasis on non-specialisation and comprehensive knowledge. So far, n55´s production of functional art objects with ethical and aesthetic consequences includes a home hydroponics unit (a device for the domestic growth of vegetables), a clean-air machine, a kitchen module, a hygiene system (low-cost bathroom), new designs for chairs, a bed and a table. Everything is of n55´s own design, in some cases with the help of experts to solve technical problems. The articles integrate a stringent visual language on the level of inscrutable aesthetic excess that imparts a popular standard to the objects and renders them immediately fascinating. A sort of minimalism with a social conscience. The objects are directly connected with everyday life´s different economies, and are produced primarily for the purpose of living and dwelling together with, and not merely for contemplation. n55´s art conjures up images of science-fiction films: intergalactic voyagers stranded on some inhospitable asteroid who, through science and ingenuity, attain a quality of life unheard of at home. Compared to an ordinary, utilitarian logic, their objects have a twist in relation to formalistic design: the object answers back at the activity that surrounds it, instead of being a design-like hypostasis of itself. For every element in n55´s production, there is an appurtenant manual with information and technical data. Like a score for the reproduction of the element in question, the manual demonstrates that anybody who so desires can build and install, for example, the clean-air machine. The manuals´dry reeling-off of data also encourages resource-transfers among consumption, time, work and material. For example, the production price of the Home Hydroponic Unit corresponds to what it costs to acquire a Bang & Olufsen television set or to buy a mediocre painting. In the summer of 1999, n55´s efforts resulted in the erection of n55 Spaceframe, a major accumulation of their structural endeavours in discussions of political and social consequences of artistic practice. |
The n55 Spaceframe could
be described as a diy house, constructed in a sort of intelligent
lego system of stainless steel, following a principle developed by
the American universalist Buckminster Fuller. Approximately 6 metres
high and with the living space for two or three persons, the n55 Spaceframe
was inaugurated on a site by the Copenhagen waterfront, where materiality
and morphology of the shiny, scaly stainless steel pod amalgamated
the utilitarian with the fantastic. Incorporating a critique of architecture´s
perpetuation of traditional ideas of housing, n55 Spaceframe seemed
oddly parasitic on urban space, as a different kind of social determinant
and role maker. The unfamiliar appearance of the n55 Spaceframe is in keeping with its radical adaptability, conceived as it is as a housing solution independent of local styles. The primitive, crystalline geometry is independent of scale and hints at the flexible logic of its construction, suggesting the possibility of other manifestations of this type of geometric architecture could multiply. In practical terms this is not unimaginable. A version of n55 Spaceframe could be mounted "by anybody", n55 promises, using small, lightweight components that can be easily manufactured and reassembled without damage. For the cost of an average car, the n55 Spaceframe can be assembled by hand without the use of cranes or other heavy tools. It has no need for exterior maintenance, and it has the potential for zero energy consumption – heating being provided by proper insulation and sunlight, cooking and the physical activity of its occupants. Due to its experimental state, the n55 Spaceframe is still subject to adjustments when subjected to the rigours of everyday life, but these seem few and easily surmountable when considered in relation to the initial task of re-inventing the house. If the idea of settling in an n55 Spaceframe doesn´t appeal to you, then n55´s project at least constructively constitutes ways of reflecting on the opposition between the individual and the forms of habitual thinking that sneak their way in as a syntax for our lives. n55´s project takes on psychogeographical proportions in the sense that it works at the same time as a cloud of conjecture and as palpable interventions in everyday life. One could object that n55 is merely replacing the old habits and linguistic forms with new kinds of habits, but in the space between these two positions and in the movement away from that which already is ossified toward the new and self-conceived, room is being made for the formulation of new differences. |
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| ARTMOVEMENT Contemporary dance and performance from the Nordic countries and the Baltic Sea region was presented in Visby from the 23rd to the 27th July 1999. One of the aims of the festival was to investigate the borders between dance, movement and the visual arts; many of the companies were invited as representatives for cross-cultural activities. Åsa Unander-Scharin creates dance pieces in cooperation with composers, visual artists, dancers, musicians, and computer programmers. Orfeus Klagan was shown as a video projection of an industrial robot which performed in a remarkably dance-like manner. Efva Lilja and e.l.d. performed Beyond the Pale from Efva Liljas first meeting with the space in the warehouse. "A journey through inner landscape" performed with uncompromising precision and artistry. The Estonian dance company Box rm premièred its stage version of Six from Eighteen. Box rm strives to work for increased comprehension of abstract thought within the language of dance. many of the companys performances are site-specific and seek contact with a non-traditional audience. The Russian choreographer Sascha Pepelyaev experiments with blending dance and the spoken word. The theme is a reflection of the fear found in human contact, and the simultaneous randomness and similarity in the contacts gives us a feeling of tragedy mixed with equal amounts of joy and fragmentary existence. Dorte Olesen gave a première performance of d a m min docka, and Ann Külper and tiger performed in front of the Art museum. |
No-one will forget the costume
of frogs which Jukka Korpi wore in Mate Date, nor the evening at St.
Katarinas ruin with Skåda, a dance installation by Johanna Ekström
and E=mc2, expressing nakedness as lack of protection but also as
clothing. Jo Strömgren performed Maskuline Mysterier, a piece
about love, friendship, and communication through dance, theatre,
music, puppets, shadowplay and film. Part Number Seven was Latvian
Olga Zitluhinas first solo project, and had been performed for the
first time a month earlier at a dance festival in Kazakstan. The festival closed monumentally with Bogdan Szyber and Carina Reich´s The Hidden, which had been performed only once before at Moderna Museet in Stockholm. Seven long-haired women in ankle-length dresses of sturdy nylon with two-metre-long arms stand in front of huge oil barrels filled with water. Behind the women are glowing hot iron plates. At an accelerating tempo, the arms are washed, the hair and heads submerged, the oil barrels are pounded by the arms, and the women dive into the oil barrels. The water falls down on the glowing iron, and steam rises in the room. Both the performance and the festival moved towards a combined crescendo, leaving us with unforgettable impressions. |
BAC is financed by Gotland Municipality and the Swedish National Council for Cultural Affairs and Nordic Culture Point. Cooperates with Visby Motorcentral and Wisby Hotel. |