Lithuanian Pavilion
Darius Mikšys
behind
THE WHITE CURTAIN
Lithuanian pavillion at the 54th Venice biennale (2011)
2011.VI.04 - IX.18
Scuola S. Pasquale,” Castello 2786
Venice, Italy
04 June - 18 September 2011
What would the first national exhibition of Lithuanian art, held in 1907, look like if it was put together today? In 1907, Lithuanian artists worked in different geographical contexts, yet they were united by their aim to lay the groundwork for the new national culture. Could a similar aim mobilize artists who live in the same geographic domain yet belong to different cultural contexts today? The critics who shared their impressions of the first Lithuanian exhibition saw in the featured works not only the new possibilities and aesthetic values of Lithuanian art, but also the symbolic national meaning, very significant at the time. Based on the notion of ethnicity, the historiography of Lithuanian art considers the 1907 exhibition the beginning of the history of Lithuanian art to this day. Would it be possible to put together a display of recently created Lithuanian art in which the viewer could recognize him- or herself, like in a mirror or on the cinema screen? And what could act as the link between these different art discourses?
This link is the state or the society, which selects the artists for a symbolic exhibition or allocates prizes and grants to further Lithuanian artists' creative work. The Lithuanian state's attention to art and artists suggests that their function is important to the society. Although the provision of social security to artists can be viewed as a certain tradition of social policy, the recipients of the State Grant also see it as a sign of targeted programming of the cultural product. In this way, the state acts as a curator, whose exhibition hall does not have walls, while the exhibition is on show for decades. Is it possible to see such an exhibition? How does one visit it? Can one see the state's curatorial process, which takes a remarkably long time and is incredibly large in scale? This project is an attempt to put together and display this symbolic exhibition curated by a modern state, turning it into a real exhibition, a real collection, a national archive.
The work for the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale of International Art is a collection of fine art works by artists who have received the State Grant from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania in the last two decades (1992-2010). The collection of works assembled according to this principle will present Lithuanian art as a phenomenon, process, and result planned by the Lithuanian society. The collection will allow an outside observer to comprehend the nature and the scale of the phenomenon, and will enable its creator – the Lithuanian society – to reflect on itself. It is important to present this collection, a representation of contemporary Lithuania, precisely at the Venice Biennale, a major international exhibition based on the national principle.
Work selection
The representatives of the fine arts who have received the State Grant have been invited to propose their works for the collection. The collection includes at least one work by each grant recipient. As the State Artist Grants have been awarded since 1992, the works included in the collection will represent the period of the last twenty years (the list of grant recipients is provided below).
Display concept:
A white curtain divides the space of the pavilion into two parts. The curtain hides everything that the viewer is not supposed to see. Assembled into a single project, the collection's exhibits end up beyond the line of display, curatorship, and, partially, the viewer's experience. Beyond the standards of display, beyond the white exhibition space, beyond the white curtain.
Presentation of the collection:
The pavilion functions as a gallery. It consists of two parts – the lobby/office space and the storage space. These are divided by a half-open white curtain, behind which one can see the packed collection of works. The visitor is greeted by the curator of the collection, who introduces the project's concept and demonstrates the catalogue presenting the works of the State Grant recipients. The visitor chooses from the catalogue the work(s) that he or she would like to see. Then the chosen works are unpacked and brought to the visitor from the storage space. The visitor visually inspects them on the exhibition table standing in the lobby. These works remain on the table for the other visitors to see until they are replaced by other works that the visitors express interest in. At this point, the works that were brought out first are packed again and taken back to the storage space behind the white curtain. In this way, each visitor can see a different, custom-made version of the Lithuanian collection. The presented works are registered.
This process of the works' presentation is viewed as a performance. The performing person, or the curator of the exhibition, must be well acquainted with the collection's content. He is the “ideal” viewer who virtually “sees” the collection as a whole.
Catalogue
The assembled collection will have a long-term symbolic value. The catalogue of the works comprising the collection will help to present the whole collection at the Venice Biennale and will simultaneously become a vast iconographic resource of the contemporary history of Lithuanian art that will perform an important historiographical and educational function. The collection's content should be perceived as an integral object of lasting value. The collection could be offered for acquisition by a museum. It could be displayed in other exhibition spaces according to the principle employed for its display at the biennale.
The catalogue of the collection is one of the key elements constituting the display. On the one hand, the catalogue will provide the possibility to see the whole of the collection during both the exhibition at the Contemporary Art Centre and the Venice Biennale. On the other hand, the catalogue will continue to function as a space for the collection's display after the biennale is over. In addition, its volume and design will turn it into an impressive autonomous art object. The planned format is a large square (40x40 cm), optimal for the publication of images with texts.
Why Darius Mikšys' project?
Lithuania has been represented at the Venice Biennale of contemporary art particularly successfully in the recent years, and has attracted international attention. One of the reasons for this is the fact that the presented projects are distinctive and original, and demonstrate the diversity of Lithuania's contemporary visual culture. Jonas Mekas' 2005 project presented a retrospective of the notable figure in the international history of art and reflected the Lithuanian culture policy's open approach to the pavilion's “national” basis. Gediminas and Nomeda Urbonas' 2007 project was distinguished by innovative form and multifaceted research, which involved spectacular sights, architecture, and objects. Žilvinas Kempinas' installation, presented in 2009, drew the visitors' attention with its technological solution and visual effect. This year the Contemporary Art Centre has decided to propose a project by Darius Mikšys because we believe that this artist's practice, which constantly offers new definitions of art, the artist, the work of art, the sphere of art, and the viewer, represents new and intriguing ways of thinking about contemporary art both in Lithuania and in the international art scene. In Behind the White Curtain, proposed for the Venice Biennale, Mikšys demonstrates, in a concentrated and clear manner, his distinctive creative principle, inviting other participants – all the representatives of the fine arts who have received the State Artist Grant since 1992 – to take part in his work. Through this simple gesture, he raises many questions. First, he proposes to visualize the collection of Lithuanian art legitimated by the grants. Second, by this national group exhibition he refers to the cradle of Lithuanian curatorial practice – the first Lithuanian art exhibition of 1907, and reflects on the contemporary national art historiography, as well as the problem of art's “nationality” as such. Third, he puts together an exhibition that might appear unimaginable, simultaneously reflecting Lithuania's culture policy of the recent decades and delegating the curator's role to the state.
Darius Mikšys' creative biography reveals the obviously growing international interest in his work. In the recent decade, Mikšys has been actively taking part in international exhibitions; he presented his works at the 2007 Lion Biennale, the 2008 Sydney Biennial, and Manifesta 2010. In his works, Mikšys projects his reactions to the existing contexts, environments and conditions for participation in the exhibitions, altering them and the “established” order. The artist usually accomplishes this by collaboration or creation of new social networks. In the exhibitions 24/7 Wilno – Nueva York and Urban Stories, Mikšys spontaneously interacted with the other participating artists' works, altering the latter. In 2007, he founded the still existing Vilnius Cricket Club. At the 2008 Sydney Biennial, Mikšys organised the meeting of the participants' parents, encouraging them to discuss the question of the artist's personal development, and simultaneously allowing the artists' parents to symbolically take the place of their children – the exhibition's participants.
About the 54th Venice Biennale
The theme of the 54th Venice Biennale, proposed by this exhibition's curator, the Swiss art critic Bice Curiger, is ILLUMInations. It emphasises the social aspect of contemporary art and its role in the shaping of contemporary identities. The curator has said that the 54th biennale offers her “the opportunity to reflect on the highly communicative aspect of today's art, which strongly engages and commits viewers – drafting a contemporary image of the individual in the broad collective and social context.” Seeking to stimulate the dialogue between the international exhibition and the national pavilions, Curiger has asked all of this year's biennale's artists to answer five questions:
• Is the art community a nation?
• How many nations are inside you?
• Where do you feel at home?
• Which language will the future speak?
• If art were a state, what would its constitution say?
The project's timeline
2010
August 4. The commission of the competition for the presentation of Lithuanian contemporary art at the 54th Venice Biennale of contemporary art selected Darius Mikšys' project Behind the White Curtain, proposed by the Contemporary Art Centre.
September 27-30. The artist and the organisers visited Venice to look for the premises for the Lithuanian Pavilion.
December 6. The official presentation of Darius Mikšys' project took place at the Contemporary Art Centre
December 20. Darius Mikšys sent a letter to the recipients of the State Grant, inviting them to contribute works to the collection curated by him.
2011
January 25th. 6 pm. An open discussion of the project was held at the CAC reading room. The grant recipients and other interested persons attended.
The information about the submitted works and their documentation for the catalogue were being collected until March 14th.
April 18th. An open office-exhibition presenting the collection opens at the CAC. The artists are invited to submit their works.
April 26th The collection catalogue is published.
May 1th. An open office-exhibition in CAC closes.
May 10th. The works are sent to Venice.
May 16th. The exhibition installation in Venice starts.
June 1-4. The official opening of the Venice Biennale.
September 18th. The closing of the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale.
The following artists have offered their works for inclusion in the collection:
Algimantas Kunčius, Saulius Paukštys, Arūnas Kulikauskas, Nijolė Valadkevičiūtė, Povilas Ričardas Vaitiekūnas, Elvyra Katalina Kriaučiūnaitė, Algis Skačkauskas, Nijolė Šaltenytė, Vilmantas Marcinkevičius, Leonardas Gutauskas, Romas Juškelis, Romualdas Inčirauskas, Aušra Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė, Arūnas Vaitkūnas, Bronius Rudys, Artūras Bumšteinas, Leonas Strioga, Dalia Matulaitė, Rytas Belevičius, Solomonas Teitelbaumas, Ramunė Pigagaitė, Reda Uogintienė, Vytautas Dubauskas, Patricija Jurkšaitytė, Rasa Staniūnienė, Arvydas Baltrūnas, Vidmantas Jusionis, Džiugas Katinas, Raimundas Martinėnas, Laima Drazdauskaitė, Mikalojus Vilutis, Arvydas Pakalka, Aistė Ramūnaitė, Ramunė Vėliuvienė, Alfonsas Vilpišauskas, Ričardas Dailidė, Ramūnas Čeponis, Audronė Petrašiūnaitė, Nomeda Saukienė, Kazys Venclovas, Eduardas Urbanavičius, Linas Cicėnas, Tadas Gindrėnas, Audrius Puipa, Žygimantas Augustinas, Eglė Velaniškytė, Ieva Bunokaitė, Nijolė Vilutienė, Lili Janina Paškauskaitė, Grytė Pintukaitė Valečkienė, Algimantas Vytėnas, Robertas Antinis, Vytautas Balčytis, Dalia Mataitienė, Dalia Mažeikytė, Romualdas Rakauskas, Remigijus Treigys, Kęstutis Lupeikis, Kęstutis Lanauskas, Rimantas Šulskis, Linas Katinas, Roberta Vasiliūnienė, Kęstutis Vasiliūnas, Romualdas Čarna, Juozas Vosylius, Aloyzas Stasiulevičius, Eglė Budvytytė, Algimantas Švažas, Irena Žviliuvienė, Naglis Rytis Baltušnikas, Justinas Vaitiekūnas, Ričardas Bartkevičius, Bronius Gražys, Danutė Gražienė, Valentinas Antanavičius, Saulius Čižikas, Pranas Griušys, Rimantas Dichavičius, Zita Inčirauskienė, Valentinas Ajauskas, Arvydas Ališanka, Vėtrė Antanavičiūtė, Paulius Juška, Gerardas Šlektavičius, Andrius Giedrimas, Aušra Andziulytė, Gediminas Piekuras, Saulius Kuizinas, Kristina Norvilaitė, Arūnas Baltėnas, Aleksandras Ostašenkovas, Arvydas Žalpys, Birutė Žilytė, Algirdas Steponavičius, Donatas Pirštelis, Eimutis Markūnas, Darius Joneika, Vytautas Švarlys, Marius Skudžinskas, Rimtas Tarabilda, Raimondas Martinėnas, Irma Leščinskaitė, Rūta Spelskytė, Algimantas Biguzas, Vytautas Tomaševičius, Vytautas Mockaitis, Rimaldas Vikšraitis, Jūratis Zalensas, Romualdas Požerskis, Daumantas Kučas, Evaldas Mikalauskis, Dainius Liškevičius, Viktorija Daniliauskaitė, Kazimieras Žoromskis, Evaldas Pauza, Artūras Valiauga, Jūratė Bogdanavičiūtė, Birutė Stančikaitė, Stanislovas Žvirgždas, Darius Žiūra, Algis Griškevičius, Violeta Rudinskaitė-Juodzevičienė, Jūratė Račinskaitė, Aurelija Maknytė, Ieva Babilaitė, Marijus Piekuras, Marija Teresė Rožanskaitė, Algimantas Šlapikas, Igoris Piekuras, Vaclovas Nevčesauskas, Darius Bastys, Dovilė Budreikaitė, Jūratė Kirtiklytė, Jolita Skėrytė, Gintautas Vaičys, Andrius Kviliūnas, Antanas Sutkus, Darius Mikšys, Jūratė Stauskaitė, Elena Zavadskienė, Linas Liandzbergis, Henrikas Vaigauskas, Algimantas Kuras, Antanas Obcarskas, Eglė Vertelkaitė, Jurga Barilaitė, Jūratė Mykolaitytė, Algirdas Selenis, Aurika Selenienė, Gintaras Zinkevičius, Nerijus Erminas, Joana Deltuvaitė, Tomas Kapočius, Egidijus Rudinskas, Linas-Julijonas Jankus, Vladas Vildžiūnas, Agnė Jonkutė, Vytautas Kalinauskas, Simonas Skrabulis, Ilja Bereznickas, Alfonsas Ambraziūnas, Bernadeta Levulė, Rudolfas Levulis, Gediminas Akstinas, Giedrė Gučaitė, Vitalijus Butyrinas, Kazė Zimblytė, Vytautas Umbrasas, Aleksandras Macijauskas, Aleksandras Vozbinas, Vidmantas Ilčiukas, Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, Regina Šulskytė
