June

(International exhibition of contemporary art “KoViKaVi" in Kaunas) Kotryna Džilavjanaitė
www.kamane.lt, 2007 06 11

Raul Rajangu, “Bedroom‘s Show: Global Gorilla. Gazprom”

Ričardas Nemeikšis, “Without Name”

Ramūnas Alminas, “Without Name”

Jonas Gasiūnas, “Lesson of Anatomy”

Konstantinas Gaitanži, “This and That you Wanted to Know about the End of the World but did not Dare Asking Your Mother”

Eglė Ridikaitė, “13.00”

Marius Skudžinskas, “Go”

Svend Danielsen, Jesper Fabricius “Tape Modern. Tape Gallery"

Sven Danielsen, Søren Ankarfeldt, Jesper Fabricius, “Gate to Freedom”

Svend Danielsen, “Without Name”

In brief: The international art project “KoViKaVi” occupied spaces of Kaunas galleries at the end of May and attracted attention of the audience by the tone reminding dada times. The ideas of Lithuanian, Danish and Estonian artists migrated round Europe for some time until they were embodied in the joint and rather eccentric exhibition. Its subtitle “PostBliaBlu” reflects the naughty mood of the participants and the post-art direction of creation.

The concept of the event was constructed according to the principle of map of thoughts – the theme of the exhibition was moulded and corrected by representatives of three countries. The model of free supervision granted democracy to the project but did not help to avoid incoherence in search for selection criteria of ideas and exhibits. The problems of “KoViKaVi” became clear in the first exhibition in Viborg last year when no common frame of the exhibition was found.

There is not much consistence in the exhibition of this year as well – the artists attempted to turn the telescope of thought towards the future; however, in fact the manifestation of the idea was alive only in the catalogue and annotations of the event. Much more particular plots are visible in the works – death, longing, social relations, consuming, terrorism, etc. Artists embody these themes with the help of pure painting, drawings, video works, photography and 3D objects. Influences of past art trends are visible: playfulness of fluxus, dadaistic improvisation, futurist searches, manifestations of junk art.

The honour of the event is saved by Kaunas and Vilnius artists who present more or less successful works which do not make one feel shame. Lithuanians are trying to find the structure of time (Agnė Jonkutė, Antanas Obcarskas, Arvydas Žalpys), they show the sense of humour and irony regarding pop culture (Konstantinas Gaitanži, Evaldas Pauza, Marius Skudžinskas), more original motives are presented (Jonas Gasiūnas, Eimutis Markūnas, Eglė Ridikaitė).

Estonian creation is hard to notice at the Picture gallery. Only Raul Rajangu became prominent in Meno Parkas gallery spaces by the massive installations and tasteless artistic language about the flirt of business and politics. Meanwhile, Danish artists remind of a amateurs’ circle - Søren Ankarfeldt, Svend Danielsen, Toni Larsen, Peter Stuhr, and Jesper Fabricius brought painted cardboards, nesting boxes, plastic dishes, tape and various trimmed objects to Lithuania. Everything is exhibited respectfully on the floor and walls of the gallery. A film is shown how the Danes played with their “toys”. Let it be junk art, but does it pulsate some creativity or a fresh thought?

Unfortunately, these doubtful artists of local importance are met in Lithuania accompanied by ambassadors and a crowd of spectators, nobody even attempts doubting the value of their creation. The wish of exhibition organisers to introduce foreign contemporary art practices and exchange ideas and experience may be understandable but why such suspicious companions are chosen? It seems that the participants of “KoViKaVi” have forgotten that they took the responsibility of the exhibition supervisor, who is responsible for the strict selection system. The project “KoViKaVi” intends to cover more countries of Europe; still, it should not crash the self-esteem of artists, professional ambitions and residues of artistic conscience.