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| “INSTANT EUROPE” Andris Brinkmanis Exhibition of Photography and Video from the New Europe at the Villa Manin Centre for Contemporary Art The second wide-ranging project of the new Villa Manin Centre for Contemporary Art opened its doors to the public on 11 December in the township Passariano-Codroipo in the Friuli-Venezia Giulia region. "Instant Europe", an exhibition of photography and video art from the ten new European member states, is the joint creation of Franceso Bonami, artistic director of the Centre and the curator of the last Venice Biennial, and curator Sarah Cosulich Cannarutto. Latvia was represented amongst other participating countries by the works of Kaspars Goba and Katrīna Neiburga. | |
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The Decentralisation of Culture towards the Peripheries
The exhibition centre, which is located one hour's drive from Venice or Trieste and two from Ljubljana, "occupies" one of the most significant north-eastern Italian cultural monuments- the magnificent Manin family villa and gardens, built during the 16th-18th centuries, which is reminiscent of Rundāle Palace in terms of its architecture and monumentality. Located in an environment steeped in Baroque architecture, and thanks to an independent management that has developed a well-considered exhibition programme, the contemporary art complex is gradually transforming the villa's rooms from featureless commercial exhibition spaces into a vital centre for contemporary culture and art. The exhibition policy, developed by Bonami and his team, envisages not just the hosting of historical and travelling exhibitions, but also the creation of contemporary projects, not forgetting Italian artists, particularly those of the Friuli region, as well as exhibiting art from eastern block countries, so far not widely displayed in Western Europe. The horse stables have been dedicated to regional art displays, while during the warmer season the splendid park serves as a venue for sculpture and interactive performances. The active dialogue begun with the community and the centre's creative, fresh approach allow for the Villa Manin to compete ever more strongly with the more conservative museums of large cities, continuing the worldwide tendency for geographical decentralisation of cultural establishments. This approach and future intentions to establish a centre for artists-in-residence, as well as offering an engaging education programme, give the impression that this venue could become a significant centre for contemporary European art and culture in the future. Instant Europe The exhibition "Instant Europe" is the second serious project to follow the earlier show, "LOVE/HATE", which exhibited works from the collection of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (one of the many work places of Bonami) with the subtitle "From Magritte to Cattelan". If the first exhibition attracted viewers with the names of familiar artists (Rene Magritte, Bruce Naumann, Marcel Duchamp and others), then "Instant Europe" seems to be a truly brave step from a marketing perspective, and encourages one to believe that the defining factor for the new exhibition centre could be exhibition quality and innovation, rather than a safe profit margin. Without an unnecessarily pompous concept, loud slogans, or the intention to shock, the exhibition attempts to give an overview of Eastern European photo and video art in the last decade, revealing unusual social and cultural transformations, identity crises, as well as an interpretation of overarching human symbols and archetypes: not overvaluing, but also not forgetting about the historical, political, social and geographical context of the new European states. Thanks to this modest and unpretentious approach, and despite the fact that lately these kinds of exhibitions have been held continuously throughout "Old Europe", the curators of this exhibition have successfully created a display which instead of perpetuating established cliches and becoming a politicised copy, or providing a ready-made judgement of the nature of national art of the New Europe, allows viewers to construct their own personal mythologies about this as yet unfamiliar phenomenon, even without having detailed information about either the artists or the countries from which they originate. Although a large body of the exhibited works may already be familiar to the Latvian exhibition goer from exhibitions of art held in the Baltic States, the layout of "Instant Europe" and the interrelationship of the artworks give them a different context, allowing many of them to be discovered anew. The exhibition curators chose five works by Jaan Toomik, including the well known "Father and Son" (1998), "Dancing with Dad" (2003), and "Seagulls" (2004), which is testimony to Bonami's genuine liking for this artist. Of course, it should be pointed out that Toomik was the only artist so widely represented (his collaboration with Bonami began within the framework of the 50th Venice Biennale). The mature language of contemporary art of our neighbouring country is excellently represented by Toomik's works combined with Ene Liis-Semper's work "Oasis", in which topsoil is poured into the artist's mouth like into a flower pot and then a flower is planted in it; Kai Kaljo's 1997 video self-portrait "Loser" about the wretched status of the artist in society, and the not-so-convincing photo manipulations by Liina Siib, creating posters for invented movies. Lithuanian contemporary art, much more direct in its methods of expression, is also widely represented in the exhibition. Amongst the Lithuanian artists represented I would particularly like to single out Deimantas Narkevičius's video "Scene" (2003), in which, by combining shots of the architecture: the interior, exterior and separate details of an empty exhibition space with a voice-over of personal stories and dialogue about its history and future opportunities, the author succeeded in creating an original subject which offered wide information about historical and social changes that have taken place in Lithuania. Works exhibited by Arturas Raila in "Instant Europe" were already displayed at the Railway Museum in Riga last year at the exhibition "Roll Over Museum". Documenting representatives of the unorthodox subculture of Lithuanian car collectors with their fetishes - tuned cars, the artist makes one to contemplate the true meaning and function of art. Raila's artist's statement asserts that he has attempted to stress the inability of museums to integrate popular culture into their environment. In turn, the ironic title, translated in this context, became a comical antithesis to the view that museums are not meant for the masses, or are places where society cannot satisfy its desire for creative self-expression. Darius Žiūra's poetic video "Gustoniai" (2004), a technically interesting portraiture of Lithuanian rural inhabitants, weaves a dimension of time into the works (the work was filmed as video, in which the subject stands unmoving for a number of minutes, while the surrounding environment noticeably changes). In turn, Gintaras Makarevičius's video "Vaskichi" (2004), which immortalises suburban boys playing at war, seemed the weakest of the Lithuanian artists' contributions. The exhibition catalogue mentions that the work, balanced between documentary film and a sensitive observation of personal reality, reveals the economic and cultural changes that Lithuanian society has undergone in the last years. Nevertheless, personally I was not able to believe this due to the date of creation of the work - 2004 - because although the home-video approach and subject matter seemed well justified in a local context in 1996, today it seems more like a flirtation with the current global theme of war. The exhibition included video and photographic art by Polish artists that are already viewed as Eastern European classics: works by Katarzyna Kozyra and Artur Žmijewski. Katarzyna's video tells of a group of enthusiasts in Poland, who, wearing masks of sexy women, test weapons of all calibres and capacities at a military firing range. Žmijewski's work from 2000 has recorded a training lesson from a military unit, which the soldiers undertake completely naked. In turn, Kuba Bakowski's comically poetic video, in which an absurd dialogue between a person and a forklift occurs in a completely minimalist warehouse environment, and Anna Niesterowicz's work, in which teenagers attempt to demonstrate their understanding of life by dancing the presently popular hip-hop dance steps, represented the newer generation of Polish artists. Works by Latvia's artists, however, did not provide such a unified view of the main national contemporary art trends, although each individually fulfilled their allotted task within the context of the exhibition. The video by Katrīna Neiburga pleasantly distinguished itself from the other works with its visual aesthetics and conceptual resolution. In the context of the exhibition, the beautiful family idyll presented in the film seemed to suggest a critique of western self-satisfaction. Prior to joining the E.U., the leaders of the new member states as well as Europe itself were trying to create the illusion that on joining the Union the grass would be greener and people much happier. In this context the work gave certain freshness to the exhibition. In turn, Kaspars Goba can be likened to a good anthropologist, who in his photo stories records intriguing facts with unquestionably high documentary value, but in my opinion, they lack a certain edge added by the artist, that would change the works from simple observations to messages in which one can perceive a more motivated opinion from the artist. The artists of the rest of the ten countries are represented in more limited numbers. In the innovative video of Czech artist Michal Pechouček, digital images are recorded statically, and are later joined and animated with the help of technology, creating a surreal vertical journey downwards through an endlessly tall building, stopping at individual apartments, as a result rhythmically creating an abstract but traceable narrative line. Despite its excellent layout, on analysing the exhibition as a whole, one must unfortunately conclude that East European contemporary art, particularly in the works of the new generation of artists, is gradually becoming shallower in its choice of metaphor and is taking on more of a sociological approach as used by the media, balanced between passive documentation and conceptually shallow pandering to the latest fashion trends. This is undoubtedly influenced by the sources of funding for art (usually institutional), and their requirements, which the artists interpret too literally, in an attempt to join the institutional mainstream. This is the impression I gained as an East European viewing some of the works displayed in "Instant Europe", however, thanks to other powerful artists represented in the exhibition (Jaan Toomik, Ene Liis-Semper, IRWIN etc), the exhibition managed to maintain a unified concept and good rhythm. In conclusion, I would like to note the photographic work of the Slovenian artists group, IRWIN, "Dreams and Conflicts" (2004) - an event held at the last Biennial to simulate a situation that occurred in 1986, when artists who had not been officially invited to participate in the Venice Biennial arrived in Venice, and because of a lack of money were forced to spend the night on the steps of the Venice Central Station. This photograph, although visually quite neutral, can be considered as the key metaphoric work in the exhibition, which represents the relationship of the new and old Europe up until now. Attempting to distance myself from my Latvian identity, I would like to assert that the exhibition nevertheless presented a unified feeling of the rapid changes taking place in the new European countries, even without providing additional information. If any viewer, however, still wished to improve their knowledge of the new States, then this opportunity was provided by the bulky exhibition catalogue, in which are compiled the main statistical indicators for each new Member State. It is still too early to judge future relations between the new and old European states, however active cultural exchange seems to be at least one of the prerequisites for making the inanimate visions of politicians closer to reality. | |
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