Foto

Video interviews with 11th Kaunas Biennial artists

Arterritory.com

27/10/2017

- 11th Kaunas Biennial “There And Not There: (Im)possibility of a monument” -
Kaunas, Lithuania
Through November 11, 2017

The 11th Kaunas Biennial “There And Not There” is open through 11 November 2017 and questions the notion of monument: what, when and why should a monument be or not be. While opposing the populist practice of removing-erecting and conservative traditionalism, both of which are prevalent in the memory discourse of public art in Lithuania, the Biennial will stimulate and legitimise new, contemporary, conceptual, and relevant ideas and strategies of remembrance. 

The 11th Biennial’s curator, artist Paulina Pukytė, has invited artists from Lithuania, Germany, Slovenia, Great Britain, Japan, the Netherlands, South Africa, and Poland to make site-specific installations for Kaunas.

The following videos provide a quick insight into the Biennial, with commentaries from the artists.


HORST HOHEISEL and ANDREAS KNITZ. This is a very special place. This abandoned monument – to remember the young communist heroes, murdered before the first occupation. This place was also the Jewish ghetto. And at this time of the Jewish ghetto the Nazi crime is completely forgotten.


ALLARD VAN HOORN. This building was constructed from the 20’s and only finished in the 90’s, and now is a church, but also possibly one of the 26 jamming stations.


EMMA GOLDMAN (1869-1940) – the iconic figure of the fight for women’s rights and social justice, as well as of the anarchist movement – was born in Kaunas, in a Jewish family. It is said that her farther hoped desperately for a son; for him a daughter would be a sign of failure. KAROLINA FREINO locates her Monument to Emma Goldman at the confluence of the Nemunas and Neris rivers in Kaunas – the site relates to the power of unity and solidarity that was one of the key aspects of Goldman’s ideas. The live process of the translation of Morse code, letter by letter, is visible online at www.goldman.bienale.lt.


This installation is a homage to the Kaunas-born Lithuanian-American artist and the co-founder of the Fluxus movement, GEORGE MACIUNAS (1931-1978). His Music for Everyman (1961) consists of a musical score as a catalogue of possible sounds and actions. A number of seats in the Kaunas Social Insurance Office waiting area have been installed with pressure sensitive pads. When a visitor sits on the seat, a pre-recorded sound is activated. Thus ANTON LUKOSZEVIEZE causes the general public to unintentionally perform Music For Everyman. The location of the Social Insurance Office for this “monument” is not accidental: everyone comes here, and it is due to the perpetual stream of visitors that this monument to Maciunas exists – always, but only when there is someone there to create and perceive it at the same time.

Participating artists of “There And Not There: (Im)possibility of a monument”: Adina, Manca Bajec, Karolina Freino, Allard van Hoorn, Jenny Kagan, Horst Hoheisel & Andreas Knitz, Jonas Oškinis & Raimundas Krukonis, Juozas Laivys, Dainius Liškevičius, Anton Lukoszevieze, Philip Miller, Tatzu Nishi, Paulina Pukytė, Juozas Zikaras. Special guest: Sophie Calle 

www.bienale.lt