On April 12th at 6 pm at gallery “Meno parkas” (Rotušės a. 27, 44279 Kaunas) will be held openings of two shows – “BALANDIS 2524” (Benxamín Álvarez, Xesco Mercé and Marc Vilallonga, gallery “La Xina A.R.T.”, Barcelona) and “Creature Comforts” by Greta Grendaitė and Tomas Vosylius (gallery “Meno parkas”).
Benxamín Álvarez, Xesco Mercé, Marc Vilallonga. BALANDIS 2524
On April 12th (Wednesday) at 6 pm at the 1st floor of gallery “Meno parkas” (Rotušės a. 27, Kaunas) will be held the opening of gallery’s partners from Barcelona – gallery “La Xina A.R.T.” presents project BALANDIS 2524 which includes creation of Benxamín Álvarez, Xesco Mercé ir Marc Vilallonga.
For happy coincidence, Meno Parkas also celebrates its twenty years. Quite happy to celebrate both anniversaries, we have prepared the current exhibition to celebrate it as it deserves. “Balandis 2524” brings together the works of three of the oldest members of La Xina A.R.T.: Benxamín Álvarez, Xesco Mercé and Marc Vilallonga. The title of the exhibition refers, in addition to the month of April in your precious and exotic (for us) language, to the exact number of kilometers, on foot, between Meno Parkas and our space in Barcelona. For this new exhibition exchange, we have prepared three great works for your space. Benxa presents his drawings in colored inks and watery pens, in which they appear curious, tender or spectral characters. Xesco presents a long-distance project, his particular Dictionary of Lies, more than 250 collages on plastic, worked with austerity with spray and felt-tip pens. And Marc presents his works to scissors on old catalogs of wallpapers, of the ones that were used for the houses in years 70, obtaining surprising results. As is the strange combination of our three works, a chromatic cocktail, at the same time playful and lucid, as it has always wanted to be La Xina A.R.T.
Gallery “La Xina A.R.T.”
Exhibition will be opened till 18 05 2017.
Exhibition is part of the gallery’s International artistic-cultural project “Art Line”.
Project is partly financed by Lithuanian Council for Culture, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania and Kaunas City Municipality programme “Iniciatyvos Kaunui”.
Greta Grendaitė, Tomas Vosylius. CREATURE COMFORTS
On April 12th (Wednesday) at 6 pm at the gallery’s “Meno parkas” (Rotušės a. 27, Kaunas) 2nd floor will be held an opening of the exhibition “Creature Comforts” by Greta Grendaitė and Tomas Vosylius (“Legal ART Lovers”). Exhibition is part of the 2nd Kaunas International Printmaking Biennial “Fragment Evolution”.
“As they crossed a clearing, like an island in that ocean, they saw in the distance and in a single place that the surface no longer moved in uniform waves, but was agitated irregularly, as if some animal, an enormous hare, moved in sinuous curves and not in a straight line, at a speed superior to that of any hare. Since these adventurers had already encountered animals, and of a sort that inspired no confidence, they tugged on their reins, and prepared for a new battle.”[1]
The phenomenon of battle was destroyed by preparation. It opened the river. You always walked on shores. You dive into it, pull something out of it. Flood. Low tide. You pull away or get closer when the big rabbit warns you. You see another river flowing into this one, or this one into the other one. You look for the clearest one. Forgetfulness absorbed the narcissus beds, the woodworm eggs, the exuviae of zombies. The fight also sunk, if there was one.
Hand distance is fatal when someone is drowning. You plunge into the current if necessary. The weight categories are different, it’s risky. But the river is favourable, it doesn’t possess. The Cheshire Cat smiles. The rabbit of fear hops along the other shore. You’re surprised – small. Shots echo. A deer plops down. Not hurt. Gives in to the stream, gets out on your shore, gets startled having met the onlooking gaze, calms down, gallops on.
There is no fight. If the dream floats it over, you will smell it, you swim around those looking for war, it doesn’t occur. You let the rabbit through as well. If it’s annoying, just mirror it back. You yourself fly over as a water-bird, become a reflection in the eyes of a deer. They remind you of your rivers, waves, the puncture-line of blinks, unique islands and other important trifles – distance, duration, the (non)materiality of the elements, water, air, …home. Home is everywhere. You breathe. Swish, here’s the rabbit again. Almost weightless. In the field of your peripheral vision, the shadow hops away over the roof, vanishes in the garden of memory clouds, toppling over the single flowerpot. The echo of the rabbit’s hops reminds you: life doesn’t care about a coherent plot.
Greta Grendaitė / Tomas Vosylius
Greta Grendaitė and Tomas Vosylius return to the gallery “Meno Parkas” with the third exhibition of the project “Disguise”. The project is travelling, changing since 2013, but the thematic line remains. Having creatively involved themselves in the contexts of the social tale, memory, the authors also glance at their own reflections in them. A reflection is important straightforwardly and metaphorically talking about duality and self-perception in the gaze of the Other. While “a world post-truth”, “a world post-shame” and similar concepts occur in cultural theory, the artists present an exhibition as an open opportunity for the puzzle of codes and, in the case of some objects, also offer a physical involvement.
Having found not the most favourite novel, but one that perfectly reflects the mentioned actualities through the imaginings of the Middle-ages, the authors of the exhibition play by diverting the passionate storyline of the archetypal liar Baudolino into the felt “real truth of life”. Is this one not utopian? The intention of such action goes against the meanings of traditional art as a break from everyday life. This is why you are invited not only to think how we ourselves absorb information from our surroundings, but also to utilise the symbols on offer, to “correct” the nuances, create new codes for a narrative or even your own fairy-tale.
