The title of the new biennial refers to its semantic and aesthetic character: OT is conceived as a platform and space for artists that develop minimal or minimalist language in their work with such keywords as reduction of form, reserved narration, aesthetics of silence, abstraction, monochrome, etc.
The Laconica biennial also seeks to bring visual art and other fields of art together, to generate creative ideas and collaborative projects, and draw attention to relevant contemporary trends and ways of thinking.
The biennial consists of three events:
Solo show entitled I AM HERE FOR YOU by artist Rieko KOGA at Pamėnkalnio Gallery (1 Pamėnkalnio St., Vilnius). 1 October – 4 November, 2021. Opening reception will start at 6 pm.
Rieko Koga is a contemporary Japanese artist currently living and working in Paris. The artist’s work stands out by a monochrome yet expressive style, and an astounding mastery of contemporary textile language. Her handmade embroidery and stitches on white fabric build nearly sculptural and graphic-like objects and her works often acquire the features of installation art. Rieko Koga’s work embraces the experiences of Japanese and Western culture, existential themes, intersections of nature and civilization.
According to art critic Sonia Recasens, for Rieko Koga embroidery is an essentially spiritual practice, and the patient work involved invites contemplation. The thread of “encounter and memory” that she weaves becomes the seismograph of her moods, as if her prayers accompanied the needle in the poetic writing of the stitches. Fabric is no longer a piece of clothing but a membrane, like a second skin, imprinted with traces of reality, of memory and of the psyche. As she doesn’t make any preliminary drawing, Rieko Koga embroiders like she thinks, like she writes, like she breathes, like she dreams. She stretches the thread of time with her needle for an intense exploration of deep self projected outside herself in the shape of stitches. This subtle alchemy of mind and body carefully interwoven by the magic of thread and needle touches and disturbs us.
Photography: Laurynas Skeisgiela
Group show entitled LACONICA at Tsekh Gallery (6 Vytenio St., Vilnius). 1 October – 4 November, 2021. Opening reception will start at 7:30 pm featuring a performance by artist Židrija Janušaitė.
Artists: Jovita Aukštikalnytė-Varkulevičienė, Ina Budrytė, Andrius Erminas, Nerijus Erminas, Vaiva Frančiakaitė, Aurelija Maknytė, Jaromír Novotný, Eglė Ridikaitė, Renie Spoelstra, Birutė Stulgaitė, Takashi Suzuki, Gintautas Trimakas, Justinas Vaitiekūnas.
The artists of the exhibition are like modern alchemists interested in extracting ideas and converting them into new and pure values. Some of the authors focus on such concepts as light and colour, seeing them not as divine abstract emanation but as independent, material, almost physically tangible objects. Others seek inspiration from nature, perceiving it as a fundamental, primordial “theory of everything”. Still others borrow images from their environment and reduce them many times, making them so dense and concentrated that they reach the state of singularity similar to the black holes.
POETRY AND SILENCE: a minimalist poetry reading at Pamėnkalnio Gallery (1 Pamėnkalnio St., Vilnius). 21 October, 6 pm.
Poets Donaldas Kajokas, Aidas Marčėnas, Indrė Valantinaitė, Dovilė Zelčiūtė will read their works live. Music by Simonas Nekrošius. Curated by Dr. Aušra Kaziliūnaitė.
All the events are free of charge.
Organiser: Pamėnkalnio Gallery.
Curators: Agnė Jonkutė, Kotryna Džilavjan, Aušra Kaziliūnaitė.
Architect: Vladas Suncovas.
Designer: Monika Janulevičiūtė.
Public relations specialist: Stefanija Jokštytė.
Sponsors: Culture Ministry of the Republic of Lithuania, Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius City, Clear Channel Lithuania.
Partners: Tsekh Gallery, Hunt Kastner Prague, Galerie Ron Mandos, Lithuanian Writers’ Association, Lithuanian Artists’ Association.
Photography: Laurynas Skeisgiela
