More than 300 artists, 67 contemporary art galleries, 15 institutions from 14 countries of the world participated in the 15th art fair, which this year chose the slogan “Celebrate art!”.
On Sunday evening, the laureates chosen by the audience were awarded cash prizes and diplomas. The Rooster Gallery, which represents the generation of young Lithuanian artists, was recognized as the selected audience gallery of “ArtVilnius’24”. The gallery was awarded a special €1,000 “Volfas Engelman” prize.
“I can say that we were secretly hoping for this award,” said Jurgita Juospaitytė-Bitinienė, founder of The Rooster Gallery. – This year, our stand was in one of the most visible places, we felt a great responsibility to create such an architecture of the exhibition, so that not only our gallery, but also the entire fair would impress the viewer. Another challenge we faced was that we wanted to accommodate all thirteen artists in the gallery, we had to solve the equation without error, so we needed extra space, space and precise color choices. We heard a lot of compliments, visitors took pictures of the space and the works, we sold a lot of works, so we are very satisfied with the fair.”
The name of the selected artist of the “ArtVilnius’24” audience and the 1,000-euro “Volfas Engelman” prize were awarded on Sunday to the most popular artist of the fair – Sauliis Vaitiekūnas. His work – the interactive installation “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” was presented by the gallery “Terra recognita”.
“The name of the installation came from a somewhat ironic interpretation of the title of Milan Kundera’s novel “The Unbearable Lightness of Being”. My work is intended for adults, but it was most recognized by children. After all, it is said: those who are able to remain children will inherit the kingdom of God. Being can be very difficult, sometimes we ourselves make it so, we drive ourselves into a corner, thinking that there is no other way out. The installation is like a metaphor that invites you to look at many things from the outside, calm down, immerse yourself, play, recognize and find an unexpected way to solve the problem”, said the audience’s selected artist S. Vaitiekūnas, after which the children also dived into the installation created from 1,200 wine bags for three days. , and adults.
Photo by Gabrielias Jauniškis/ArtVilnius’24 awards
Over the course of three days, more than fifty events took place at the “ArtVilnius’24” fair – educations, presentations, discussions, excursions, performances. All of them reflected the direction of this year’s fair – Northern Europe.
Visitors to the fair had the opportunity to get acquainted with Scandinavian art, which is not often shown in Lithuania. Galleries and artists from Denmark, Norway, Sweden came to the fair, as well as guests from Finland, Belgium, Estonia, Latvia.
The audience of the fair also saw works of art by creators from France, Germany, Italy, Ukraine, Poland, the USA and other countries.
At the international sculpture, installation and performance exhibition “Takas”, curated this year by Maria Arusoo, head of the Estonian Contemporary Art Center and commissioner and curator of the Estonian Pavilion of the 60th Venice Art Biennale, visitors saw not only the works of prominent Estonian artists, sculptors Edith Karlson and Terje Ojaver , but also by the well-known Finnish artist Anni Puolakko and Lithuanian artists – the best installation of “ArtVilnius’24” by Dan Aleksas, Eglė Pilkauskaitė, Indrė Liškauskaitė, Kęstutis Svirnelis, Laima Kulbytė, Ludvikos Kesmins, Matas Janušonis, Monika Žaltauskaitė-Grašienė, Saulė Noreikaitė, Severija The works of Inčirauskaitė-Kriaunevičienė, Žygimantas Bėronts, Žilvinas Baranauskas, works of Estonian artists Keithy Kuuspu and Zody Burke.
The fair’s Project Zone program “Agency: about mice, stage and machines” was curated by art critic Dr. Dr. Valentinas Klimašauskas.
Among the participants of the Project Zone this year, it was possible to see Lithuanian artists – Igor Piekurs, presented by MTR Art foundation, Stasis Eidrigevičius, Jonas Anič, Gabija Grušaitė, Rytis Urbanskas, presented by Stasys Museum, a project by Lesia Vasylchenko, a Ukrainian based in Norway, for the Estonian pavilion at the Venice Biennale who represented Edith Karlson and Katja Novitskova and other artists and art institutions.
“We always emphasize the educational, cognitive function of the ArtVilnius’24 art fair, but at the same time we say that selling works of art is also art,” said its organizer, ArtVilnius manager Diana Stomienė, at the end of the fair. She assured that it is very difficult to estimate the volume of sales of works at the fair. Some pieces went to the buyers’ homes on the same day, some pieces are still being arranged on the walls of the houses.
D. Stomienė said that this year, especially, it can be seen how the interest of visitors has changed not only in Lithuanian authors, which makes the foreign galleries coming to the fair extremely happy. Every year, the audience better understands the benefits and principles of collaboration between artists and galleries, thus the event builds mutual trust and ensures transparency.
“We are very happy that not only the works of Lithuanian artists were sold at the fair and that Lithuanians discovered foreign galleries and artists. Today, we see and understand how strongly we have contributed to the formation of the art market and its growth over the past 15 years. In terms of quality, we certainly do not lag behind European contemporary art fairs. And we value it as strong international communication promoting Lithuanian culture”, said the founder and manager of ArtVilnius at the end of the fair.
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