Latvian curator Solvita Krese implemented in the National art museum of Ukraine joint Northern Baltic and Ukrainian art project “Identity."
Latvian curator Solvita Krese implemented in the National art museum of Ukraine joint Northern Baltic and Ukrainian art project “Identity. Behind the curtains of Unidentified,” which is hard to understand. It’s not just the case that Northern Baltic counties have another, compared to Ukraine, cultural and artistic traditions, and not because of the total entropy of a readable artistic gesture or valuable artistic statement of the Postmodern.
The exhibition project about the Ukrainian local or regional identity, even though funded at the European partners' expense, isn’t actually after the Revolution of Dignity. “Anything goes!” — supposedly, the essential aesthetic message of the exhibition project, which is understandable and on time in stable societies / developed markets, where art of all kinds is in demand, but not suitable for the leading Ukrainian art institution, which theoretically has to legitimate only highest artistic achievements. If contemporary northern Baltic art, according to the curator, still reflects upon the “conceptual” legacy of Joseph Kosuth, the author of the renowned installation “One and The Three Chairs” (1965), so it’s useless to seek the original formal decisions and quality content in that mix of whatsoever.
Solvita Krese, director of the Latvian Center for contemporary art: “It was fascinating to work with the Museum, after all, we all felt like inside the time machine, that had been moving backward.” Longer than two years of preparations. Two floors of the museum. Twenty-six artists and art groups from nine different countries. Duration of the exhibition — two months. In all that marasmarium let’s ask for help and informed opinions for respected representatives of the philosophical community, who are interested in contemporary art. Sasha Geller, the founder of the Pastiche Project: “If the curator decided to emphasize the conceptual aspect, she’d better arrange the theoretical grid, and texts, which can support the project. Have a look, for instance, at what a theoretical network building up Jussi Parikka around the artworks of just a single artist. Or, else, remind yourself of a fragment from “The Map and the Territory,” by Michel Houellebecq, where the artist ordered his text to the protagonist, and how thoughtfully the latter is working on it. I mean that a text in contemporary and wider conceptual art plays an important role (whether that’s good or bad — another question, but that’s the dry fact). Hence, when I’m reading a text about an exhibition, which signifies the importance of quite ordinary casual photographs on the wall, and which is even more boring than the majority of the texts on Facebook, I kind of don’t understand the motivation of the curators at all. It could be better to point out whenever difficult text of a star of the philosophical community on Facebook, like Maxim Goryunov, and get the photographs arranged afterward. You know, I’m attending the Art Vilnius art fair about four or five times already, the biggest art fair in Eastern Europe, and saw and befriended many Baltic artists, so I can compare. And I have a general impression, that these years the curators were not under the untenable burden. If you walk around across the artworks of the exhibition, it’s becoming crystal clear that its execution not required huge financial or any other investment. Overall easier to deliver video art on someone’s USB through borders, absolutely another thing is to claim insurance or get a pairing through the border. Believe me, in Lithuania and in Latvia they’re what we call master artists, it’s just none of them here at the exhibition. One more aspect that I don’t understand — is why near sculptures of Gabríela Friðriksdóttir or “Carpet of Promises,” by Roman Minin and a few other artworks, the techniques of production weren’t properly mentioned. I realize that the curator is bombarding me with the concepts, but I stand for, you know, craft, for me it’s essential how this or that work was made. From the perspective of new decisions or concepts this exhibition isn’t resonating, they are simply absent. From just the work of Meriç Algün Ringborg's “Shortened Collection of visa applications,” I got a sense of practical sense. After all, in short: a concentrated sour cream”.
Kitya Vasylieva, director of projects of the Latvian Center for contemporary art: “The current physical situation of the building of the Museum shocked me badly — it’s clear that its exhibition space and resources are not working properly. At the moment it’s alive due to the enthusiasm and responsibility of its staff workers, which isn’t a sustainable model for existing of any cultural institution. What is considered to be one of the most prestigious and respected art institutions of Ukraine, in reality, wasting its time-fighting roof leakages, and old sewerage, and looking for ways to have the electricity pay bills paid. Luckily, this museum is alive at least, and that the exhibition happened at all.”
Occasionally, we face the implementation of political agendas by the means of contemporary art, and the content is under the question mark. The curator of this project, Ms. Solvita, as chief officer for the Latvian pavilion in Venice, in 2015, example, created back then an aesthetic show. So, what we saw exhibited now in the National Museum, I mean Northern Baltic art, simply can’t be consumed by an unprepared (dumb) Ukrainian audience? Right, I’m not crossing the borders between countries every month, but I guess millions of my countrymen do even less so.
My spectator’s concern lies in the fact that after two excursions across the exhibition, I can’t get the curator’s idea — the movie director of this show. Therefore, you guys either will be offering the local audience an hourly audio guide or a dictionary. Can it be so that just embracing the digital technologies in art, such as I mean, multimedia installations, video, digital photographs, etcetera, influences on acceptance of artists to the National Museum? What are the criteria for their selection? Perhaps, we don’t have any actual artists in Ukraine anymore? Is it enough to make an impression of a public statement about social or political issues, doesn’t matter with whom to communicate, to articulate (speak out) whatsoever, creating an impression of quasi- (pseudo-)artistic discourse, to show off some secondary post-conceptual shadows (mists?), and here we go, all is done? And, last but not the least, a question: is that a movie hall or a shop for used clothes?
If there’s an exhibition of Soviet-styled achievements of the farming industry for common folks, achievements of masters from Northern Baltic, the location better suited is the VDNKh (Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy, Kyiv). If there’s all about novice philosophical approach, I mean also the project’s catalog, then it had to be hosted by the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine (Kyiv). The artworks are so unreliable and unrecognizable that even the catalog won’t be useful for the purpose. And what’s the sense to visit the contemporary art exhibition aiming to find answers in the catalog? Ms. Yulia Vaganova, vice director for Museum’s exhibitions, kindly didn’t reply to my requested questions, which by itself is a kind of an answer. Maybe not only me who can’t understand what’s happening. There’s an overall impression that we overrun the Northern Baltic art so remarkably, that still got stuck somewhere in the rear. Additionally, the satiation is unfolding in such a way that the problem about the content’s originality isn’t even raised up: after all, it’s got perfectly hidden behind the curtains of unidentified Uncertainty.
