Kaunas Biennial – UNITEXT
13 September 2013 – 31 December 2013
Organized since 1997, Kaunas Biennial is an event for contemporary textile art in Europe. Every event of the biennial is created from scratch, i.e. by changing the structure, the conditions of participation, the character of exhibitions, the conception, also by involving [new] partners, curators, artists and people working in different areas of culture for a common purpose: communication through the expression of art and creative processes.
So far the art of textile in Kaunas Biennial was the prime mark of the whole event. However, various contemporary art practices were started to be implemented: community-directed social projects, such as “Friendly Zone” (from 2007) and “Hemispheres” (2009-2011 m.). Kaunas Biennial 2011 was exclusive for its interdisciplinary art projects: visual artists collaborated with contemporary dance artists and performers. Kaunas Biennial can be distinguished not only for the variety of art it presents every two years, but also for its institutional independence.
The 9th Kaunas Biennial UNITEXT will create conditions for immediate collisions of an artwork and a spectator, allowing the experience of art as a universal text. Curators of the exhibition together with artists will pursue a concept that is new and unfamiliar in a cultural context and will consolidate it by presenting practical examples. We will go into the question of a unitext, which is the latest link in work -> text -> intertext -> hypertext -> unitext semiotic chain of a philosophic / art criticism / artistic field.
In 2013, Kaunas Biennial UNITEXT will present works that do not require explanatory texts. Perception of these artworks is based on intuition, materiality and spontaneity, feelings and deja-vu, and they should be perceived employing here-and-now experience. An artwork that implies unifying experience can be seen as The Unitext in the field of contemporary art. In other words it is an artistic confrontation based on horizontal (dependable) relationship, or silent discourse, it is a catcher of consciousness of homo universum.
Invited artists:
- Patricia Piccinini (Australia)
- Gao Yuan (Taiwan)
- Monika Žaltauskaitė-Grašienė and Bronė Neverdauskienė (in collaboration with Ignas Kazakevičius, Lithuania)
Artists of the Competitive Exhibition:
- Ai ITO / Japan
- Marija Marcelionytė / Lithuania
- Audrius Janušonis / Lithuania
- Boris Oicherman / Israel
- Chun Hua Dong / China – Canada
- Craig Fisher / United Kingdom
- Judit Hettema / The Netherlands
- Dana Sederowsky / Sweden
- Harri de Ville (Sabrina Inkeri Harri and Alexia de Ville de Goyet) / Finland – Belgium
- Horia Boboia / USA
- Jūratė Jarulytė / Lithuania
- LIAO, Chi-Yu / Taiwan
- Rubiane Maia / Brazil
- Silvia Giambone / Italy
- Vidmina Stasiulytė / Lithuania
- Violeta Laužonytė / Lithuania
- Naglis Baltušnikas / Lithuania
- Kristina Sereikaitė / Lithuania
- Sadik Kwaish Alfraji / Iraque – The Netherlands
FILM category:
- Tamar Nissim / Israel
- Victoria Marchenkova / Russia
- Wei Liu / China
- Danny Winkler / United Kingdom