News
2022-05-16
"Collecting Hits. Artworks and Soundtracks From the Collection of the Lewben Art Foundation" at Klaipėda Cultural Communication Center
On 20 May, 5.30 pm the exhibition "Collecting Hits. Artworks and Soundtracks From the Collection of the Lewben Art Foundation" will open at Klaipėda Cultural Communication Center (Didžioji Vandens g. 2, Klaipėda). The exhibition offers an insight into the collection of the Lewben Art Foundation, as well as the soundtracks produced for its artworks, in reflecting the phenomenon of popularity in the field of culture.
The “Collecting Hits” exhibition does not provide any answers, solve problems, or draw conclusions. It raises questions, puts forward hypotheses, perceives and contemplates situations and meanings of the phenomena of popularity in art by using various artworks and specially created soundtracks of various periods and media. In other words, the exhibition is the moderator of a discussion on popularity.
With the changing of time periods and political, economic, and social situations, as well as the very art viewers, the perception of the value and popularity of art also changes. In thinking about the meanings of popularity and the works of art created at different periods of time, it is handy to perceive them as particular modern myths (Roland Barthes), or as objects found in a social environment that deform the meaning, distort the image of the visible world, and define the ways to see and understand things. The exhibition asks the following questions: is an artwork a modern myth of these times? Does the value equate to popularity? How do the very personalities in the arts / music field perceive popularity? Does popularity (not) kill an artwork? How does art keep various social and political issues up to date by paying attention to them? Or how do the same social and political problems become employed as guarantors of the popularity and value of an artwork? Does art really become a veritable alternative currency (David Joselit, Hito Steyerl), which is often more stable than the “real” ones? After all, what determines that at one time or another, one or another artwork or phenomenon of the field of art, a genre or a media, suddenly becomes trending?
In reflecting on the various popularizing and updating strategies for visual art, the exhibition combines artworks from the Lewben Art Foundation collection with sound art and the music industry, which society associates with popularity more often than it does visual art. Thus, Lithuania’s musicians, composers and sound artists representing various musical styles were invited to participate in the exhibition.
Artists: Knut Åsdam, Adomas Danusevičius, Ugnius Gelguda, Dr. GoraParasit, Alfredo Jaar, Vytenis Jankūnas, Patricija Jurkšaitytė, Vitas Luckus, Mindaugas Lukošaitis, Jurgis Mačiūnas, Mohamed Namou, Vita Opolskytė, Igoris Piekuras, Marija Teresė Rožanskaitė, Šarūnas Sauka, Augustinas Savickas, Antanas Sutkus, Indrė Šerpytytė, Andrius Zakarauskas.
Authors of soundtracks: Rokas Beliukevičius, Arturas Bumšteinas, „Freaks on Floor“, Vytautas V. Jurgutis, Giedrė Kilčiauskienė, Žygimantas Kudirka-Mesijus ir Adas Gecevičius („Vilniaus energija“), Andrius Mamontovas, Migloko, „Solo ansamblis“, „Sheep Got Waxed“.
Organisers: Lewben Art Foundation, Klaipėda Cultural Communication Center
Curators: Ugnė Bužinskaitė, Danutė Gambickaitė
Coordinator – Giedrė Marčiulaitė
Architecture – "IMPLMNT architects"
Designer – Laura Grigaliūnaitė
Partners: Klaipėda city municipality, "JCDecaux"
Sponsors: "Lewben", "Equite", "Enercom Capital", "Strategy Labs", "Nordgain", Lithuanian Council for Culture, "Nordstreet", "KTVG"
Collecting Hits. Artworks and Soundtracks From the Collection of the Lewben Art Foundation
Klaipėda Cultural Communication Center (Didžioji Vandens g. 2, Klaipėda)
2022 05 20–07 10
