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Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius

52nd International Art Exhibition — La Biennale di Venezia

Lithuanian Pavilion
Artists: Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas
Project: Villa Lituania
Commissioner: Simon Rees
Venue (returning to): Ludoteca, Santa Maria Ausiliatrice, Castello 450, 30122 Venice

The Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius, is proud to announce the selection of Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas as artists representing Lithuania at the 52nd International Art Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia. The project Villa Lituania, principally funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, is being organized by the Contemporary Art Centre and lead by CAC curator Simon Rees.

Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas have established an international reputation for their socially inter-active and inter-disciplinary practice that engages with the fabric of everyday life, public social space, and even political space, focusing on issues relevant to Lithuania. Generally, their practice is comprised of collective activities—workshops, lectures, debates, television programs, Internet chat-rooms, and public protest actions—that form around a specific social space and a topical issue. The art outcome is often the documentary recording, in a range of media, of the activity: or the collective production of an art work. They also collaborate with experts in different fields of cultural production such as architecture, design, and fashion to produce objects or products that cross disciplinary boundaries. Urbonas’s work has evolved hand-in-hand with new media as they experiment with forms of ‘access’ that impacts upon public/audience reception of exhibition practices.

Recent international projects include: the Pro-test Lab Archive currently on show in “Monuments of our Discontent” a special-project for the Second Moscow Biennale; the ’Archive was first displayed in “Fever Variations” the Gwangju Biennale 2006. The archive developed from the Pro-test Lab project commissioned for the multi-venue touring exhibition “Populism” 2005. Their Ruta Remake project (2003–05) evolved in exhibitions staged in Stuttgart, Oslo, Vienna, Berlin, and Vilnius. And Urbonas’s multi-platform work Transaction was exhibited in “Documenta XI” and “Manifesta 4” in 2002.

Villa Lituania in Rome is a building associated with the Lithuanian nation: it was the Embassy of the first independent Republic of Lithuania (1918–1940) to Italy. The Embassy operated in the Villa from 1933–1940 but became a possession of the USSR after the Soviet occupation of Lithuania. The keys to the property, which had been in safe keeping, were handed by Italian authorities to Soviet officials in step with the alliance of powers signaled by the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact (1939). Since the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1990–91 and the formation of the Republic of Lithuania the Villa has remained the property of Russia; operating as the Russian Consulate in Rome. It is considered the last occupied territory of Lithuania, and successive Lithuanian governments have lobbied internationally for its restitution.

Now two of the Lithuania’s leading artists are taking up its cause. Their approach—qua the anarchitects Acconci, Matta-Clark, and Smithson—belongs to the symbolical field and will unfold in Venice, Vilnius, and Rome in the coming months…

Launching soon: http://www.villalituania.lt/

For more information contact:
Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius
Email: info@cac.lt
Tel: +370 5 212 1954 Fax: +370 5 262 3954
http://www.cac.lt
Artists’ website: http://www.nugu.lt

For more information go to: http://www.cac.lt

Open Space

ARTISTS, GALLERIES
Lucas Ajemian & Julien Bismuth Parisa Kind, Frankfurt • Tariq Alvi & J.D. Williams Cabinet, London • Carla Arocha André Schlechtriem, New York • Marc Aschenbrenner Olaf Stüber, Berlin • Klaus Auderer, Michael Hackl, Emanuel Seitz, Lorenz Strassl Christine Mayer, Munich • Joachim Bandau Mark Müller & Sebastian Fath Contemporary, Zurich/Mannheim • Dirk Bell BQ, Cologne • Karla Black Mary Mary, Glasgow • Daniela Brahm Mirko Mayer, Cologne • Agnieszka Brzezanska, Duncan Campbell, Peter Saville, Steven Claydon Hotel, London • Maria Brunner, Johannes Wohnseifer Gisela Capitain, Cologne • William N. Copley Linn Lühn, Cologne • Raphael Danke Sandra Bürgel, Cologne • Katja Davar Iris Kadel, Karlsruhe • Cyprien Gaillard Laura Bartlett, London • Ugnius Gelguda Gallery Vartai, Vilnius • Francesco Gennari Johnen & Schöttle, Cologne • Manuel Graf van Horn, Dusseldorf • Charlie Hammond & Rob Churm Sorcha Dallas, Glasgow • Sam Herbert Vami
ali’s, Athens • Django Hernandez Frehrking Wiesehöfer, Cologne • Florin Kompatscher Thoman, Innsbruck • Lisa Lapinski Johann König, Berlin • Manuela Leinhoss Micky Schubert, Berlin • Dirk van Lotzow, Cosima von Bonin, Michael Krebber, Sergej Jensen Daniel Buchholz & Galerie NEU, Cologne/Berlin • Hiroyuki Masuyama Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg/Beirut • David Medalla Kai Hilgemann, Berlin • Agatha Michowska Program, Warsaw • Michael Müller COMA, Berlin • Barbara Mungenast Gabriele Senn, Vienna • Scott Myles The Modern Institute, Glasgow • Jan van der Ploeg Aschenbach & Hofland, Amsterdam • Kai Schiemenz Fahnemann Projects, Berlin • Keith Sonnier Häusler Contemporary, Munich • Johannes Spehr Thomas Rehbein, Cologne • Martina Steckholzer Meyer Kainer, Vienna • Joel Tauber Adamski, Aachen • Zhou Tiehai Art & Public, Geneva • Margo Victor Venetia Kapernekas, New York • Simon Wachsmuth Hohenlohe & Cora Hölzl, Vienna/Dusseldorf • Wang Mai Alexander Ochs, Berlin/Beijing • Martin Wöhrl Sprüth Magers Projekte, Munich • Heimo Zobernig Christian Nagel, Cologne/Berlin

PROJECTS • Berliner Posterverlag • Bless • pro qm • Texte zur Kunst • Zentrale Intelligenz Agentur
INSTITUTIONS: European Kunsthalle, Gesellschaft für Moderne Kunst am Museum Ludwig, Cologne

PROJECT MANAGEMENT meyer voggenreiter projekte (Cologne) with Adelheid Teuber
PROJECT CONSULTING Christian Nagel (Cologne, Berlin)
ARCHITECTURE meyer voggenreiter projekte and Sebastian Hauser
Commissioned by ART COLOGNE/Koelnmesse
PROJECT IDEA by Neumann Luz, Cologne (2005)
LOCATION Hall 4 (lower level) A14 E11
DATES 18 – 22 April 2007 OPENING together with ART COLOGNE on Tuesday, 17 April 2007 at 12 am PROFESSIONAL PREVIEW and VERNISSAGE at 5 pm
CONTACT office@openspace-cologne.com
INTERNET http://www.openspace-cologne.com, http://www.artcologne.de

For more information go to: http://www.openspace-cologne.com

Irish Museum of Modern Art

Garrett Phelan
Trusted Servant
..all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reggae
Irish Museum of Modern Art
http://www.youtube.com/trustedservant

..all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reGGae was a group exhibition curated by artist Philippe Parreno and Rachael Thomas (Senior Curator: Head of Exhibitions, IMMA) at the Irish Museum of Modern Art from 29 November to 18 February, 2007. More than twenty artists, writers and thinkers were invited to participate in this project that focused on the notion of ‘process’. Parreno’s approach was to go beyond the real/physical space of the museum and as a part of this process Garrett Phelan has been invited and entrusted by the curators to close this exhibition with his project Trusted Servant.

On the 19th February, 2007 (the gallery closing date of .all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reggae), Phelan uploaded the video performance work entitled Trusted Servant, 2007 onto YouTube, a popular free video sharing website which lets users upload, view, and share video clips - a sub-cultural web endemic that has quickly become an unregulated virtual institution.

Primarily known for radio, video, drawing and alternative projects, in this instance Phelan becomes the gatekeeper of .all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reGGae. Trusted Servant documents an automated and manic performance of Phelan repeating pre-recorded broadcasts from his MP3 player, which have been compiled and edited from media sources – shortwave and longwave radio, cable link, newspaper articles and webcasts.

His working standpoint, calls into question the mainstream methods of endless ingestion of information and communication that influence the formations of our opinions in this ‘don’t stop age’. The removal of Trusted Servant from YouTube at Phelan’s conceptual discretion will mark the official end of .all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reggae.

To view Trusted Servant please go to http://www.youtube.com/trustedservant

Trusted Servant also functions as part of Phelan’s current exploration into the Formation of Opinion (2003- ongoing). This work is the final part of a first phase entitled Reception of information, which includes the three drawing projects NOW: HERE, 2003, LUNG LOVE, 2004, GOD ONLY KNOWS, 2005 and a month long artwork entitled Black Brain Radio, 2006, an independent FM/online radio station. Philippe Parreno’s .all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reGGae catalogue text After Affects proposes a similar style of communication as technology, as an amalgamation of hidden, coded, obscure, specialized languages, that inscribe all forms of transmission.

..all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reGGae includes: Bas Jan Ader, Doug Aitken, Carles Congost, Keren Cytter, Thomas Demand, Cory Doctorow, Peter Fischli/ David Weiss, Liam Gillick, Dominique Gonzalez- Foerster, Douglas Gordon, Carsten Höller, Jim Lambie, Sarah Lucas, Caoimhín Mac Giolla Léith, Sarah Morris, Grant Morrison, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, Paola Pivi, Eva Rothschild, Anri Sala, Rirkrit Tirvanija, Kurt Vonnegut, Cerith Wyn Evans, with lectures by Shumon Basar and David Deutsch.

copyright Garrett Phelan. http://www.garrettphelan.com/foo.htm

For further information please contact Nicola Lees, Assistant Curator: New Galleries, at the Irish Museum of Modern Art on Nicola.lees@imma.ie or +353 1612 9927

A limited edition from .all Hawaii eNtrees/luNar reGGae entitled Nails Sewer Legs, 2006, by Philippe Parreno and Liam Gillick is available. Please contact Christine.blessing@imma.ie for further information. Please go to http://www.modernart.ie/en/index.htm for images.

For more information go to: http://www.youtube.com/trustedservant