Undercurrent is excited to be a part of the ArtVilnius’20 art fair. ArtVilnius’20 is the largest event of visual arts in Eastern Europe.
The 11th edition of the art fair ArtVilnius will host 50 galleries and 200 artists from 10 countries.
The international contemporary art fair features private international art collections, an exhibition of installations, sculptures, and performances “Takas”, meetings with art stars, discussions, conferences, and an educational program. An extensive photography program will be presented at the fair. In the special ArtVilnius’20 project area, Undercurrent will stand along with the Museum of Contemporary Art in Krakow MOCAK, the Lewben Art Foundation, the Contemporary Art Center, and the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center.
This year Undercurrent is delighted to introduce to ArtVilnius’s audience a significant work of a Buffalo-based American artist, Carl Lee. His three-channel video installation, Last House portrays thedemolition, or to be more specific, the last 16 minutes of the demolition, of a hundred-year-old single-family house in Buffalo, NY. The demolition is interspersed with shots of the peaceful, dreamy interiors from Carl Lee’s own house. Last House is an abstract structure that recalls tragedies like Macbeth. Reality at some point becomes memory if it can achieve this kind of transformation, as memories have a greater chance to survive. Last House is a real-time vanitas installation where time slips by, surrendering our memory to change. Lee appropriately shows that with every end is a rebirth, which he leaves to our imagination. Lee’s piece reflects and comments upon the world’s current situation of uncertainty and drama. It additionally symbolically encapsulates what the American Dream–family, stability, values, home, work, and change–can mean.
When I first moved to Buffalo I was struck by the everyday beauty of the many single-family homes that make up a large part of the city. The iconic image of the house seemed to have endless variation, each a unique instance with its histories. If houses are containers for our memories, the structures within which so many minor and major domestic events take place, then each week in this city a collective amnesia grows block by block, a city disappearing before our eyes. The demolition of these structures - by design or accident - and the speed, indifference, and violence with which it takes place; the transmutations of the scale, space, and even one’s sense of time - is breathtaking and tragic, and full of contradictions. Last House is an inquiry, part document, part memorial, to this changing built environment. -Carl Lee
Šiais metais ArtVilnius’20 mugėje Undercurrent pristato Niujorko menininko Carl Lee video projektą Paskutinis Namas (Last House) sukurtą 2010 metais. 16 min video susidedantis iš trijų, dokumentuoja tipiško vienos amerikiečių šeimos šimtamečio namo nugriovimą. Brutalus griovimo procesas pertraukiamas idiliškais paties menininko namų interjero vaizdais. Interjero ramybė kontrastuoja su griovimo mechanišku triukšmu ir futuristiniu-dadaistiniu vizualiniu žavesiu.
Man persikėlus gyventi į Buffalo, likau sužavėtas vienai šeimai statytų senų namų architektūros paprastumu bei jos grožiu. Tokia architektūra yra tipiška didžiajai šio miesto daliai. Nors tradicinė, ši namo forma išsivystė į begalę variacijų ir kieviena jų yra paženklinta unikaliomis istorijomis. Namai yra tarsi mūsų prisiminimų talpyklos, struktūros kuriose įvyko begalė svarbių ir nesvarbių nutikimų. Diena dienon, miestui nykstant, kvartalas po kvartalo neišvengiamai grimztama į kolektyvinę amneziją, mums to net nepastebint. Šių struktūrų griovimas -- suplanuotas ar atsitiktinis -- pasižymi greičiu, prievarta ir žiauriu abejingumu. Mąstelio, erdvės, ir net paties laiko sąvokos, jo tėkmės mutacija atima žadą, yra tragiška bei kupina prieštaravimų. "Paskutinis namas" yra tarsi tyrimas, dokumentas bei paminklas mūsų kuriamos aplinkos kaitai. - Carl'as Lee
