Group exhibition with works by A. Weiwei, T. Murakami, M. Pistoletto etc.

2016-11-17

This exhibition presents a strategy which may be used by an art collector to generate symbolic capital from the material echo of past exhibitions.

World known artists’ works from private collections will be displayed in this exhibition – drawings by Damien Hirst and “The Gutai Art Association”, photographs and video work by Martin Creed, detective appropriation by “Richard Prince”, sculptures and objects by Ai Weiwei, Takashi Murakami, Christo, Christian Marclay and Michelangelo Pistoletto.

An exhibition’s echoic artifact is not merely an amorphous metaphor from a journalist’s toolkit, but a precise and accurate term from the art market. How does the latter circulate? A major part of the market (or the whole market, if you account for statistical error) is the financial trade – the artworks are constantly being bought and sold. The tiniest existent part of the art market goes to the natural gifts, that is, when an artist gives his valuable on-the-market work to a recipient for free, without any intermediaries. There is, though, another small part of the market – the one of the give-and-take artworks. This particular mechanism is a relatively new concept, introduced by (let’s say) the first curator of a kind, Harald Szeemann, during his active years.

H. Szeemann said (most likely) that for him, art is the means by which the notions of property and of having in general are challenged. Some took on this challenge in a serious way – in certain exhibitions, art fairs and biennials the world’s most well-known artists started to give out the commentary editions of their exhibited works. These, without, however, a particular emphasis on it, were called original artworks. The permit to take (or to acquire) the piece was based on two ground rules. Firstly, the ones interested in it would have to actually visit the exhibition. Secondly, they would have to agree on the lottery factor for the giving/receiving of the artwork – the artist would not guarantee the work would become and remain the recipient’s property for good. In fact, people who really want to receive/obtain a particular artefact have to overcome a variety of social, symbolic, geographical, chronological, informational, logistical, financial, habit-concerning obstacles or sometimes simply be lucky.

Is there a single reason why this should be presented in an indpendent exhibition? Yes, actually, there are three! First of all, in a specially designated place of their own, the echoic artifacts from the past exhibitions work perfectly according to their function – they remind you, just as an echo, of the past decade’s most important art shows and events. Second of all, in some cases an exhibition is the only instrument that can inject a symbolic capital into the unreliable, unsound objects that the echo artifacts are. Finally, and the most important reason for me, is that I have always wanted to make an all-star rock festival styled art exhibition poster.

Ernestas Parulskis

Exhibition open
24 September – 3 December 2016
IV–VI 4–8 pm

Opening
23 November 2016, 6 pm

This exhibition is organised by Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association, with kind support from Lithuanian Council for Culture and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.

Project Space “Sodų 4”
Sodų Str. 4, Vilnius
www.letmekoo.lt/sodu-4

List of Works

Exhibition: Ai Weiwei, „Sunflower Seeds“, Tate Modern, London, October 2010
Exhibition echo artifact: porcelain handmade sunflower seeds
Secondary market price: various
Owner of the artifact: Ernestas Parulskis

Walking on the seeds was only allowed on the first night of the exhibition opening (there was a second night of the opening too). After that night it appeared that the dust of the porcelain being stepped onto is getting into the ventilation system and was found dangerous in general, therefore the pile of artificial sunflower seeds was fenced. So those who took part in the first night of the opening were lucky in two ways. It was fun walking on the sunflower seeds and it was not prohibited – yet it was not encouraged either – to take and keep the seeds for oneself. The British took just one or two seeds, the others like me took a non-cheeky-handful of the seeds. It appeared later that there was a third group of those even more greedy. These differences caused the following secondary market prices – 30 Pounds for one seed (from those who took one seed), several Pounds for one seed (from those who took a handful), and a price of some tens of Pounds for a bag of hundreds of Ai Weiwei seeds (from those who took more). Yet they are all taken over by the Chinese who offer to send hundreds of kilograms of such seeds for ridiculous prices.

Exhibition: Christian Marclay, White Cube Bermondsey, London, 2015
Exhibition echo artifact: material from which vinyl tapes are made
Secondary market price: unknown
Owner of the artifact: Elona Lubytė and Paulina Pukytė

Exhibition, performances and concerts took place across entire gallery space. In one of the rooms E. L and P.P. noticed a machine which produced vinyl tapes that absorbed and got recorded with sounds from the action just taking place around the corner in the same gallery, thus turning still hot vinyls into artworks. The vinyl machine operator kept picking up pieces of plastic and throwing them into the boiler. I don’t know who was first E.L or P.P who asked the man for a piece of that plastic. It appeared that such giving away of the plastic was part of the exhibition scenario. Finally those pieces found their place in this exhibition of the artifacts of the echos of other exhibitions.

Exhibition: Christo & Jeanne-Claude, „The Gates“, New York Central Park, 2005
Exhibition echo artifact: piece of saffron material from the installation
Secondary market price: 80 dollars
Owner of the artifact: Elona Lubytė

The project in the park lasted for 16 days. After it was over, the saffron propyleas were dismounted and pieces of material were given away to passers by, among which was E. L.

Location where artifact was obtained: digital art gallery „s[edition]“
Exhibition echo artifacts: digital piece by Damien Hirst „Summer Sky“
Secondary market price: unclear
Owner of the artifact: Ernestas Parulskis

When in 2011 the press announced about the new platform for selling digital art, I have checked it up straight away by buying a very ugly photograph by Wim Wenders titled „Two Cars and a Woman Waiting“ for 7 Pounds (this was the lowest price). To everyone’s great surprise „s[edition]“ did not go bankrupt and even celebrated their birthday, on that occasion allowing first buyers to pick their desired artworks priced under 10 Pounds. I have chosen Hirst. The rules of „s[edition]“, which is still operating now, are strict – the pieces acquired through them are only allowed to be demonstrated in digital format, therefore the tablet is displaying the original work, and there is a reproduction printed out on the wall. I can only sell this piece to others if they have registered with „s[edition]“ system. So far there is no lack of works by Hirst and I am not aware of the secondary market digital art prices.

Exhibition: Gutai: splendid playground, Guggenheim, New York, 2013
Exhibition echo artifact: automatic postcard replicating the original artwork
Secondary market price: none
Owner of the artifact: Elona Lubytė

Gutai group have recreated the machine „The Gutai Card Box“ from 1962, which prints random images on card of postcard format. The machine also selects a random author name for those images. E.L. has visited this show and has used this machine service.

Exhibition: Martin Creed, „Mothers“, Hauser & Wirth, London, 2011
Exhibition echo artifact: Single „Thinking/Not Thinking“ (sound & video) and signed photograph
Secondary market price: 75 dollars
Owner of the artifact: Ernestas Parulskis

One night when staying up late by the computer I have remembered that „Time Out“ magazine subscribers get it delivered by couriers at around midnight. I went to check and indeed the magazine was by the door. I looked through and found the following advert on the exhibitions list: “Send an email to art@timeout.com with a subject „Martin Creed Offer“ and you will get a chance to win an artwork by Martin Creed”. Then I checked the online version of the magazine and this offer wasn’t there. Perhaps į was one of the first ones emailing them, as in one week I received a delivery with a CD which contained a film by Creed titled „Thinking/Not Thinking“ and a photo with dogs, signed by him.

Exhibition: Michelangelo Pistoletto, Love Difference, Venice Biennale, 2003
Exhibition echo artifact: unopened empty can
Secondary market price: 20 euros
Owner of the artifact: Elona Lubytė

Exhibition echo artifacts are usually available to obtain during exhibition openings when art professionals are invited. In Venice Biennale such openings last for a few days. On this year Michelangelo Pistoletto was honored for his life achievements therefore a lot of his work was on display in Venice. On an island with an Armenian monastery there was a space where the work of the artist was also presented. This is where E.L. has picked up the can.

Exhibition: hypothetical exhibition by Richard Prince, 2015
Exhibition echo artifact: appropriated selfie
Secondary market price: hypothetical
Owner of the artifact: Ula Ambrasaitė

On New Year’s Eve the cell phone of U. A. got stolen, most likely at „Slussen“ underground station in Stockholm. U.A. has notified the police about the theft, but she was more expecting the insurance to be covered rather than to get the cell phone back. However in three months time Swedish police has found her phone. They have informed her by telephone that they would not return the cell phone to her anyway as the it now was the evidence in another case. One month later Swedish officers have returned the cellphone to U.A. though after having successfully closed all cases. U. A. has checked her phone and everything was still working, moreover she found the photo gallery full of selfies, possibly done by a person who had stolen her phone at „Slussen“ station. One of those selfies is on display in this exhibition.
If the author of the selfies had uploaded them to „Instagram“, it is likely that Richard Prince would have appropriated them for his exhibition as he usually does. Then I would have had to appropriate his appropriation. This is exactly what I have done this time by taking over this story with no end.

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