\nRemote communication is self-evident and often indeed indispensable today. Constantly evolving and simultaneously simplifying communication technologies produce an aura of hypercontemporaneity and disembodiment around it. Yet the art of correspondence, or being together through letters, has deep roots and a distinctive regime of corporeality.
\nIf we think about letter in the most common and fundamental sense, we will see that they are nothing but a substitute for the body of an absent addressee \u2013 in other words, by writing a letter we send the bodies of letters which represent and simulate us (not surprisingly, we refer to the main part of a letter\u2019s text as \u201cthe body of the letter\u201d). The changing technologies only accelerate and condense the choreography of writing letters \u2013 becoming embodied in symbols \u2013 in neverending search for an ideal simulated dialogue. <\/p>\n
Over the course of its evolution, the body of the letter was transformed from alphabetic to sensory, until it finally became purified from verbal exchange altogether, and is now increasingly often being read and experienced in different forms which engage all senses. Contemporary correspondence technologies \u2013 animated images, instantly disappearing fragmentary conversations, postcards from other planets, or metaphorical audiovisual readymades which replace entire phrases and ideas \u2013 seemingly seek to maximize the intimacy of the correspondence space and simultaneously radically minimize our own engagement. This way, the body of the letter becomes more important and corporeal than our physical body, while the images or sounds we share begin to talk for us, as they have already surpassed our ability to create, maintain and increase the emotional tension necessary for the communication space. <\/p>\n
Love correspondence is the highest point of the epistolary genre. It does not necessarily involve two lovers, but rather refers to a certain register of intense intimacy as such, which can acquire non-human forms as well (e. g. correspondence between intelligent machines). Such intimate dialogue is deeply embedded in the world\u2019s cultural imaginary. The story of the letters of the physically separated Heloise and Abelard has spawned numerous interpretations, while Roland Barthes in his Lover\u2019s Discourse mentions love correspondence as reflective of the very essence of this strange relationship of two subjects: when addressing our loved one with our feeling as in a conversation, we talk not so much to this person as to ourselves and within ourselves, while the other remains silent and never fully engaged. Love (and love correspondence) is essentially waiting for a response which might never arrive. Thus, our own fantasies and desires, splinters of other real and fictional dialogues, quotes and allusions, and archetypal motifs from all possible cultures and mythologies infiltrate the love relationship, verbalised and embodied in the text.<\/p>\n
What happens when an archaic communication genre is embodied in the contemporary mediated context, revealing both the differences conditioned by the epoch and the permanence of this relationship\u2019s essence? How should we react when responses reach us not as words, but as images of one sort or another? How do we decipher today\u2019s letters? How do they write themselves?<\/p>\n
This exhibition is supposed to function as a whispering backstage of correspondence or the body of yet another (meta)letter. We are curious how artists, their topics, curators, the gallery, the audience, and different times and spaces engage in correspondence with each other.<\/p>\n
Curators: Jogint\u0117 Bu\u010dinskait\u0117 and Jurij Dobriakov<\/p>\n
Artists: Arnas Anskaitis, \u017dygimantas Augustinas, Andrew Gryf Paterson, Francisco Janes, Geist\u0117 Kin\u010dinaityt\u0117, Aurelija Maknyt\u0117, Vitalijus Strigunkovas.<\/p>\n
Arnas Anskaitis<\/strong><\/p>\n N<\/em>, video, 2016, 8 min<\/p>\n Study of a letter as a strip, body, or landscape.<\/p>\n \u017dygimantas Augustinas<\/strong><\/p>\n Sigismund II Augustus and Barbara Radziwi\u0142\u0142\u2019s Letter to His Majesty<\/em>, rubber, felt, paper, ink, dimensions variable, 2015\u20132016. Calligraphy: Linas Spurga<\/p>\n The two-part work minimalistically illustrates how a (corporeal) image emerges out of a letter. It consists of a calligraphic transcript of a real letter written by Barbara Radziwi\u0142\u0142 to her royal husband and a schematic dot sketch for a portrait of the artist as Sigismund II Augustus. The author has mentioned that his paintings in general very often develop from texts. This echoes one of the exhibition\u2019s main concerns: how do letters become substitutes for human bodies?<\/p>\n Andrew Gryf Paterson<\/strong><\/p>\n Summer 2016, handmade object, fom the ongoing Bacterial Love Letters<\/em> project<\/p>\n Imagine you send a message from another part of the world and in it you embed a part of the very culture and environment that is nearby \u2013 a bacterial culture. Maybe you can even use it to print a short message. If additionally you produce the paper yourself from scratch out of locally grown materials, that would make quite an impressive postcard, wouldn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n