XII Baltic Triennial
4 September 2015 – 18 October 2015
Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius

WHAT IS AN ARTWORK TODAY CAN BE SOMETHING ELSE ENTIRELY TOMORROW – this sentence, picked out from an interview with the artist David Bernstein, is at the very heart of the forthcoming Baltic Triennial. The idea is not new: how we perceive an artwork and what we expect of it changes in time. Things get forgotten, switched around and we end up looking at the wrong end of a musical instrument or playing a painting back to front. Sometimes, however, that’s on purpose: a composition decomposes, a song becomes a mood, a sculpture – a model, and a drawing – a letter. Are we then to talk about uses of art or rather about the art of uses? Or better skip art at all? Well, let’s find out.

This year’s Triennial will focus on the Baltic more than the previous editions, on the geographical region, its culture and the sea. It is a decidedly transdisciplinary event that, in its own motto of sorts ("what is an artwork today...") is mainly interested in the "something else". The exhibition opens up a range of topics and their couplings including influence, exchange, materiality, and impact. It’s primarily an exhibition at the CAC, but the programme of events – talks, launches, presentations, classes and performances – spanning six weeks will expand behind the scenes.

Curator: Virginija Januškevičiūtė

Artists in the exhibition Wojciech Bąkowski; The Baltic Pavilion; Nick Bastis and Darius Mikšys; Brud; Goda Budvytytė and Viktorija Rybakova; Kipras Dubauskas; gerlach en koop; Kaspars Groševs and Ieva Kraule; Lukasz Jastrubczak; Erki Kasemets; Antanas Gerlikas; Mikko Kuorinki; Marcos Lutyens; Gizela Mickiewicz; Robertas Narkus; The Oceans Academy of Arts; Gerda Paliušytė; The World in Which We Occur (Margarida Mendes, Jennifer Teets); Mark Raidpere; Zofia Rydet; Bianka Rolando; Vitalijus Strigunkovas; Jay Tan; Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas.