QUADRENNIAL’S „Q19: MEMORABILIA“ EXHIBITION “EMBODIED MEMORY“ AT KCCC EXHIBITION HALL

On the 19th of April, 2019, friday, at 6:00 pm at KCCC Exhibition Hall (Didžioji Vandens st. 2, Klaipėda) the exhibition “Embodied memory“ of the 4th Quadrennial of the Contemporary Art „Q19: Memorabilia. To record into memory“, organized by Lithuanian Artists’ Association, is opening.

Memory is both an archive of seen images and an act of remembering them. Memorabilia can be realized as collecting certain objects in order to remember something. In the Q19 concept, memory functions as the standpoints, that reveal and protect different past phenomena: contemporary art is purposefully spreading through various forms of memory that can be systematized, through personal meanings of memory and through the signs of collective memory.

Various personal perceptions, memories and experiences are interacting and constantly changing in the memory, so memory goes on. It is a storage, recreated and renewable every time, and in art practice, the creator and the perceiver are the carriers of this storage, or, in other words, the bodies of this storage. Carnality in the art is also associated with a certain accumulation of the past in the matter – when elements of a human consciousness and memory are realized in tangible objects and spaces. These objects can catalyze memory, induce a feeling of nostalgia, open multilayering of collective memory – they become transit objects of memory. In today’s screen-based culture, any body can be digitized, transferred into virtuality, where it is virtually transformed into fiction created by the glance and consciousness. The body can also be positioned as a certain limited biological space or even a trap. An allergy, that emerges in the body and ephemerally disappears, can be perceived as a result of body memory (the body remembers and responds to a stimulus of the past). In modern times the body becomes a discourse, it is both a perception environment and experience. The body can be external (visible) and internal (experienced, sensual), through which we get to know the world. Carnality is associated with the texture, materiality, volume of the objects, relationship with the environment. The body is a performative and recreating storage of the memory that captures a constantly changing experience. This exhibition presents works that become transitory objects of memory, installations that tightly interact with the space, works that determine the body or accumulate and embody the memory. Through the meanings of personal and collective consciousness, memory here is reflected as a reincarnation into objects and their connection with the surrounding environment, while the materiality is contrasted to ephemeral signs of memory loss.

The works of 128 artists participate in eight Lithuanian galleries in Q19 exhibitions. Separate collections are created for each exposition space according to sub-topics formed by the curators.

23 artists are presented at the exhibition “Embodied memory” exhibited at KCCC Exhibition Hall: Eglė Ganda Bogdanienė, Nerijus Erminas, Jurgita Gerlikaitė, Greta Grendaitė, Tomas Vosylius, Daiva Gudelytė, Andrius Erminas, Zita Inčirauskienė, Aistė Jančiūtė, Danutė Jazgevičiūtė, Oksana Judakova, Dalia Juodakytė, Agnė Kondrataitė, Remigijus Kriukas, Andrius Kviliūnas, Petras Lincevičius, Rimantas Milkintas, Auksė Petrulienė, Paulius Rainys, Rūta Šipalytė, Indrė Stulgaitė, Dalia Truskaitė, Eglė Ulčickaitė.

Curator of the collection: Evelina Januškaitė-Krupavičė.

Coordinator: Monika Valatkaitė.

The exhibition will be open until the 12th of May, 2019.

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The goal of the quadrennial of contemporary art is to present the contemporary creative work of Lithuanian artists over the last four years, to increase its awareness, accessibility, to bring together and motivate professional artists and art critics for the development of Lithuanian culture, for analysis of development tendencies and the development of the public concept of professional art.

Q19 is organized by: Lithuanian Artists’ Association

Partners: Klaipėda Culture Communication Center, Gallery of the Artists’ association, Vilnius Graphic Art Centre, St. John Street Gallery, Art Gallery ARKA, Klaipėda Gallery MENO PARKAS, Gallery XX.

Curators: Rita Mikučionytė, Nijolė Nevčesauskienė, Evelina Januškaitė-Krupavičė.

Sponsors: Lithuanian Council for Culture, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, newspaper 7 MENO DIENOS, forum M-PUSLAPIAI, Klaipėda city Municipality, Kulturpolis.lt.

www.ldsajunga.lt, www.kvadrienale.lt