SETP STANIK PROJECT SEAS / LES MERS

On Friday, 18th June 2021 at 6 pm the exhibition ‘SEAS / LES MERS of SETP STANIKAS (Lithuania / France) opens at the Exhibition Hall of Klaipėda Culture Communication Center (KCCC) (Didžioji Vandens St. 2, Klaipėda). Art historian Virginijus Kinčinaitis will take part in the event.

SETP STANIKAS, National Culture and Art Prize winners artists Svajonė and Paulius Stanikai, present the project Seas / Les Mers created specially for Klaipėda at the Exhibition Hall of KCCC.

‘SETP STANIK have been creating an endless narrative about the relativity of art and life for three decades. The works of the artists, which instantly became prestigious at the Venice Biennale in 2003, have never washed away the concept of goodwill,‘ writes art critic Ignas Kazakevičius in the annotation of the exhibition.‘The works of S. and P. Stanikai are phenomenal in the Lithuanian context. They just are, they do not need to be proved, they do not need concept or philosophical support. The narrative itself is a multi-channel art story written by the authors every day. It is reminiscent of a report about equating life with creativity and vice versa, where one never chooses something very specific, but rather talks about our intentions before making a choice and about what happens when we make a choice. The banal “truth” easily becomes an expressive relief of everyday life, the grey politically correct existence is scanned and turned into a baroque glamorous, provocative poster. The art created by S. and P. Stanikai is distinguished from others by the emotional and highly expressive visualization of the vision, the shamanic ritual of modern culture, and the multiplication of environmental emotions. The works of the authors’ duo are borderline human states, which are revealed by the perfect balance between the virtuosity of the drawing technique, media mixing and eclectic content.

STEP STANIKAS project „Seas / Les mers“.
Fragment from videoinstallation

The new SETP STANIK project Seas / Les Mers states a transgression of moral and ethical boundaries (the geological analogy of the term is “sea invasion to land”). In the field of contemporary art, the term identifies various socio-cultural aspects of transcending, breaking and overcoming boundaries. Large-format photographs, their own paintings discovered and restored 30 years later, photographs and drawings evoke a sense of anxiety, and being very open, the works seem not to allow to choose. You accept them or reject them. Either you participate in a shamanic ritual together with the authors, dive into the SEAS, or you stop on the coast of your perception and just look, see the images, but do not enter them.

The authors’ works are a film stop shot of lifelong experiences, each time expressed in a different media (sculpture, ceramics, painting, photography) and in its different interpretation. The artists choose the means of expression due to their specific distinctive features, but do not fetishize the media. Through them they strain the issues of power and gender, pop culture and mythological narratives. Each of their exhibitions is constructed in a new way, each exposition is like a collage of creative stage analysis. Therefore, do not seek aesthetic perfection or narrative consistency. Collage cannot be explained rationally, that is by form, colour or composition. The works of S. and P. Stanikai require subconscious perception. A lot of attention is paid to physiological motives and materiality, through which the relationship between the visual aesthetics and informativeness of the work is expressed,‘ says I. Kazakevičius.

Seas / Les Mers is the first personal exhibition of interdisciplinary artists in the port city, but it is not the artists’ debut at the Exhibition Hall of KCCC. According to I. Kazakevičius, S. and P. Stanikai have exhibited their works in the most significant KCCC projects: ‘In the year 2011 they participated in the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian project Aesthetics Vs Information, at the events of the Moscow Biennale, and in the year 2012, their works were presented in the exhibition of French and Lithuanian contemporary art exhibition Prestige: the Phantasmagoria of Today, which broke all attendance records. The famous French curator Nicolas Bourriaud, the author of the terms relational aesthetics, post-production and altermodern defining contemporary art trends, emphasized the contribution of Svajonė and Paulius Stanikai to the creation of KCCC in the essay written for the catalogue of this exhibition. ”

About the authors

SETP STANIKAS – Svajonė (b. 1961) and Paulius (b. 1962) Stanikai are a couple of interdisciplinary art creators. In the year 1987 S. Stanikienė  graduated from the Lithuanian Art Institute, where she studied ceramics, and P. Stanikas is a graduate economist (Vilnius University, 1985). Having started an artistic career together, Svajonė and Paulius have always worked together. Since the year 2000 they have lived in Paris.

Since 1988 the duo participates in exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad. They have organized individual exhibitions in Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Germany, Belgium, Italy, France, USA, China, Great Britain and other countries. The works of artists have been acquired by the Lithuanian Art Museum, MO Museum and museums in different foreign countries.

In the year 2003 S. and P. Stanikai’s project World War represented Lithuania at the 50th Venice Biennale of Art. In 2003 the artists were awarded Government Culture and Art Prize and in 2017 the artists got the National Culture and Art Prize for the aesthetic provocation of creativity.

The project is supported by the Lithuanian Culture Council, the partner is the Lewben Art Foundation.

The exhibition will run until the 18th July 2021. 

KCCC Exhibition Hall (Didžioji Vandens St. 2, Klaipėda) opening hours: Wednesday – Sunday 11 am – 7 pm. (closed on public holidays).

Photographs and videos will be taken during the event. We would like to inform you that the participants can be seen in the photos and videos of the event, which will be published on social networks and in the media.

In case of quarantine restrictions, visitors to the KCCC Exhibition Hall over 6 years of age must wear mouth and nose protection and disinfect their hands. A distance of 2 meters must be observed in the exhibition halls.