On October 12, the group exhibition I Hope This Email Finds You Well of the artistic research project Baltic Lines will open at InTheCloset gallery in Vilnius. The works presented in the exhibition are the result of a year-long research by Baltic Lines participants into the events related to the Rail Baltica construction process, while raising the discussion on the megaproject as a semiotic device. The exhibition will be on view until October 17.
Baltic Lines is an artistic research network exploring the Rail Baltica railway infrastructure megaproject, which aims to integrate the Baltic States into the European rail network. The project involves eleven artists–researchers from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Finland, and Sweden, who will focus on themes such as the concept of the Baltic region, archiving as a political practice, and documenting megaprojects.
As the initiators of the project Diāna Mikāne and Paula Veidenbauma point out, the exhibition title — I Hope This Email Finds You Wel — refers to metaphoric corridors the Baltic Lines artistic research group has been walking this year. «While following the Rail Baltica project, and reading about its potential to create new arteries, meeting points, and axis, the Baltic Lines participants found themselves already operating within the Baltic-Nordic economic corridor that the railway project is materialising. While observing the dramaturgy of the implementing bodies of Rail Baltica, the group has arrived at a point of departure where all of us — a small artistic research project, offices of train-for-the-future, a hangar-in-waiting, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and beyond — meet in a shared balancing act of trying to do something together. To connect and be friends. And can we even afford not to be friends? Or at least perform a friendship?» says the exhibition description.
The exhibition takes place on and through the Soviet-gauge train tracks, inviting visitors to climb on the wheeled platform that begins already at the entrance space and provides a horizontal overview of the works while allowing to stop the vehicle where necessary. The space opens an accidental friendship between an exhibition space and a train line, asking visitors whether they see the train approaching.
The public programme of the exhibition features an opening performance on October 12 at 17:00, followed by an exhibition tour at 18:00. On October 13 at 11:00, visitors are invited to join a discussion in the reading room of the Vilnius Contemporary Art Centre. The programme will continue with events organised by the creative travel agency Toursdetours on October 26 and will conclude with the last exhibition tour on October 27 at 15:00.
The exhibition will be open from October 13 to 27 in the hangar space of InTheCloset Gallery, Pelesos g. 10, Vilnius. Opening hours: Saturdays and Sundays from 13:00 to 17:00.
The initiators of the project are Diāna Mikāne and Paula Veidenbauma. Artists–researchers: Mattias Malk (Estonia), Eglė Šimėnaitė (Lithuania), Valtteri Alanen (Finland), Sofie Lucia Maria Carlson (Sweden), Katariin Mudist (Estonia), Kamilė Vasiliauskaitė (Lithuania), Aistė Gaidilionytė (Lithuania), Gustavs Grasis (Latvia), Diāna Mikāne (Latvia), Paula Veidenbauma (Latvia). Partners: ISSP, ISSP, FOLD, VARES, InTh Closet. Baltic Lines, Būkčia Kombučia, Vilnius Contemporary Art Centre. Project is financially supported by the Nordic Culture Point and Cultural Endowment of Estonia. You can follow Baltic Lines on Instagram.
Viedokļi