Kaunas
Textile Art Biennials are Gathering Momentum
Every few
years Lithuanian and the neighbouring Textile Artists’ Guilds are stirred up by
the international textile exhibitions, arranged in Kaunas. The wide range of geographical
locations of the artists, who presented their artwork for the competition –
beginning with the “traditional” participants from the Baltic and Nordic
countries and ending the list with far away Japan and exotic Taiwan, allows us
to say that the prestige of this event, arranged for already the forth time,
has apparently increased. Side by side with always active participants of Kaunas exhibitions, Lithuanian and Latvian textile
artists, Kaunas Mykolas Žilinskas Art
Gallery will provide us
an opportunity to see the recent artwork, made by the artists from Germany, Iceland,
Switzerland, Belgium, and Rumania.
For the first time in
Lithuanian history of textile exhibitions, the artwork sent in for the
competition was evaluated by the international jury, consisting of art critics
and artists, chaired by Beatrijs Sterk, General Secretary of the European
Textile Network. The authoritative and textile world famous artist, was
encouraged to come to Lithuania due to her earlier contacts with the Textile
Department of Kaunas Art Institute, the international textile exhibitions award
winning names of the textile artists - Lina Jonikienė, Feliksas Jakubauskas and
others, and the desire to get a closer look at the contemporary Lithuanian
textile art. According to B. Sterk, the Lithuanian textile art has already made
the choice, which direction to take – contemporary art or design – differently
from Germany,
where at the moment the textile art is undergoing a period of uncertainty in
attempts to make that choice. During her work at the jury B. Sterk admitted
being surprised by the artistic level of the Lithuanian textile art – original
ideas, the variety of techniques, and high quality of artwork performance.
The decision of the
exhibition organizers to invite international jury had certainly proved itself,
though at first it seemed quite risky. On the one hand this added reputation
for the event, on the other hand allowed achieving more objectivity in the
evaluation of the artwork, avoiding the complicated circumstances, which
usually follow the work of the jury, consisting exclusively of local experts.
Since I had a chance to
work in the jury of this competition for the second time, I’d like to point out
substantially improved organizational side of the project and this time
especially professional information dissemination about the venue. The
invitations to participate in the exhibition were sent out through the
international ETN organization publications and textile journals (Textile
Network, Embroidery, Fibre Art, Tapestry and etc.), also making use of the
personal artists’ and event organizers’ contacts. It is obvious that in the
process of learning from the mistakes of the past and gaining experience the
arrangement of applied
art exhibitions in Lithuania
is acquiring substantially higher level. We are continuously searching for more
objective artwork selection methods and such evaluation criteria, which would
arouse interest of the much wider group of contemporary art viewers due to the
quest of textile rather than just be understandable for exceptionally narrow
circle of specialists. It is no longer surprising that getting selected for
Kaunas Textile Biennial is gradually becoming a matter of prestige for the
local and foreign
artists.
While recently major shows
of the textile art world stage, such as Laussane, Lodz or Nordic countries triennials are
naturally becoming exhausted, more and more interesting and new art initiatives
start appearing in the European Union candidate countries. It would be
sufficient to remember impressive international textile exhibitions, which took
place a few years ago in Hungary,
Arsenal Museum
in Riga, Baltic and Scandinavian Applied Art
Symposiums in Zvartava (Latvia),
Felt in Lithuania,
Tallinn Applied Art Triennials, which are still attracting the artists. In this
respect Lithuania has also
promising perspectives, considering the nourishing of deep textile traditions,
taking pride in internationally highly recognized artists and talented youth,
having two strong Textile Departments in Vilnius
and Kaunas.
What makes this exhibition
attractive? It became a tradition for it to distinctly represent the art of the
Baltic and Nordic textile artists. Despite the fact that the number of our
neighbours, Latvian artists, are among the national majority in the exhibition,
it is a little sad due to the lack of activity of that young generation
Latvian artists, who have recently productively cooperated in other textile art
projects in Lithuania
(maybe they are getting as little tired of the frequent meetings?).
Another interesting thing
is that this year exposition features as many as seven Japanese artists’
Akesaka Hisako, Hara Sugane, Kasim Amayo, Kawarabayashi Michiko, Murayama
Yoriko, Sugiura Kimiko and Tanaka Nobuko. Everybody, at least a little
interested in the history of applied art, is familiar with the fact that
Japanese cultural heritage constitutes one of the richest pages of the history,
which keeps fascinating us, Europeans, with peculiar aesthetics and excellence
of the craft. This exhibition appeals as an intersection platform of very
different cultural and textile art traditions. It is worth mentioning that Lina
Jonikienė became famous after winning a special prize in Japan, Kyoto
in 1997 and later became a winner of
Kaunas International Textile Exhibitions twice (1999, 2001). Feliksas
Jakubauskas’ artwork has just been awarded with a special prize in the
International Applied Art Biennial Cheongju, currently taking place in another
Eastern country in Korea.
Recognition, gained in such countries of deep textile as well as ceramics and
metal work traditions is worth a special
pride. Now we have a rear opportunity to see the artwork of Japanese textile
artists in Lithuania,
following recent exhibitions of Japanese architecture and traditional dolls in Lithuanian Art Museum in Vilnius.
What textile art
tendencies does this exhibition reveal? The attention to impressive size
special textile installations is noticeably subsiding, as compared to their
abundance in a few recent expositions. It could have been influenced by the
topic of the exhibition Right and Wrong Sides, encouraging the artists to focus
on the textile artwork itself, revealing specific features – surface textures,
expression of colour combinations, multiple possibilities of different
materials or mediums rather than original artistic ideas or search for unusual
ways of exhibiting. The youthful excitement of modern technologies application
in textile objects has decreased. There is more focus on nourishing of the
craft – weaving, demanding meticulous toil, traditional shibori technique, hand
and machine embroidery. Individual techniques are still popular. The fantasy of
the artists is especially expressively revealed in the plane of the materials,
used as textile fibres. The eye got used to polyethylene, paper or metal
constructions in the textile exhibitions, but now (not without the influence of
other contemporary kinds of art) the textile artists use such materials of
organic origin as human hair or natural dog’s skin. Light shiver waves through
the body when looking at some of the art objects, which seems like handcraft
from the first sight...
It is evident that
contemporary textile is playing the decorative art rather than truly being one,
it is manipulating the clichés, set in the viewer’s mind, it is questioning its
own traditions by broadening them and as if testing the limits, to see how much
they can be stretched. There is no doubt that the usual duties of interior
decorator are already forgotten. The contemporary textile art has clearly
chosen independent road of quest, not minding the threats to its artistic
identity in the environment of post-modern culture formation. The time when it
had to be content with the “secondary” roles and was always matched to
something else is history. Today textile artists are driven forth by the desire
to try out what has not been experienced. On the other hand, respect for the
craft, which is still considered artistic value among its representatives,
helps this field to retain its identity. Of course, the alluring magic of
cognition has led many artists along the mistaken paths or pushed towards the
downfall, but it is the only thing allowing experiencing the joy of discovery,
immeasurable by any measures. Wishing the artists not to run short of it I hope
that the exhibition will provide enjoyable moments for the art viewers as
well.
Dr. Rūta
Pileckaitė
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