EASTTOPICS

Performing for the Camera in Central and Eastern Europe

Photography provided a guaranteed witness to the burgeoning genre of performance art in the 1960s, when restrictions in Socialist societies sometimes created a far different relationship between performance and documentation than in the West. Art historian Amy Bryzgel highlights several key works of Central and Eastern European performance art from the MoMA Collection. by Amy …

Eastern Eden?

by Simon Hewitt How is East European art developing from a Western European point of view? Where do Western collectors look when they hunt in East? What is the next ‘big thing’ for Western collectors to look for in Eastern Europe? Which countries can become a market focus – and why? Those were the questions fired …

“The Harmony of Chaos” at ALMA gallery, Riga

via Echo gone wrong The Harmony of Chaos is curated by Elīna Sproģe and it will be on view at Alma Gallery until 5th of August 2016. Artists: Camille Henrot (FR/USA), Daiga Grantiņa (LV/FR), Māra Brīvere (LV) The conceptual basis for the exhibition is shaped by a look back at the origins of the world. …

Public & private (in various degrees of subjectivity)

By Nicoleta Papp Aurora Király’s show at Calina Gallery describes a society that is in a continuous conflict, in which themes like “history, hope, trauma, memory, human relationships, the thoughts of a child, garden, the last snow” are strongly related to the language. The art show “Reality Check” takes from the immediate reality three situations that …

XII Baltic Triennial

The Baltic Triennial was established in 1979 as a periodic exhibition of young Lithuanian and later Baltic artists expressing non-conformist spirit. With its twelve consecutive stagings, it has grown to become one of the major contemporary festival exhibitions in Northern Europe. Mainly showing emerging art the Baltic Triennial now offers a wide range of activities …

Another Europe

Edited by Philipp Dietachmair and Milica Ilic, European Cultural Foundation (ECF), 2015 Another Europe – 15 Years of Capacity Building with Cultural Initiatives in the EU Neighbourhood has been published by the European Cultural Foundation (ECF) to provide an overview of the concepts and experiences that have emerged from collaborating with cultural initiatives in the …

KRAKERS – Cracow Gallery Weekend

Cracow Gallery Weekend KRAKERS (22nd – 24th April 2016), organized for the 5th time this year, is a project promoting contemporary art in the space of the city of Krakow. Inspired by similar events around the world, the event has reached a new, absolutely individual quality, focused on discovering and facilitating the development of contemporary …

Modernism 4.0. Forever (in)visible

By Georgiana Cojocaru Via Revista-ARTA Background (from left to right): Esra Oezen, Nachts versteck‘ ich mich im Moskitonetz [At night I hide in the mosquito net], photographs; Michele Bressan, photo archive, object, video (che cosa sono le nuvole, super 8, 1’33’’, 2010). Photo credits MNAC (photo by Larisa Sitar) The second chapter of the exhibition …

Kumu Hits. Contemporary Art from the Collection of the Art Museum of Estonia

Q&A with exhibition’s curator Kati Ilves via Arterritory.com Kumu, 5th floor, the Gallery of Contemporary Art April 8 – August 28, 2016 Being the largest art museum in the Baltics, and one of the largest in Northern Europe, the KUMU Art Museum is seen as the region’s most notable buyer of contemporary art, as well …

Lost in the Archive

The international contemporary art exhibition Lost in the Archive, organised by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art in partnership with the Association of Culture Institutions of Riga Municipality, will be open from the 5th February at the exhibition hall Riga Art Space. The exhibition explores the archive of the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA), …

Curating ‘EASTERN EUROPE’ and Beyond

Art Histories through the Exhibition The anthology under the title Curating ‘Eastern Europe’ and Beyond: Art Histories through the Exhibition comprises fifteen texts which have been commissioned and previously published. The aim of this collection of essays is to monitor how exhibition – as a medium which functions among curators, artists and visitors as well as …

Revisiting Footnotes. Footprints of the Recent Past in the Post-Socialist Region

Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the publishing of the book Revisiting Footnotes. Footprints of the Recent Past in the Post-Socialist Region. The publication aims to capture and analyse the persistent Soviet era traces and references in art, public space, architecture, society, the field of collective and individual memories. Similar to footnotes …

Self-organised

A collection of writings on self-organization phenomenon in culture The current economic situation and society’s low confidence in its institutions has suddenly demanded that artists become more imaginative in the way that they organise themselves. If labels such as ‘alternative’, ‘non-profit’ and ‘artist-run’ dominated the self-organised art scene that emerged in the late 1990s, the …

New Lithuanian art space to open in 2019

The first museum dedicated to Lithuanian Modern and contemporary art is due open in Vilnius, the country’s capital, in early 2019. The 33,400 sq. ft concrete-and-glass building, designed by Daniel Libeskind, will act as a “gateway” between the Medieval and 18th-century parts of the city, according to the architect. Viktoras Butkus, the former director …

ABOUT THE PROJECT Easttopics is a non-profit initiative launched in 2013, led by young art professionals based in Hungary and Serbia and dedicated to the promotion of the Eastern European contemporary art field. Working as a think tank for the Eastern European art communities, Easttopics is a genuinely interdisciplinary cooperative which goal is to draw …