MARE ARTICUM The Baltic Net MARE ARTICUM the

MARE ARTICUM - The Baltic Net · MARE ARTICUM the Baltic Art Magazine · Baltic Contemporary Art Biennale Headquarter: National Museum in Szczecin Staromlynska 27 70 -561 Szczecin POLAND MARE ARTICUM board: Russia: Ekaterina Andreeva - Russian Museum in St. Petersburg Latvia: Irēna Bužinska - State Museum of Fine Arts in Riga Denmark: Jesper Dalmose - freelance critic & curator based in Copenhagen Lars Kærulf Møller - Bornholm’s Art Museum Germany: Katrin Arrieta -Rostock Kunsthalle Estonia: Heie Treier - editor of kunst. ee Lithuania: Jonas Valatkevičius – freelance critic based in Vilnius Norway: Evelyn Hom – freelance art critic based in Bergen Poland: Lech Karwowski – National Museum in Szczecin Magdalena Lewoc – National Museum in Szczecin Aneta Szyłak – freelance art critic & curator based in Gdańsk

MARE ARTICUM is an international art magazine which focus on contemporary art in the Baltic countries and covers the most innovative arts in all fields - from painting, photography, video and text-based art. The magazine creates a critical forum for the discussion of the Baltic art scene and brings together a distinguished group of critics, writers and curators from the region. The idea of setting up a magazine about art in the Baltic appeared in Szczecin, Poland in 1995. The name 'Mare Articum' was formed by removing the first letter from the mediaeval Latin name of the Baltic Sea (Balticum), and changing the 't' into an 'r' perceived as a triumph of semantics over grammar, visual and graphic principles of reading over syntax, the proliferation of words over lexical correctness. Since its launch in 1997 the magazine is published twice a year with each edition centering on a particular topic. Structure The magazine is divided into several parts: ·Essays by invited critics on the given topic of the edition ·Critical essays on given artists, ·Presentations of institutions of art in the Baltic such as Museums and Art Centers as well as residency programs and other cultural initiatives etc. Interviews with artists, and reviews of art events and exhibitions.

Art Territories versus International Art Language First issue of MARE ARTICUM presenting a set of essays on national identity and international idiom. Facing the homogenisation of art phenomena, crisis of cultural identity and shifting paradigms MARE ARTICUM investigates how far art, which essentially transgress borders, has in its forms renounced national identity and reveals traces of national affiliation. Olga Tobreluts, Empire Reflections, digital photography, 1994

Utopia Describes the mode of thinking which has existed ever since the Renaissance at least in theory of architecture which declared its ambition to improve social life by rationally organizing the spatial aspect of social functions. MARE ARTICUM presents projects and artists who reveal the utopian perspective or question the utopian approach. Superflex – Bjornstjerne Christiansen, Jakob Fenger, Rasmus Nielsen, Biogas Project, 1996/7

Autonomy of Art? Autonomy is in the most general sense is the right for one’s own territory, whether such territory is understood in the geopolitical sense or in the wider sense, as a social sphere created by discourse. MARE ARTICUM arises a question whether art is a sphere which possesses its own differencia specifica, or if it is a sphere which is created each time anew, in the area of discourse which is by nature variable. Tea Mäkipää & Pasi Man, Parasite, 1998

Beauty is one of the most unstable notions in contemporary art. An unconditionally redundant concept rooted in romantic idealism for some, for others it exists solely as a historical trope, for many it is a negative appellation signifying a lack of content, for yet more it is the shifting term, that has returned as a point of critical purchase within the contemporary fascination with the image. BEAUTY issue of MARE ARTICUM presents this question in a variety of different approaches. Marek Kijewski, Self-portrait in Burgund Shell, 1996

Desired Community presents a series of seminars conducted within a one year period and organized by MARE ARTICUM in four Baltic locations: Baltic Art in the 90 s Baltic Art Center Visby September 1999 Unknown Format Pomeranian Dukes Castle, Szczecin October 1999 Key words of the Baltic Glossary Gallery Noass, Riga May 2000 Seminar: Baltic Landscapes-Festival of Images Bornholms Art Museum, June 2000 Innenstadtaktion, demonstration, Berlin 1997, photo: Katya Eydel

Cyber. Baltic investigates new media art in the Baltic countries: net projects, video art and digitally generated and visually based works including those which interactively integrate vision and sound and exploit the new technical and cultural environments such as virtual reality, computer networks and the Internet. e-lab, Internet radio OZONE http: //ozone. re-lab. net

Gender Entropy The contemporary world witnesses the inversion of traditional tropes for sexual identfication and socially acceptable division of roles. The feministic discourse introduced several important issues into critical thinking, whose appeal is easily observed within contemporary art practice. MARE ARTICUM tackles theme of gender in art in the context of theoretical discourse that accompanies it. Marei Lehner, Nude Dresses, 1997

Globalisation Issue presenting the influence of globalisation processes on the cultural shifts in the Baltic region throughout the practices in contemporary visual arts. The phenomenon of globalisation is perceived as a process of setting new social standards, a new hierarchy of values, institutions of public life and every day existence which results in convergence of cultures and new model of the world which is becoming more and more homogenous and not bound to a particular territory. AES – Tatiana Arzamasova, Lev Evzovich, Evgeny Svyatsky, Rome 2006, from the Muslim Project, 1996

Art & Politcs MARE ARTICUM continues to focus on the macrosocial issues centering on those art phenomena which are based on the critical observation of the social realm and formulate openly political postulates to reshape the structural values and institutions which maintain them. The issue presents those art practices which assume or simulate new social situations and attempt to implement these practices using a wide variety of strategies. Jarosław Kozłowski, The United World – totalitarian version, 2000

St. Petersburg The next edition of MARE ARTICUM will present contemporary trends, creative attitudes and artistic dynamics of Sankt Petersburg – the city having its 300 th anniversary in 2003 year. The artistic scene of Petersburg is presented in a series of essays written both from an internal perspective of persons from the local critical and artistic circles, and an external perspective in texts of critics, curators and artists, who within the limits of their artistic and research projects had an opportunity to get to know the peculiarity of Petersburg’s genius loci. Novyje Tupyje performance group. Igor Kozin & Vladimir Flagin

Baltic Contemporary Art Biennale

The Horizon Line, Szczecin 1995 Artists: Tove Adman/ Sweden; Ruth Campau/ Denmark; Danuta Dąbrowska-Wojciechowska/ Poland; Mikkel Olaf Esklidsen/ Denmark; Mikelis Fisers/ Latvia; Britta Helmerdig/ Germany; Mette Kit Jensen/ Denmark; Ruta Katiliute/ Lithuania; Grzegorz Klaman/ Poland; Oleg Kotelnikov/ Russia; Juri Ojaver/ Estonia; Peeter Pere/ Estonia; Ryszard Tokarczyk/ Poland; Piotr Toropow/ Russia; Waldemar Wojciechowski/ Poland; Thomas Wolsing/ Denmark; Achim Zielinski/ Germany. Curator: Lech Karwowski Waldemar Wojciechowski, Exercises - the no-Euklides geometry 1 -3, drawing 1992

Baltic Ikonopress, Szczecin 1997 Artists: Katrin von Maltzahn/ Germany; Jan Svengusson/ Sweden; Sławomir Sobczak/ Poland; Wojciech Ćwiertniewicz/ Poland; Olga & Aleksander Florensky/ Russia; Romuald Kutera/ Poland; Brygida Wróbel. Kulik/ Germany; Mariusz Kozik/ Poland; Antonie Franck/ Sweden; Stehen Hoyer/ Denmark; Thorbjorn Lausten/ Denmark; Adam Garnek/ Poland; TAPKO/ Denmark; Gints Gabrans/ Latvia; Krzysztof Malec/ Poland; Jan Backlund/ Denmark; Jan Johansen/ Denmark; Gerhard Hahn/ Germany; Brunon Tode/ Poland; Lauri Astala/ Finland; Markku Kivinen/ Finland; Piotr Lutyński/ Poland. Curator: Lech Karwowski Curatorial assistance: Magdalena Lewoc Jan Backlund, „Hyperborei Nepheli”, the map, 1995

NEWS Szczecin-Riga-Visby 1999 -2000 Artists: Arvids Alksnis/ Latvia; Eriks Bozis/ Latvia; Beate Daniel/ Germany; Redas Dirzys/ Lithuania; Kirsten Dufour/ Denmark; Inessa Josing/ Estonia; Sasha Kleinbart/ Finland Piotr Komarnicki/ Poland; Andrei Khlobystin/ Russia; Dzintars Licis/ Latvia; Dainius Liskevicius/ Lithuania; Nynne Livbjerg/ Denmark; Peteris Kimelis/ Latvia; Tea Makipaa & Pasi Mann/ Finland Ebba Matz/ Sweden; Hanna Nowicka/ Grochal/ Poland; Christian Partos/ Sweden; Andrzej Syska/ Poland; Martins Ratniks/ Latvia; Per Teljer & Jannicke Laker/ Sweden, Norway; Mart Viljus/ Estonia. Artists recommended by: editorial board of MARE ARTICUM Curators: Lech Karwowski, Magdalena Lewoc, Irena Buzinska, Marit Ehn, Johann Pousette Kirsten Dufour, Bar Schlecht – Szczecin 1999, Visby 2000

SYBARIS, Szczecin 2001 Artists: Charlotte Petersen & Christian Q. Clausen/ Denmark; Ulrich Gebert, Sven Johne, Thomas Moecker/ Germany; Kristaps Gelzis/ Latvia; Thorsten Goldberg/ Germany; Maurycy Gomulicki/ Poland; Julia Strauss & Philipp von Hilgers/ Russia / Germany; Anja Jensen/ Germany; Artur Klinov/ Belarus; Jarosław Kozakiewicz/ Poland; Anta Pence & Dita Pence/ Latvia; Mark Raidpere /Estonia; Morten Straede/ Denmark; Olga Tobreluts/ Russia; Mare Tralla /Estonia; Agata Zbylut/ Poland. Curators: Lech Karwowski, Magdalena Lewoc Co-operation: editorial board of MARE ARTICUM Maurycy Gomulicki, Vaginettes, light box, 2000

focuses on such artistic messages which come from direct personal experience, meditation recorded as a result of a dialogue with reality, and with the meaning of the most primary existential and ethical questions. These questions have relativized and got terribly complicated through erosion of universal values. The exhibition’s name reflects the span of emotions expressed through raised issues, the amplitude of which ranges from corporal practices with intensified emotions to poetic, intimate and sublime gestures, or rather artistic whispers distilling the surrounding area from superficiality. Artists: Jari Silomaki / Finland; Jaan Toomik / Estonia ; Ene-Liis Semper/ Estonia ; Monika Nystrom / Sweden; Danuta Dąbrowska-Wojciechowska/ Poland; Agnieszka Kalinowska / Poland; Gun Holmstrom/ Finland; Egle Rakauskaite / Lithuania; Lars Nilsson / Sweden; Hanna Nowicka-Grochal/ Poland; Maix Mayer/ Germany; Peter Land/ Denmark; Solveiga Vasiljeva/ Latvia; Monika Wiechowska/ Poland; Piotr Wyrzykowski & Iliya Chichkan/ Ukraine/ Poland. Curator: Magdalena Lewoc Cooperation: editorial board of MARE ARTICUM Time and venue: National Museum in Szczecin 3. 10. -16. 11. 2003