Kim? will participate in international art fairs in Vilnius and Paris
Kim? Contemporary Art Centre’s announces participation at two international contemporary art fairs – ArtVilnius (13–15 October) and Paris Internationale (18–22 October) – in the non-profit organization section. At the ArtVilnius project zone, alongside outstanding contemporary art institutions from Lithuania, Georgia, Austria and Poland, Kim? will represent artist Indriķis Ģelzis and a performance by Jette Loona Hermanis. In the Paris Internationale non-profit section, next to four participants from Côte d’Ivoire, Bangladesh, and France, Kim? will present artist Viktor Timofeev’s latest works on paper.
Indriķis Ģelzis. Time Camouflage: Border, 2023. Stainless steel, 42,5x28,5x3 cm / Photo: Mārtiņš Cīrulis
ArtVilnius started in 2009 and has expanded and become firmly established on the local and international art scene as the only art fair of its type in the region. The 14th edition will inhabit the three main halls and outdoor areas of the Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre LITEXPO, presenting 70 art galleries/institutions and 300 artists from 18 countries to welcome over 23,000 visitors. This year, the fair will focus on the topic of performativity as an opportunity to look at the concept of performativity openly and creatively, discussing the broadest interpretations of this term. Alongside the galleries program, a separate project zone is organized in which various non-profit institutions and individual artists present special exhibitions. For the second year in a row, the ArtVilnius project zone is curated by writer and critic Valentinas Klimašauskas. The three-day program Today, Yesterday, Tomorrow is related to different interpretations of performativity, presenting a diverse line-up of institutional and guest contributors.
Indriķis Ģelzis will participate in the ArtVilnius fair with selected works from the solo exhibition Watery Day’s Eye, which was on view at the KIM? Contemporary Art Center from August 25 to October 8, 2023.
Indriķis Ģelzis (1988) lives and works in Rīga, Latvia. Ģelzis holds an MA in Visual Communication from the Art Academy of Latvia (Rīga, LV) and a Post-Graduate degree from HISK – Higher Institute for Fine Arts (Ghent, BE). Selected solo and two-person shows: VAGABOND / A Place Hard to Place, Jenny’s (New York, 2022); Yawn holding Fields, Tatjana Pieters (Ghent, 2022); Figure of Everything, Castor (London, 2020); Pause for the Cause, CINNAMON (Rotterdam, 2019); TABLEAU, ASHES/ASHES (New York, 2019). Recent group exhibitions: The 4 Gate Connection, Tatjana Pieters (Ghent, 2020); Doors of Paradise, Union Pacific (London, 2018); Superposition et al. (New York, 2018). His works are featured in the Latvian National Museum of Art, Museum of Recent Art (Romania), and S.M.A.K collections. The Municipal Museum of Contemporary (Belgium), The Lewben Art Foundation (Lithuania), CELINE ART PROJECT (France), Paul et al. (Belgium), Alain et al. (Belgium), Antoine et al. (Netherlands), Tanguy Van De Weghe Collection (Belgium), Frédéric de Goldschmidt Collection (Belgium), Wang Jianlin Collection (China), Colin Fernandes Collection (US), Zuzāns Private Collection (Latvia).
Jette Loona Hermanis, 2023
But the Estonian-Latvian performance artist and choreographer Jette Loona Hermanis will participate in the fair with the performance Endling. The piece revolves around the entity Endling, who is essentially the last mortal of their species, a single living being that is the last survivor of its species or subspecies and whose death consequently means extinction. They express solitude and thirst for another half, rendering surreal situations in an apocalyptic environment that delusionally would satisfy their longings.
Jette Loona Hermanis (1997), pulsing Baltic blood, is a performance artist, choreographer, and performer. After finishing her studies in SNDO Choreography in Amsterdam, she has since been based in Tallinn and Riga. She received the Estonian Theatre Prize Dance Award 2022 with Johhan Rosenberg for their work Eden Detail. Her work often animates the body through a digital veil.
Jette’s performances will take place on October 13 at 18.00 on STAGE and on October 15 at 17.00 at the Kim? CAC booth area.
Viktor Timofeev, Apparition on 44th Street, graphite on paper, 2023
In the non-profit arts section of the Paris Internationale Kim? will present the latest graphic works of the artist Victor Timofeev from the series Windows Without Buildings. The latest works on paper embody Timofeev’s continued interest in systems as a generative tool, using invented rules and improvisations to render pseudo-abstract, intimate compositions. Distorted glimpses of ordinary street views, staircases, cars and buildings can be discerned within densely layered graphite drawings and observed reality blends with ineffable mark-making. The six works are all composed as diptychs, half oriented as landscape and half as portraits.
Viktor Timofeev (1984) works across generative video, painting, installation, and sound, frequently combining the mediums to create semi-fictional environments. He received his MFA at the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam and his BFA at Hunter College in New York. Recent solo exhibitions include DOG at Interstate Projects (New York, 2021); God Objects at Futura/Karlin Studios (Prague, 2020); Stairway to Melon at Kim? Contemporary Art Center (Riga, 2017); and S.T.A.T.E. at the Drawing Room (London, 2016). Recent group exhibitions include Shallow Springs at Kohta Kunsthalle (Helsinki, 2023); Digital Intimacy at the National Gallery (Prague, 2021), 14th Baltic Triennial at CAC (Vilnius, 2021); Unexpected Encounters at the Latvian National Museum of Art (2019); A Barbarian in Paris at Fondation Ricard (Paris, 2018); and Somewhere In Between at Bozar (Brussels, 2018).
For the 9th edition, Paris Internationale has selected 65 galleries from 25 countries. Founded by and for the participating galleries as an innovative alternative to traditional art fairs, Paris Internationale selects its participants for their influence within local ecosystems, their importance on the global art scene and their specific projects for Paris. In addition, each year, Paris Internationale welcomes non-profit organizations. They are invited to take part in the fair free of charge to promote their essential actions, both to the vitality of debates on contemporary creation and to the visibility of emerging artists and those evolving outside the traditional market circuits. This year, five of them have been selected: Brihatta Art Foundation (Dhaka, Bangladesh), Goswell Road (Paris, France), Joy (Paris, France), Kim? (Riga, Latvia) and Something, (Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire).
