I will be participating in a conference as part of the Cesis art festival in Riga in July. I was asked by the organizers to answer a few questions about my views and ideas. Here are the questions and my short answers.

1.    Could you suggest 3 most important issues that characterize contemporary visual arts / academic music?

– The everyday

– The artists’ willingness, need – almost a yearn- to create and engage in projects that involve different communities, people from various social backgrounds across all ages.

– Creating concepts

2.    Why these issues?

To me it seems that instead of grand ideas visions and utopian ideas, many contemporary artists are creating works and projects that stem from the ‘everyday’ and the mundane. This can be visible in many different ways; the works’ thematic can be related to everyday life such as family or work, the works or projects themselves are located in the midst of the ‘everyday’ i.e. the work is not necessarily sited somewhere where it can immediately be understood as art, the works’ materials are everyday like, often ecological issues are very well considered and thought of as part of the work etc.

Often in projects and works created in collaboration with or by different communities stretch out of the so called art spaces to various everyday spaces, streets, blogs, youth centres, forests etc. It seems that to get and have the attention of the art community and art scene is not satisfying enough and artists really do want to reach and work with people who might have no previous knowledge or experience of contemporary art.

I also think that there is a tendency towards creating non material works & projects, ephemeral works that live in the minds and memories of the participants and witnesses of the works or for example in the world wide web instead of creating huge material objects or big performative spectacles that require a lot of material and technical support.

http://www.cesufestivals.lv/eng

Let me know what you think.

Johanna