Augustas Serapinas: Diana
Opening: Saturday, July 3, from 1-6 pm
CCA – Center for Contemporary Art Tel Aviv is pleased to announce “Diana,” a solo exhibition by Augustas Serapinas (*1990, Vilnius, where he lives and works). Dialogical and open-ended, Serapinas’s modus operandi often originates from the exchange with other individuals. Creating a playful and unexpected link between post war art-historical positions – from Institutional Critique to Relational Aesthetics – the individuals engaged by the artist in such an exchange could be the employees of the institution inviting him to exhibit (Georges, 2014), the children of former workers of a disused nuclear power plants in Lithuania (Vygintas, Kirilas & Semionovas, 2018), or the neighbors of the exhibition space where the artist was going to have a solo presentation (Phillip, Lukas & Isidora, 2015).
Although the artist never knows – or cannot fully control – the final visual appearance each project will have, there is a consistent and clear desire to address the potential of mundane objects and their capability of channeling interpersonal relations, feelings and emotions. Therefore, while Serapinas’s oeuvres seem to have a disparate nature, his modus operandi is in fact a coherent investigation into the inner logics of sculpture as a language that spams from monuments to interactive installations.
Following meetings with all the staff members of CCA Tel Aviv, his project for the Center will feature three elements. The first one is a new set of sculptures, conceived as the result of the artist’s encounter with Diana Shoef, who has been CCA Tel Aviv’s production manager for 20 years. Through several remote conversations, the artist discovered Shoef’s hobbies and passions and consequently conceived three vases – to be produced by local artists, artisans and fabricators – that are inspired by three props created by Israeli artist Ohad Meromi for “Resort,” his solo exhibition at the Center in 2015 and that are displayed on the window next to Shoef’s office desk.
The second element is a new version of Chair for the Invigilator (light blue) (2019), which debuted at the 2019 Venice Biennale curated by Ralph Rugoff and was presented again in “Open Skies,” an outdoor exhibition, curated by Avi Lubin for the Municipality of Tel Aviv-Yafo in 2020. On the occasion of this new presentation, staff members of CCA Tel Aviv will activate the sculpture by sitting on it during opening hours, becoming themselves ‘invigilators’ of the exhibition space, which is usually unguarded. The third element is the opening of a window that will bring natural light into the space, allowing the vegetation in the vases to process photosynthesis.
“Augustas Serapinas: Diana” is curated by Nicola Trezzi and Bar Goren and is supported by the Lithuanian Culture Institute; additional support provided by APALAZZO Gallery, Brescia (Italy), Emalin, London and Luca Bombassei.