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040411: COCO (Contemporary Concerns) Juozas Laivys – 1409m
COCO (Contemporary Concerns)
Juozas Laivys – 1409m
18.03.11 - 17.04.11
Buoyant sources
Many Viennese graciously whine about other Viennese who also whine; but there's hardly any Viennese who don't praise the quality of the mountain spring water which flows out of the city's taps and on its way, creates 65 million kilowatt hours of energy - enough electricity for a small city.
Number 6 of the concretely poetical work in the recently opened exhibition of the Lithuanian artist, Jouzas Laivys in the Coco, is called Penguin in Viennese Water" - in the globally understandable variation, "Viennese" is replaced by "local", so that without a doubt, we can seriously compare it with the Viennese water. The porcelain penguin is grey, has no black tailcoat but does have a golden beak. He is situated on a mirror in a metal buck, and from below knee level his upward glance is somewhere between cute and loving, a figure hardly bigger than a hand, but which is elongated by the mirror. The Viennese water is up to the porcelain animal's neck, he looks as if he is enjoying himself and the water is invisible above the mirror.
Further invisibilities can also be found - for instance, in Number 16, presented as "Painting by Valdas Simutis, behind whom a book with mushroom recipes is hidden". The picture, which is attached to the wall on the left-hand side of its frame, protrudes in a generous abstract-minimalistic way into the room. It depicts a man in a green light with a basket full of mushrooms; he is wearing practical boots and a peaked cap and gazes admiringly at a mushroom in his hand. The painting is unsullied by cubism and other bare-knuckled innovations, but the mushrooms have absorbed a red tone and one would truly like to know which recipe could produce this - but it, and the book it is in, are hidden - invisible. Beside it, Number 15 hangs a little higher, "A bad job". A piece of wood is decorated with small flakes of horn - one could almost say "antler sausages" and an antler-like longer branch in the middle. It's not a stag's antlers and it's not an obelisk. It's a "bad job" whose woody phallus-like humor surprises one.
Thrice represented are "Shooing Away Lurking Moles” (Lauernde Maulwurfsscheuchen) that consist of three large plastic bottles whose yellow caps are wound around simple wooden stands, which are cut into the windows. Duchamp would have been pleased and the moles are obviously enjoying themselves too - the devices are enormously suited as a mole sun studio. Altogether, there are 23 works on the exhibition list, amongst them four collaboration products. Two of these were performances on the opening evening - an exchange of air, performed by Reda Aurylaitè and installed in the second room, and a coin collector in the collection, performed by Gytis Daukas.
In terms of the city's age, the luxury of the public water supply has been quite short. The Viennese water is delicious. In coffee houses, it is served (mostly) cost-free by friendly waiters. It is a luxury to be able to muse about things that, as a matter of fact, one encounters on a daily basis with such luxurious serenity.
By Gesche Heumann
COCO (Contemporary Concerns)
1010 Vienna, Bauernmarkt 9 (Passage)
email: coco@co-co.at
http://www.co-co.at/
Opening hours: Exhibition: Thu - Sat 4 p.m. – 8 p.m. Bar: Thu – Sat 6 p.m. – 2 a.m.
Mehr Texte von translated and summarized by: Liz Wollner-Grandville
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040411
COCO (Contemporary Concerns)
1010 Wien, Bauernmarkt 9 (Passage)
Email: coco@co-co.at
http://www.co-co.at/
Öffnungszeiten: Ausstellung: Donnerstag – Samstag 16 – 20 Uhr
Bar: Freitag 20 – 2 Uhr
COCO (Contemporary Concerns)
1010 Wien, Bauernmarkt 9 (Passage)
Email: coco@co-co.at
http://www.co-co.at/
Öffnungszeiten: Ausstellung: Donnerstag – Samstag 16 – 20 Uhr
Bar: Freitag 20 – 2 Uhr
