Young Germans are still welcome to Nida*

In effect, we are living in an increasingly post-idea world – a world in which big, thought-provoking ideas that can´t instantly be monetized are of so little intrinsic value that fewer people are generating them and fewer outlets are disseminating them, the Internet notwithstanding. Bold ideas are almost passé. Neal Gabler

According to its title the exhibition “Postidea” in the Vilnius Art Academy does not offer a new utopia or a new great idea. The show, arranged in collaboration with the European Institute for Gender Equality, displays pictures of female Lithuanian artists. We are so post-feminist, one might think, what is the point with a women´s art show nowadays? One point is, that in our o-so-emancipated world women as artists are still fairly underrepresented in museums, collections or auctions.

“Post-idea is a place where transitional spaces and transiting ideas meet”, writes Laima Kreivytė, art critic and lecturer at Vilnius Art Academy. The visitor cannot find a certain line or idea behind the different works of art. The connection between the artists is their being female and the thematization of that fact in one, another or no way.

So what is this connection? Is it the old feministic sisterhood and solidarity? Probably not. The women speaking at the opening seemed to be far away from the Alice Schwarzer rhetorics of the late 1960ies. They are aware of the situation in their countries and trying to change it in a smart and serious way. There shall be no war between the genders, but dialogue and women brave enough to speak and to be “visible instead of hiding behind some broad shoulders” (Laima Kreivytė).

And this is why there must be an all-female exhibition, even now in 2012. There must be a space for these ideas, a space for even recognizing the problem. Have you ever realized the great amount of male artists compared to women, when you were walking through an exhibition? I have not.

Many critics of that practice might say: What has art to do with gender? There is either good art or bad art, but do you care about the gender of its author? So, are women just bad artists? They surely are not, but somehow they remain invisible and quite. And this is the moment where culture politics become important, where – same as in management positions – certain rules and structures still have to be broken. As long as those who buy art – governments and rich entrepreneurs – and those who exhibit them are mostly men, which are not trained to have an eye on the issue, nothing will change. Curatorial practice as well as art criticism has to become sensitive on that spot and pay attention on how an what they write or exhibit.

Others might say: Aren´t we over the strong heteronormativity that they are claiming by an all-female exhibition? What about inter- or transsexual people? Unfortunately we are not over this bipolar thinking. But fortunately the artists are. Beatriče Vanagaitė thematizes the representation of the naked female body in photography by making a photograph of her own hands on pictures of naked women. Her hands are that of a worker – wrinkly, dry skin, short nails, almost “male”. And her gestures seem caressing and at the same time brusque. The photographs of the women also question the male/female opposition – e.g. a half naked woman, pregnant, with short hair and a black leather jacket, smoking a cigarette.

Ina Budrytė meanwhile has a playful approach to male/female attributes. She photographs scenes of air war, but made of toy airplanes and cotton.

And finally I have to state the fact, that this exhibition takes place in a country where gender roles are a lot more defined than in big cities in western Europe. In the streets you can see mostly beautiful women with long hair, perfectly dressed and made up. Homophobia is a not to be forgotten issue in a country where men are men and women are women. Maybe it´s not the most important part of the exhibition, but it is a factor that is worth to be mentioned.

My visit in this exhibition made me think a about all these questions. And I come to the conclusion, that by doing that, it is truly post-post-idea. It rises questions and questions are the beginning of ideas. By no means this exhibition is offering no ideas! It is a pool, a think tank, a meeting place, a dialogue space and with that the soil on which great ideas can grow. Even now, in post-idea-times.

http://eige.europa.eu/content/event/march-post-idea

*Marta Vosyliūtė, Cards for all (life situations) – a truly funny series of postcards about Nida (german: Nidden), town in the north of Lithuania