Cutlery bouquets, painted skies and a monument yet to be built: ArtVilnius in the press

Latvian public media LSM, the magazine Arterritory and Poland’s Gazeta.pl all reported from ArtVilnius’26. Each found something different to remember, from bouquets made of spoons to a monument that does not yet exist.

Gazeta.pl reporter Joanna Szczurek writes that ArtVilnius began in 2009 as a companion event to Vilnius’s year as European Capital of Culture. This autumn its 17th edition filled Litexpo from 1 to 4 October and welcomed more than 20,000 visitors. The fair’s special theme put Vilnius, Warsaw and Vienna side by side, and the reporters who came to see it each walked away with a different story.

The Polish presence was hard to miss. Warsaw’s LETO and Le Guern returned, HOS and Fijewski made their debuts, and Zachęta brought an audiovisual project by Bogna Burska to the fair’s Project Zone. Szczurek named among her favourite discoveries the bouquets Ann Carrington assembles from spoons and forks, and Ewa Mitera’s round paintings in which the sky becomes the main character.

The Latvian outlets, LSM and Arterritory, followed their own delegation. Riga’s TUR was named among the seven best galleries, and its painter Andris Kaļiņins won the Best Young Artist award. Arterritory’s Sergej Timofejev even imagines a monument to the “Unknown Gallerist” outside Litexpo one day. Next year ArtVilnius will give special attention to Baltic art.