Artothlon, Summer 2009

I was undecided about whether to put on record the conversation I had with a young Byelorussian I met last night.

But after this and this came to my attention, I feel bound to add this story to the whole sorry UK immigration shame.

He’d promised to try and find us some more Soviet bikes (he’s a bike punk) so I invited him to join us for our traditional Lithuanian dinner.

This guy in his mid-20s is studying here in order to keep away from Belarus – during the protests after the President was re-elected with 80 per cent of the vote, my lad was arrested and spent 10 days in jail. He’s been avoiding the Byelorussian KGB ever since. It’s only 40km away from Vilnius, but it’s like (according to another young Byelorussian who’s staying in our dormitory), a different world. A dictator state: the young people are desperate to leave and make a life for themselves in the 21st Century as there is, for now, little sign of change.

He tells us that a pal of his, same age, is a trained designer and wants to get some experience abroad. He has a job offer from someone in London who he knows, who vouches for him and will pay for his flights and his accomodation and generally ensure that this ambitious young man is looked after while in London.

It cost him £100 to apply for the visa. This is, for Byelorussians, is a phenomenal amount of money – a month’s average salary.

He was turned down, with no reason given and no return of the £100.

He’s stuffed. And all he wants to do is go develop his skills and make a better life for himself.

It stinks, doesn’t it.

Any way you look at it, having a cameraman and sound man catching your every move is horrible. Especially when we’re sitting around trying to say hello to Anna, who’s just off a really terrible flight from Moscow.

They did the intro footage today – in different locations (mine was on the Fluxus Bridge) with us, in first person, talking to camera about ourselves.

What is your art like, what do you want to get out of the project, what kind of human are you – were just some of the questions we were prompted with. Yoiks.

It finished with a shot of us all holding hands around some big metal pipe structure, as the camera panned around us. It doen’t get much cheesier than that.

How we play Monday’s press conference is up to us, but the team were happy for us to do one of Tom’s games – maybe inviting the press to join in. Justin’s pushing for a pool party and I must be seen as the journalist of the piece, since I’ve been designated with the job of introducing all the non-Lithuanian artists to the assembled reporters and photographers. I’ll draft something in the next day or two.

Who, by the way, we still haven’t met. It’s the question we ask more than any other and we never get a straight answer.

Nate continued to wear the radiohead today, as it’s developing into a critique of media and control.

We’ve gotten into trouble with the supervisor at the dorm for dismantling the radio – even though it hadn’t been working. Paulius had to deal with the flack so Justin whizzed it all back into place – AND got it to work.We might be a bunch of twit artists, but we’re good people.

If we were a jewellry heist team, he’d be the one hunched over a combination lock and devising the explosives.

I want him on my team – trouble is, so does everyone else. We might have to hire him out by the hour…

Introduced to the producers and the poeple who are working on the project at the university today. Nathan wore the radio mask that Justin made this morning.

They decided that Nate had a face for radio so they made one.

They told us that, because of the last minute change of producer, that details were being finalised and that weºre being filmed tomorrow meeting Anna, whoºs coming from Moscow. Then weºll meet the Lithuanian artists who are in the project with us. The first assignmentºs on Saturday.

Renate is our “Mother” who will facilitate for us with the production team. After a post«meeting beer-coffee chat with her, we tried out the catapult with a few things and played the first ever Wiffle Hurling game in Vilnius. Probably.

Itºs one of Tomºs games ‘ he invents them. Sports as art. www.aesthletics.org

We went to the launch of a new show at the CAC, the contemporary arts centre. Itºs a great building ‘ and the shows have loads of space ‘ and the curation is excellent. Lots of Japanese people there for the Big in Japan show.

Hereºs Andreiaª

www.myspace.com/andreiafilipe

Dorm, ten minutes before breakfast.

We went into Uzipis last night, en famille. Uzipis was declared a seperate republic but artists who lived there, in 1997 or so. Here’s their constitution.

Needless to say, there are now developers signs around. As it was ever thus, the world over.

We watched a couple of pagan metal bands in this fantastic little outside venue and stage, right by the Uzipis Kavine (cafe) and the river, which gurgles like something from a fairytale.

Lithuanian rasberry vodka had to be tried, and while it’s a cross between mouthwash and cough medicine, it’s strangely moreish.

Andrea arrived yesterday from Faro in Portugal. She’s in her last year at art school, after taking a year out to work on a nationwide arts project involving artists from all over Portugal. She was one of them.

Here’s Brooklyn Tom. He’s looking for playing fields around Vilnius.

After breakfast we went to a flea market and I got an old 70s soviet bike for 90 litas. As Erro said, it’s built to withstand a nuclear war.

Lithuania’s first female president was inaugurated today and we caught a glimpse of the ceremony – complete with snipers and, apparently, knights in armour.

On our way to Lithuania’s first ever Art Fair, we passed a housing estate that won the Order of Lenin in the 70s for excellence is design. Everything is reachable within 15 minutes from anywhere in the suburb. Right by the gorgeous forest and just as gorgeou TV Tower. . Paulius grew up there and told us that the flats were given to rural people to encourage them into the countryside. And when the Olympics went to Moscow, alcoholics and neer-do-wells were re-located to another estate around Vilnius. Thanks Moscow.

Interesting chat with Nate on the way up the stairs on the business of Art Fairs. He pointed out that while they’re obviously about galleries selling stuff, they can also be quite supportive to young artists, offering residencies and funding, allowing more interesting stuff to be made.

Nate thinks art should be funded much more. I said I didn’t think I agreed with that, since with funding, you’ve got to dance to someone else’s agenda.

He countered that that’s always going to be the case, and that good artists can negotiate that and make something interesting out of that negotiation. Point taken.

Vilnius Academy of Arts Dormitory:
2.45pm, local time

It rains a lot in Vilnius in the summer, and that’s exactly what it’s doing now. After breakfast at 11am in the dungeon-like restaurant who have the contract to feed us we’re wondering how we’ll manage it for seven weeks – soup, curd cheese pancakes and sour cream were delicious, but a bit heavy when all you want is tea and toast.

After making our way back to the dormitory, I think it’s quiet, post-travelling time. Who’s us? Next to me on his own laptop, non-wi-fi, like mine, is Pavel, German, Berlin-trained, currently living in the Czech Republic. Lovely chap, smokes like a loon, painter.

On the sofa to my right, reading about static electronics is Justin: he makes moving things and seem, so far, to be able to make and repair anything. Working in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from Florida, just spent five days in Glasgow. He brought many tool bits with him.

Erro lives and teaches in Tallin in Estonia, comes from New York, performance artist. He brought two ancient cats with him from NYC to Estonia. That’s committment.

Nathan and Tom, who’s from Brooklyn but napping (I can’t for the life of me find him online) applied together, having collaborated before.

A girl from Portugal is coming today, another from Moscow is set to arrive as soon as her visa is sorted and that completes the “foreign” contingent.

The Lithuanian artists will all be here by Tuesday and that’s when we start filming.

While I’m pretty sure I’m the eldest in years, I think I’m the youngest in training – which is a fantastic place to be – learning from everyone else.

After being picked up from the airport by the lovely Paulius, who waved a banana for recognition, we ate and then went on to a party in Vilnius’ new loft area – ex-factory spaces which, having been squatted in the past, are now being bought up by architects and the like, with artist studios and loft living spaces. It felt like many parties in Hackney, Shoreditch or Deptford, but much fresher, loads grimier and with way, way more charge and energy. <p>

Artists playing music is often not good, and it wasn’t, but the place was packed and the beer was cheap – equivalent to around £1.20 a sizeable bottle of beer.

We didn’t last long beyond one in the morning (knackered) but apparently the cops turned up around four, to shut the joint down.

I took some pics, video and recorded some sound with my phone, but of course, this laptop isn’t, as Justin pointed out, bluetooth enabled. I won’t go anywhere without my camera again.

Tried to find it online for a link and a pic, but other than the fact that it involved a very rickety warehouse lift, I’ve not got much to go on.

Now off to see a man about a bike.