IMPROPER DOSE NO. 8
Fuck you, 2020!
-by Justina Speirokaite (Curator at Improper Walls)
The cycle of the calendar year is almost over. Coincidentally, we started and will finish the year 2020 with an altar in our gallery space. An altar, as a manifestation of faith, can mean that we are looking for the answers by using religious techniques. An altar is also inviting us to stand still for a while, observing all the small details the artists “sacrificed”. At the altar the viewer becomes a prayer and a god, silently contemplating visual information which was created for her. What at the beginning of the year was a very personal, family history and family relationship based collage of contemporary aesthetics and traditional values (KÄTHE LÖFFELMANN: Where we come from), at the end it is about the existence of what we know as nature and who we are as humans out and inside of the natural world (..white reflects Sunlight. Fuck you, Albedo!).
But what happened in between. How did we grow so much that our focus shifted?
The answer is quite obvious but not the easy one to be expressed in more words than the title of Improper Dose 8.
When the word lockdown was still incomprehensible and the virus seemed to be only a remote problem (not ours yet), we paid homage to the younger generation. Inspired by photographer Adrienne Salinger’s series of teenage bedrooms from the 90s, the show ANNA BREIT. Teens (in their rooms), gave the same stage for every person - regardless of gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation, stating that “being a teenager is an adventure on its own, a time in one’s life that deserves to have a stage.” But let’s add that the “The Kids Are United!” and we immediately see a scene from one of FFF protests and the weight of unchildish actions kids and teeangers take in the fight for their own future.
As we just met a new group of artists to work as curators for the Question Me & Answer initiative, the very next Monday the first lockdown started.
The Gallery closed its door. A collaboration with LT.art Vienna had been postponed. A collaboration with PFFV had been postponed. XX Art Flânerie had been postponed.
Two weeks into lockdown Improper Dose was born. The message was: “We miss you! While we can’t meet personally, we can still bring Improper Walls closer to you. What are we working on while we can’t realize our projects? Which initiatives are relevant right now?” The world stopped speculating about the future and looked back for the answers. The need for a strong and resilient community grew rapidly.
In June 2020, as a gallery, we participated in the first art fair for us ever - Nesvrstani 2020 in Zagreb. Although we couldn’t go (for the obvious reason), we were happy we had a chance to present artists Iustas, Anna Breit and Markus Tozzer.
July brought us back the feeling of togetherness and celebration. XX ART Flânerie, as a collaborative project with the focus on Vienna’s 15th district, happened to be one of the biggest art events (organized by us) this year. The one without heaviness of the current situation and full of free expression and love for art.
One of the biggest achievements this year is the new connections we built up. One of those is with the Made of Millions organization. Together we co-curated the Group Show - NO ONE TOLD ME. Alarmingly, the proposed topic on mental health, more accurate on treatment gap, got more attention than any other open call for artists we have had. This exhibition had brought us again to the deep inner of ourselves and a complex, extremely sensitive mind of ours. The fresh air in between the lockdown was not very easy to breath in. At the same time it was extremely important for self help, self acceptance and building resilience.
Collaboration with Street Art Belgrade got cancelled.
And then we tried to delete any traces of the real-world functions by creating the situation of being somewhere else, transforming the gallery space into xeno-reality. The group exhibition Moving Forward In Reverse Time With drawkcaB Compass was aiming to decentralize our geographical positions and alienate the viewer from the defined perceptions.
Our participation in Loftas Fest’20 got cancelled.
One of the industries having a good pandemic is an industry of pornography. Regardless that the the show Tʜᴇ (ɪɴ)ᴇꜱᴄᴀᴘᴀʙʟᴇ ᴍᴏɴᴏᴛᴏɴʏ ᴏꜰ ᴘᴏʀɴᴏɢʀᴀᴘʜɪᴄ ʀᴇᴘʀᴇꜱᴇɴᴛᴀᴛɪᴏɴꜱ, in a collaboration with PFFV, was planned before the global pandemic hit. It turned to be a crucial time to open up a dialogue between artworks/artists and the public to question and reflect contemporary connotations of various concepts such as sex, sexuality, porn, gender, pleasure, fantasy, reality and the discrepancy between spectatorship and experience.
The artist collective of QM&A initiative had to face unchangeable circumstances of working together, mostly without meeting in “real life”. It gave the final show and presentation of their work together for six months, a narrative which was undoubtedly wrapped around the COVID-19 and insecurity which cannot be rooted in reality. But what does real life even mean? The question of 2020!
As the cases of the infections peaked again, most of the planned events were moved online. Some events of our next show too.
Again planned way before, the collaborative group show ɪᴅᴇɴᴛɪᴛʏ\2020: RITUAL perfectly reflected the current mood. The show invited viewers to participate in the ritual which required the abandonment of ego and identity for the sake of the environment, ritual, other people. At the same time drawing the parallels between how modern people feel in nature and how in society.
In November it got very dark. The second lockdown started.
Despite it, we opened our last show this year, the international group exhibition ..white reflects Sunlight. Fuck you, Albedo!. The exhibition aims to shock and warn about the consequences of our behavior while asking questions and considering options to survive, even adapt at the same time. It is dark but optimistic. And it is real! This show is on until the end of the year for your view in real life and in virtual one.
In the end, we can say we “predicted” the most popular topics of the year 2020, as as the cherry on the cake we co-curated (with AG18 Urban Art Gallery) the exhibition under the title BEYOND DYSTOPIA. hopeful and catastrophic futures of public spaces & cities.
To conclude, we lost some and we gained some. It was an unforgettable year, we met so many intelligent and creative people, we became braver, most importantly we didn’t give up, rather adapted and learned from the situation. We are forever thankful to our family, friends, supporters (shout out to our patrons!), colleagues, partners and fans! Togetherness makes us strong against all the challenges.
Lots of love!