Tag Archives: installation

“Hadrian” at the Industrial Art Biennial

Lena_Lapschina_Hadrian_Labin

The 4th Industrial Art Biennial, curated by Paolo Bianchi and Christoph Doswald, is up and running, and so is my piece, a media installation of four video streams with sound. It’s called “Hadrian”, and it’s a road movie, and it’s “not about what happens on this journey, but what Hadrian experiences in his head” (writes Paolo Bianchi in the catalogue).

The project resonates with the biennial’s theme, “Landscapes of Desire”, which confronts the viewer with longings, hopes and dreams and is a space for thought and playfulness and a workshop for the future.

Hadrian, the main character, is ready to explore the meaning of life. He does not lack earthly luxury – nevertheless, one day he sets out in search of a better life. He makes an attempt to escape the previous version of his life. This demands all his strength.

Join Hadrian on his journey: “Landscapes of Desire” – 4th Industrial Art Biennial, Labin, Istria: 13 May – 30 June 2023 extended to 29 July 2023. At the Pijacal.

Glyptophilia: the catalogue. Get it on Apple Books!

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Glyptophilia, my sculpture in public space, has got a beautiful companion! It’s a multi-media catalogue, so you can listen to an essay, flip through pics, enjoy a flight past the vineyards, and read the English and (partly) German texts by the fireplace. iPhone or iPad.

How to get it: At the Apple book store, just type “Glyptophilia” and fetch the full version within seconds.

If you prefer a link: Just tap on the name of the country where you’ve registered your Apple device: Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela.

Please give it a try. And if you like it: Rate it five stars! Thank you!

Glyptophilia – an installation in public space

“Glyptophilia” is the title of my latest installation in public space, amidst square kilometers of grands crus vineyards, at 48.48881 N / 15.66187 E. It’s a monument to knowledge and its preservation over millennia, but it’s also a place for contemplation in case you’re in the mood for reflection.

Despite its camo outfit – from far, the piece resembles a hut – the exposition of a series of baked clay tablets carrying elements of language – which become visible through horizontal slits as soon as you get close – gives a hint what might be going on here.

A thousand clay tablets, bound into weighty books, destined for eternity. Wait for new moon to see the librarian!

Note: There is a series of live events and zoom events planned to take place at the Glyptophilia site over the coming months and years. For current schedules and detailed programmes please come back to this page frequently.

The Châteauneuf intervention: A very special in situ piece

I’m totally passionate about developing a piece of art for a unique space. Sometimes this happens in early stages of a project, in intense dialogue with the architects. Sometimes the édifice is already among us for a while, has surrounded itself with an aura.

Thus it’s clear that I’m very happy when I’m invited to produce an intervention at an eighthundred year old structure like the Châteauneuf église. This romanesque church in the Brionnais – it’s huge, it’s pure, it’s magnifique!

There aren’t that many events scheduled at this sacred facility these days, what makes this place the ideal hideaway for contemplation. That’s why I decided to create a very subtle installation here – a piece which can support you when you are in need for this support, a piece which doesn’t disturb you when you didn’t ask for disruption.

Here and there appears a word, here and there a cryptic pictorial message, on a wall, on the floor, or interwoven with the holy decoration. Don’t worry. Begin a new life.

Those Were The Days: an AR-enhanced media installation

You see a display cabinet containing stranded goods, sand and eelgrass, the remains of a photograph, and a triptych painting on antique panels. Somebody has told you that the panels might be coated with short films, visible only through the lens of a smartphone. You hold your smartphone over the scenery, and things begin to move, and you can hear voices. Soon you’ll be lost in thought.

“Those Were The Days” is a brand new, augmented reality enhanced media installation. Exhibition views from Mdina Biennale 2020 on Malta.

New batch of “17 Seconds Art” arrived!

For my solo show at Vykhod, the center for media art in Petrozavodsk, Karelia, I produced a new batch of “17 Sekunden Kunst” video pizzazz. These boxes were served fresh to attenders of the private view, who had the choice between “Making friends”, “Once around the block”, “Bowing takes practice”, “Artist in residence” (my trilogy on crazy artists in weird residencies), and more.

I’m adding here the curator’s statement on this series [original title: “17 Sekunden Kunst”], written by Paolo Bianchi on the occasion of the premiere of these films at Linz09:

When dizzying changes regularly put the vulnerability of people and citizens to the test, Lena Lapschina’s work is precisely in this gap between surprise and imposition. For years she has been taking video material at international venues of art.

Lena Lapschina creates short videos from her material, which she gives an aesthetic form under the title “17 Seconds Art”. By this exact limitation in time, the films produce the effect of decoupling from reality. Through the radical sequencing, the recordings on the other side achieve a compaction, which becomes a curious and impressive image microcosmos of the social environment. The shots seem like a witty puzzle game that oscillates in content and thematically from absurd to banal. This humor does not present itself supercilious and does not have better knowledge. It appears in the gap between the sensible and the senseless.

Lena Lapschina has chosen the short time span of 17 seconds, as it is worth it to stay tuned.

Live smart, cook healthily: The “Smacoo!!” installation

I’ve built a fully fledged tranquil fantasyland of endless gadgetry and enjoyment into the catacombs of a defunct flagship building of the municipal housing company of the city of Vienna, Austria. A commission by the Soho-in-Ottakring foundation for the 2016 edition of their biennial art festival, the piece comprises a three-channel video installation with sound, myriads of smartlife equipment, organic food, all sorts of drinkable liquids, and a considerable amount of interior design craftwomanship.

People entering the “Smacoo!!” installation – the title is a blend of the words smart and cooking – barely found out if they had immersed into a video program, or into the land of free milk and honey, or into a smart laboratory of the future, or into a modern version of Pieter Breughel’s “Luilekkerland”.

All things were interwoven with each other, and while some visitors just fell into trance by watching a looped version of my film “Another ordinary pre-view day at Esposizione Internazionale d’Arte”, others settled on the large sofa where they could screen the one-hour runtime video “The influence of alcoholic drinks on the social intercourse of the intelligentsija”, while their children quickly found out about the super organic meals and dairy everywhere in the room (and also about the trampoline-like qualities of the sofa suite).

Another group of participants seemed to be waiting in front of an apparent oven for the lasagne to be ready and served, although that moment never happened – “Lasagne TV”, an extra-short loop of seventeen seconds on the tiny kitchen-class flat screen.

A series of private-style events poored beautiful people into the installation, and besides all the food processing and cooking, the cool drinks and the hot discussions, there was also time for intense quantify-yourself-activities and video-surveillance aka film-shooting. Results? Soon!