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Meetings on Art Criticism: Raimundas Malašauskas ‘The Secret of Autopilot’

17/05/2024

Raimundas Malašauskas’ oeuvre, both written and curatorial, can be described as a cipher that positions itself in various ways – emergent, personal, and yet not entirely transparent. Along with his curatorial practice, which the curator and scholar Vanessa Desclaux has described as ‘taking stock of density … as a proliferation of figures, modes of operation, and forms of thought. In his work, concepts of metamorphosis and the absence of origin or destination seem crucial’, his writing appears as an expanded and saturated version of this dynamic.

 

A case in point is his anthology of writings, Paper Exhibition (Sternberg Press, 2012), which can be perceived as transsubjective, involving numerous editors and authors, and creating a dynamic, exhibition-like entity that, according to curator and researcher Natalia Valencia, becomes ‘a book that curates itself. It is unpredictable and yet personal.’ ’Well done, badly done, not done, dressed in all his feelings’, according to the interdisciplinary artist Audrey Cottin. It is therefore open, subversive, and inspiring.

 

In the event The Secret of Autopilot’, which accompanies the Visual Art Criticism Awards, we will delve into his practice of self-writing and unwriting as well as get a glimpse of his current writing-in-progress. What is the relationship between what one has lived and worked on previously? How can one (re)define oneself in writing? These will be some of the key questions guiding this talk. 

 

Raimundas Malašauskas is a Lithuanian curator and writer living in Brussels. His curatorial and writing practices are notable for their questioning approach to the concept of the exhibition, creating unpredictable, often playful results. Raimundas was curator of the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius from 1995 to 2006, and Artists Space, New York from 2007 to 2009. Raimundas Malašauskas has co-written an opera libretto (Cellar Door by Loris Greaud, Palais de Tokyo, 2008); coproduced a television show (CAC TV, Vilnius, 2004–6); served as an agent for dOCUMENTA (13); released the book Paper Exhibition, of his selected writings (Sternberg Press, 2012); cocurated the 9th Baltic Triennial of International Art (Vilnius, 2005), the 9th Mercosul Biennal (Porto Alegre, 2013), and the 9th Liverpool Biennial (2017); and exhibited his childhood paintings in a choreographic composition by Alix Eynaudi (2019). His most recent projects are ‘trust & confusion’, an eight-month-long live art exhibition at Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2021); ‘Mars Returns’, a fourteen-hour-long event at Mykolas Zilinskas Gallery, Kaunas and ‘Raamvertelling’, a two-week long exhibition at De Ateliers, Amsterdam. He is currently working on Suzon, his second book of selected writings, to be released later this year.