10th Rauma Biennale Balticum 2004

Talking to me? is an exhibition of contemporary art from the countries around the Baltic Sea in Rauma Art Museum in summer 2004.

The theme of Rauma Biennale Balticum 2004 is about communication and broken communication, lost information and misunderstood messages between worlds apart, real and abstract. Information, thought forms, myths and models are basic elements of human life, but in the vast ocean of information essentials get blurred. Having the right information in right place in right time make things work, but an occasional wave of random data may contain sparks for something emerging.

Talking to me is also about worlds coexisting or colliding. Although global scale is more and more the prevailing way of looking at the world, conflicts and contradictions are dividing worlds and realities. Encountering alien worlds, realities and cultures may provide a fertile ground for making life better and more beautiful. Unfortunately misunderstanding seems to be a built in procedure preventing any excess of happiness in human life. The mutual relations of different worlds - different zones of reality - is also manifesting itself between artwork and spectator.

Artwork can be seen as an imaginary world created by artist. When audience meets the artwork there are two worlds whose relationship is not always without problems. The spectator is standing on a treshold of indifference and inspiration, asking "Talking to me?"

Rauma Biennale Balticum has since 1985 been presenting contemporary art from the Baltic Sea area. Rauma town is situated on the west coast of Finland. Rauma Art Museum is located in the Old Rauma, an original Nordic wooden town, one of four UNESCO world heritage sites in Finland. The history of the biennale began when Biennale of the Gulf of Bothnia with artists from Finland and Sweden was for the first time arranged in Rauma Art Museum in 1977 . From the year 1985 the exhibition has included the whole Baltic Sea area. From 1998 the exhibition has been a part of the Ars Baltica network.

artists:

G-Lab (Laura Garbštiene & Arturas Bumšteinas) LIETTUA/Lithuania Arunas Gudaitis LIETTUA/Lithuania Mira Heija SUOMI/Finland Yuri Khorovski & Alexander Savko VENÄJÄ/Russia Kristina Inciuraite LIETTUA/Lithuania Karolis Jankus LIETTUA/Lithuania Klara Kristalova RUOTSI/Sweden Elina Merenmies SUOMI/Finland Krišs Salmanis LATVIA/ Latvija Arsen Savadov UKRAINA/Ukraine Björn Schülke SAKSA/Germany Dominika Skutnik PUOLA/Poland Marika Seidler TANSKA/Denmark Jaan Toomik VIRO/Estonia Ania Witkowska PUOLA/Poland Dokumenttielokuvia: Sergey Losznitsa, Alina Rudnitskaya VENÄJÄ/Russia

10th Rauma Biennale Balticum 2004 - Ars Baltica
"Talking to me?"

Künstler: G-Lab  (Laura Garbstiene & Arturas Bumsteinas), Arunas Gudaitis, Mira Heija, Yuri Khorovski & Alexander Savko, Kristina Inciuraite, Karolis Jankus, Klara Kristalova, Elina Merenmies, Kriss Salmanis, Arsen Savadov, Björn Schülke, Dominika Skutnik, Marika Seidler, Jaan Toomik, Ania Witkowska, Sergey Losznitsa, Alina Rudnitskaya