100th Travel – 8th Artist’s Book Triennial in Vercelli Ended
8th International Artist’s Book Triennial Vilnius 2018
Theme: Memento Mori
Time: 23 February – 10 March 2019
Location: “Museo Leone” (Museum Leone), Vercelli, Italy
4623 km through Poland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Czech Republic and again Poland back to Lithuania.
On 10th of March the “8th International Artist’s Book Triennial Vilnius 2018” in Vercelli was ended. It was beautiful artist’s book exhibition in Museo Leone with many visitors and artist’s book lovers. I have to say that the Artist’s Book Triennial in Museo Leone was looking fantastic – the exhibition hall is small, but so warm with wall painting and wooden ceilings, and the artist’s books has some special connection with this beautiful space.
But as the 8th Artist’s Book Triennial Vilnius was ended in Vercelli, and after few days it had to be opened in Venice, in the Gallery SG, I had to come to Vercelli, to reinstall the exhibition in Museo Leone, and to drive part of it to Venice, and part of the Artist’s Book Triennial to take back to Lithuania.
So, I had to plane the rout of my travel, and to drive to Vercelli from Vilnius with the personal car. And as it is my 100th travel in abroad during Lithuanian Independence, I wanted to make it more impressive and somehow to make it more nice… 100 journeys – not so little, especial when almost all my journeys were for participation in the exhibitions, symposiums, art workshops, for giving the lectures and art workshops, for visiting museums and galleries. And almost all my journeys I have made with my car. Through the 28 years I spent 1290 days in abroad. During the travels I slept in the car in front of the steering wheel, in the tent on in the fields, in terrible cheap hotels on the road and, sometimes in very good hotels in Portugal, China or Korea; I was driving at nights and at days, in winter time and in summer… I have made more than 200.000 km in abroad with my cars, visited more than 200 art museums in all Europe, Japan, Korea, China and USA… I had many “adventures” on the road with criminal persons, police and custom offices, sometimes I was driving and sleeping, sometime I had hallucinations, as the road was too long and I was driving 28 hours at once, and I was trying just to go with the car between the lights… in big speed. But, the God was with me, and He helped me from all dangerous situations. And dangerous situation were a lot.
My first journey abroad was in 1991, three years after I graduated the Vilnius Art Institute, to Norway for participation in Lithuanian art exhibition “Myter og Legender” dedicated for the “Day of Restoration of the State of Lithuania” (February 16th, 1918). I and my wife Roberta, two young artists were included in such important art exhibition in Bergen between few important Lithuanian artists like Petras Repšys, Feliksas Jakubauskas, Vytautas Balčytis and other. And that happened less then a year after Lithuania declare Restoration of Independence on 11th March 1990… from Soviet Union. So, as were were free Country… for travelling in abroad we had to get special passport – Soviet foreign passport from Soviet Union… I found it:
It was strange journey. The fly was not straight Vilnius – Bergen, or Vilnius – Oslo, what would be natural, but Vilnius – Moscow – Oslo… and from Oslo by train to Bergen, and back the same way through Russia.
In Bergen we installed the Lithuanian art exhibition in Bryggens Museum. Official opening was on 16yh Febriuary 1991, on the Day of Restoration of the State of Lithuania! Great!
Here are the photos from the catalogue of the exhibition.
The 100th my travel, although it is the “business” journey I wanted to make beautiful and interesting, and a little dangerous, like always.
More text and photos from the travel
© Photos: Kestutis Vasiliunas
© Artist’s Book Creators 2019