A. Lauringson "Reply/ Replay"
Hearing one’s own voice unexpectedly repeated can be a shocking experience. It is usually followed by an unrehearsed automatic response. Space which has been inhabited in different kinds of ways can be sensitive and easily activated. The room tends to resonate trough the traces left by the human being. The different kinds of footprints that are left in the public, virtual and physical space intrigue Estonian multimedia artist Andrus Lauringson. The results of his observation are retold in the exhibition “Reply/Replay”.
Exhibition is made by two observations. The first is materialized and retold in videos and the second in light installations. Videos are showing projects from 2008 in Tallinn and 2010 in Dortmund. Both show the reactions of random people passing by and talking. They are recorded and their voices are played back in a loudspeaker a few seconds later.
Lauringson is interested in two present paradoxes: Facebook and Panopticon. For instance, people have a tendency to publish more information than they should in the social networks. At the same time they are increasingly worried about the growing of CCTV in public places. This results in a peculiar fusion of private and public space. It activates the borders and leads us to thinking, for example about the control mechanisms of modern society and the usage of social networks.
The light installation has caught and is playing with the remains of the black spots on the exhibition floor in the Office Gallery. These spots are the unwanted remains of the human past that now are only spoiling possibility for gallery to become one of the sterile “white cubes”. A wish to give the space a new face and functions can be compared with wish to build future by erasing the past. It’s a fight that has been lost before it even has started. Past is everlasting footprint of human circle of life.
Lauringson participates in the exhibitions since year 2007. The exhibition “Reply/Replay” is artist’s first solo show in Latvia but not the first time he has showed the works to Latvian public. Lauringson has participated in the international group exhibition „Bad Joke#2” at the Riga Art Space (2008) and “Sculpture and Palimpsest” at the club Nabaklab (2010) in Riga. Mostly artist works in video media and makes interactive sculptures. He tends to mix mundane and culture signs with playful, ironic art language making social critic notes about the world created by a human being.
Andrus Lauringson has studied psychology in the University of Tartu. This background has influenced artist’s way of looking at the world and has directed his artistic interests. He has graduated from the Media and Graphic design department at the Tartu Art Collage. Lauringson continues studies in Tallinn at the Interdisciplinary Arts department of the Estonian Academy of Arts. He is also a member of the performance group “10x10”.
On 28th of March all are welcome to a discussion evening “What are young Estonian artists up to?” at the Office Gallery. The panelists will be: Šelda Puķīte, curator, Andrus Lauringson (EE), Tanel Rander (EE), artist and the member of performance group “10x10”, Indrek Grigor (EE), curator and art critic and Maija Rudovska (LV), art historian and curator.
We thank SIA “Lux Express” and the Culture Capital Foundation for the support in creating the exhibition.