Art Dubai 2021
Our gallery is going to take part at Art Dubai international art fair for a fifth time. This year with a solo presentation “The Bigfoot Project” by artist Tomas Dauksa (Our booth number A7).
Art Dubai is one of the world’s leading international art fairs. It reflects the unique qualities of the city it takes place in: future-facing, ambitiously international and culturally vibrant.
Taking place from 29.3. – 03.04.2021, Art Dubai’s upcoming edition will take place in an adapted format with 50 galleries from 31 countries showcasing a diverse selection of artworks, artists and practices, that reflects the multicultural identity of the city.
Shifting boundaries between knowing and believing become a subject of analysis of the Bigfoot project by Tomas Daukša. He suggests two versions of the origin of the bigfoot figurines. The first one states, that the figurines were found by a man, who believes that they are made by bigfoot. That man found the first figurine of the bigfoot in the forest, and is sure, that it was made and left by the bigfoot, although he never seen the creature. The man started exchanging food for the figurines and gathered a big collection of bigfoot statues of various sizes and colours. And the second version says, that the artist makes the figurines himself and then claims that he got them from a man, who believes to be getting them from bigfoot. So the artist introduces himself both as an author of those objects, and as a medium between the viewer and the mysterious bigfoot, who made the sculptures. He develops a complex mythology of bigfoot community and their rituals, forms of communication with each other and the viewer. Referring to popular TV shows and documentaries about mystic or paranormal phenomena and using various narrative strategies, he fuses scientific facts and fictitious evident to create a hybrid system of narration and then tests its effect on art circles and gallerygoers. The result is not merely a study of spreading of knowledge and beliefs in real and fictional communities. Daukša also comments on broader issues of contemporary culture, offers insights on cultural production, reproduction and over production, questions the author’s status, and addresses the issues of art collecting and art market in general.
The Rooster Gallery’s events are kindly supported by
Lithuanian Council for Culture and Vilnius City Municipality