Justas Pipinis
Excuses (2024)
Artistic excuses for not arting
Posthumanism (2023)
I was invited to a “post-human lecture theatre takeover” – to “creatively hack the space” – before Rosi Braidotti’s talk on posthumanism. I could think of various ways to hack it all up, but “hacking” turned out to be just a fancy code word for using the lecture theatre as a thematic group exhibition space. Under the circumstances, the only thing I still wanted to hack was the talk itself – by bringing in a petting zoo. I was truly curious about the animals’ opinions on the human rejection of anthropocentrism. Then I remembered my earlier Goat Yoga experience. Poor kids were sliding on the polished stone floor, watching the downward dogs and literally shitting themselves in panic. Distressed and confused, I fled. No, it’s best if humans exercise posthumanism alone.
​
Digital Anti-art (2023)
A friend forwarded an open call to a digital anti-art exhibition. I am very pro-art, but my curiosity got the better of me. Diverting computing power and attention from the digital renditions of the artworks to cumbersome 3D hallway navigation, the virtual gallery seemed to be all about the digitalisation of framing. So, I prepared two works – a white pixel and an enormous, completely transparent image. Before paying a very reasonable exhibition fee, I decided to have a closer look at the team. The organisation chart listed numerous board directors, art directors, chief curators, senior curators, curators, curator apprentices, and other staff in multiple departments. I suddenly realised I couldn’t bear to defile all the carefully curated framing layers with my anti-art, however insignificant. I just couldn’t. The virtual gallery already was the best anti-art piece I’ve ever seen.