Supermarket blog

Juanma González (exhibiting at Supermarket 2020 with AllArtNow)
URBAN FABRIC #08
Ink on paper
841 x 1189 mm

I have to stay at home.
Lockdown.
I cannot do my everyday journey.
Walking.
I follow nomadic thoughts on the white paper.
Drawing.
I wander through landscapes beyond these walls.
Art.

www.juanmagonzalez.com

Today’s blogging slots bring you three artists who would soon be showing at Supermarket 2020:
Juanma González (ES) exhibited by AllArtNow (Damascus/Stockholm), the Lithuanian artist and educator Marija Griniuk from Bite Vilnius (nomadic) and Gabriella Novak (PL/SE) performing as part of the Talks and Performance programme. Have a look and read more about their work in the posts below.

And the blogging week begins with a nostalgic reminiscence by our beloved Meetings coordinator Katarina Evasdotter Birath, who, after many years of coming up with mind-twisting subject for discussions, collecting moderators and taking the programme to perfection, decided to conclude her role as the Meetings coordinator in 2020.

My first encounter with Supermarket was in 2013. I had just moved back to Stockholm after one year of exchange studies and I had no job, no plans and nothing to do. I don't even remember how I found out about the fair. None of my friends were really interested in art, but somehow I ended up applying to become a volunteer. I don’t think I talked to anyone that first year. I was so shy and so overwhelmed with all of it. I remember being in charge of the fire alarm button. I sat alone in a room with nothing to do but to press that button every 30 minutes to prevent the fire alarm from going off during the performances. But it was something with that weekend that made me come back year after year. Something about the atmosphere being so free and accepting. It was a feeling that anything could happen and I didn'tt want to miss out on a single moment of it. So I grew and I found a place where I got the chance to create something on my own by coordinating the Meetings programme.

During my years as Meetings Coordinator I have experienced dancing rabbits, meetings so heated the participants started shouting and running away, artists rolling around on the floor of the fair, enormous foam rubber animals, tango singing, toilet booth video art and one artist who sculptured himself into a cocoon. One Supermarket opening, an artist painted with flaming oil just above a pile of dry leaves by the entrance – it ended up with me having to step in to extinguish the ensuing fire. The visitors, queuing up outside the entrance, didn’t react much to the accident and perhaps they thought it was all part of the performance.

But what I have loved the most over the years are all the warm hearted, loving, fun, crazy, talented and long-headed people that I have met at the fair. And now, when my time has come to move on to other adventures in life, the things I will miss the most are all those conversations, discussions and chit chats we have together.

Hopefully we will see each other in one way or the other in the future anyway! I don’t think I could stay away from Supermarket completely ;)

Lots of love,

Katarina Evasdotter Birath

Your former Meetings Coordinator

Image: Katarina Evasdotter Birath

Supermarket 2020

TAKEOVER WEEK 

20–26 April 

Supermarket 2020 had to be rescheduled, but that does not mean we would just let this long-planned week go dead and unnoticed. From Monday 20th to Sunday 26th April we will let you to experience first-hand some of our exhibitors and other participants’ magnificent art presence online. We are of course saddened that this week is so much different to all our other frantic art-fair-build-up weeks around this time of the year – but at the same time excited to allow our exhibitors to speak for themselves via our channels. 

Every day of the week, we will hand over Supermarket’s social media to one of our exhibitors to give a twist on our regular posts and offer their own insights from around the world. On Instagram and Facebook you will meet Videokaffe, Niigata Eya, Medrar, Why Quit and others. So if we seem even more wacko than usually, you now know why!

And there is more. We reached out to all the exhibitors and other participants as well as our staff and volunteers to contribute to the Supermarket 2020 blog during the next seven days. We are collecting and posting photos, artworks, snippets of art projects, interviews with artists, strange art rituals, memories of previous Supermarkets and much more. (There is still time to get in touch if you want to take part.)

Last but not least, book your online agendas for the Official Opening of the Cancelled Version of Supermarket 2020 on Wednesday 22nd April, 18.00. Join us with a glass of champagne to celebrate the artist-run spaces around the world with glittering eyes and unbearably optimistic mindsets. 

The decision to postpone was not an easy one for us given the advanced stage of the art fair’s planning. It is based on our concern for everyone's health and well-being, due to travel limitations of our participants, and the uncertainty and unpredictability of the whole situation.

We are optimistic, however, that the situation will improve in the coming months and that Supermarket 2020 will be once again an unforgettable art experience.

Keep your heads up and your hands clean. We are looking forward to seeing you later in the year and will provide more information in due course.

The Supermarket 2020 team