Marika Troili

Offshore / C-true

Site-specific installation. 10 pairs of bookends made out of unfired clay from the Curonian Lagoon, 10 quotes about the future from the last pages of 10 nonfiction books attached to the black curtains of the gallery, printouts of 1% of the entities appearing in the Panama Papers open database, ink. Variable dimensions.

Commissioned by Nida Art Colony and exhibited in Hybrid(...)scapes, curated by Vytautas Michelkevičius, 23rd July – 28th August 2016.

When the curtain closes it marks the end of an act. “We do not intend to suggest or imply that any persons, companies or other entities have broken the law or otherwise acted improperly” it says when the curtains are opened again. “I never remember the names of actors” I whisper and I click “Submit”.

Ever-changing as nightmare and potential. Fog as fraud and freedom. Transparency as truth and violence.

The installation focuses on becomings and change, on a material and conceptual level. Major financial entities combine shape-shifting with invisibility, so information made public through a leak might represent a moment already past in the companies' operations. The bookends of unfired clay could be remoulded, or brought back to the lagoon where they again would become one with the lake bottom. The quotes, revealed and concealed by the folds of the curtains, envision new sceneries for the future.

Marika Troili, 2016.

Photo credits: Photos marked with * by Ugnius Gelguda. Unmarked photos by Marika Troili.

Text by Vytautas Michelkevičius:

Marika Troili digs deeper into the offshore jungle, treading on the tail of the Panama Papers leak and looking for an interaction of transparency, capital and the future. Will the future be more transparent than the present, or even more densely covered with black curtains? What will happen to the gray smooth bookends made from Curonian Lagoon clay when they dry and crack towards the end of the show? Opening the curtains of the Colony’s exhibition hall and showing the white walls behind, the artist puts all hopes in the last pages of books which offer striking future predictions. Can anxiety be more transparent that capitalist relations?