OLENA KAYINSKA

'The LOST festivals' Annual International Contemporary Arts Festivals based in the Canary Islands, Spain. This year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic we have created a digital version of our festivals with over 450 pieces of Contemporary Art from around the world.

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The theme for the 2020 Festivals is 'Lost.' We did not change the theme when we changed the format - this is the same theme that we had when we announced our open call back in January. However, our theme feels particularly relevant and appropriate as so many have lost people close to them during the past few months and many more have lost their sense of normality as their everyday lives disappeared in lockdowns as the result of the pandemic.

 

Possible interpretations of the theme that were initially suggested were: lost languages, lost and found, lost luggage, lost children, loss of nature - habitats, wildlife, oceans, etc, extinction of animals, loss of life - war, terrorism, dangerous immigration routes, normal human existence, geographically lost, seeking direction in life choices, lost in mental health issues eg. depression, anxiety, etc, lost voices, lost technologies, lost traditions, loss of face to face communication, lost in cyberspace, politically lost, winners and losers, lost architectures, gone forever and so on.

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As we started curating the artworks, we established twelve main narratives that run through the work that are: Lost Spaces, Lost Environments, Lost Realities, Lost Identity, Lost or Abandoned?, Lost Forever?, Lost the Way, Lost Stories, Lost Freedom, Lost Dreams & Desires, Lost Moments & Memories and Lost Connections. The works within each narrative not only link to the overall festival theme but also speak with other works in their gallery so that each one tells a unique story.

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LOST DREAMS AND DESIRES - The Lost Festivals

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We all have dreams and as we age, the more lost dreams we have as real life inevitably takes over, meaning traveling the world has to give way to a stable job to pay for the rent. Whatever happened to the young girl who wanted to be a firefighter or the young boy who dreamed of being a doctor? This is a gallery filled with nostalgia and sentimentality for times gone by; for things that could never be; for desires that morphed, changed and left us and for those dreams for a better, brighter, future that fade into the dystopian reality of the 21st century.

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LOST REALITIES - The Lost Festivals

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​Watching the 2020 news and living through a global pandemic it can often feel like we have all lost our grip on reality. Here artists reflect on their experience of lost realities; confronting mental illnesses, gender equality, political motives, the digital information age – where we have access to more information than we could ever consume and the ongoing fight to keep the realities we have. When reality seems more and more like a movie with plot twist after plot twist keeping us on our toes, it is easy to see why ‘Lost Realities’ emerged as a popular concept within this year’s artwork submissions.