On July 2, Astrid Hjortdal and Maria Toll’s exhibition opens at “apiece”—a showcase-style gallery strategically focusing on autonomic artistic expression.

The exhibition is the second part of an exchange programme between galleries in different countries, initiated by apiece. The first result of such exchanges is the exhibition “Soap between fingers” by young Lithuanian artist Eglė Pilkauskaitė at “Galleri Toll” Stockholm.

We live side by side, but not together. Me, on the outer edges, either above or on the ground. At foot level, I get kicked at, but also fed. Or on top, on your windowsill or on a bronze sculpture. Looking out over all the landmass that has, over time, been replaced by construction works and facades. A glance through the letterbox or watching the neighbour on the balcony on the other side of the backyard. It is an ecosystem that is self-contained. I sit here, contemplating life and existence, bobbing my head back and forth to sharpen my vision, being let in and out through sliding doors at the train station. In and out of the café. I walk around eating cereal and leftover croissants. I look through all the windows as I fly by and think: I wish I was the one living there. Side by side with other strangers. Neighbours separated by layers of insulation, plaster walls and wood. We get close, but not too close. It’s important to know your boundaries.

Astrid Hjortdal and Maria Toll met in 2016, when they were studying fine art at Bergen Art Academy. They share the same interest in tactility and in creating narratives through sculpture and installation. Their work originates from daily discussions and thoughts about everyday life and the absurdity of living on this planet. Previous exhibitions of theirs as a duo include shows at Galerie Feiertag (Kassel, Germany) in 2022 and Afloat Contemporary (Bergen, Norway) in 2023.

Astrid Hjortdal (b. 1994, Denmark) lives and works in Oslo. Her individual work revolves around themes of narrative, perspective and scale, and using sculpture and texts to mix animals, humans and objects. She has also published a book entitled the function of the body is to carry your life.

Maria Toll (b. 1990, Sweden) lives and works in Stockholm. In her individual sculptural practice, she works with time and nostalgia and seeks to evoke individual remembrances connected to public spaces and food. She also runs the art vitrine “Galleri Toll” located in the Stockholm metro.

Exhibition curators: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė

Communication: Menų komunikacija

Graphic design: Marek Voida

The exhibition is funded by the Vilnius City Municipality and the Lithuanian Council for Culture, Office for Contemporary Art Norway.

The exhibition will be open until 5 August, 2023

and can be viewed 24/7

More about the artists:

astrid-hjortdal.com

mariatoll.com

On June 4, Ieva Rižė’s exhibition opens at apiece, a showcase-style gallery strategically focusing on autonomic artistic expression. The environment, energy and matter that surround the artist of the younger generation become in her creative practice somewhat dialectical, a fusion of an action and a counter-reaction that unfolds through time. Sometimes this time is marked by objects, artifacts of nature, or else paintings, drawings and costumes. As Ieva put it, “my work is accompanied by an entanglement among ideas, details and randomly found artifacts that are given meaning, a constant polishing of speculations and creative work through emerging materials that become a means to articulate (…)”.

“Prototype of Mental Prosthesis” creates a tension between the living and the inanimate, between the observer and the work. In general, the aspect of between – in the context of inanimate materials, life forms, people, objects that are not used (anymore), bodies and definitions themselves – becomes the axis of the installation, and the fact that it is inserted between the display windows of apiece gallery creates additional tension.

The work consists of two independently moving balls: these are kinetic objects, freely levitating in space and reacting to natural parameters such as temperature, air currents, etc. The artist likens them to a simplified consciousness and a way of exploring the performativity of objects by irritating the viewer’s imaginative impulses.

apiece: Ieva, could you comment on the title of the work?

Ieva Rižė: The title comes from my interest in the various prostheses and other accessories that improve or compensate for human functions. They improve, supplement and extend physiological capabilities. As I have recently been researching the topic of mental health, I am interested in “Madness studies”. So I was curious to fantasise about what a mental prosthesis could be and look like. In an abstract sense, I reckon all impactful artworks are a kind of mental prosthesis enabling us to empathise with realities that can be very different from ours. Then it was up to me to find my own form by objectifying the idea of a mental prosthesis. This time, the work “came about” later than its title.

apiece: Does the choice of the gallery and the fact that it is in a public space and accessible to a wide range of audiences broaden the meanings of the work?

Ieva Rižė: In my view, apiece gallery becomes a kind of incubator for this prototype of a “mental prosthesis”. Of course, people don’t have the possibility to experience being together with the objects, but I think that in this case this fact will stimulate the imagination even more.

Ieva Rižė currently lives and works in Vilnius. Since 2018, she has been studying at the Vilnius Academy of Arts’ Department of Sculpture (Master’s studies). She is currently researching the importance of visuality in the context of contemporary art. Since 2015, Butoh movement art along with the experiences and insights she gains through this practice have become an integral part of her work.

Exhibition curators: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė

Graphic Design: Marek Voida

Communication: Menų komunikacija

Exhibition is financed by the Vilnius City Council

Sponsor: Deimantas Stanevičius

Exhibition open until June 23 2023

Exhibition can be viewed 24/7

On 9 June 2023, a single artwork exhibition by Eglė Pilkauskaitė opens at showcase gallery “Galleri Toll“ in Stockholm. The exhibition is the first part of an exchange programme between galleries in different countries, initiated by apiece. Vilnius has a number of active non-profit and independent galleries and project spaces, but there is still a lack of international exchange. In this particular case, rather than exhibiting foreign artists, the programme has been conceived and dedicated for various non-profit galleries allowing them to come and hold their exhibitions. Along with organising an exhibition for the Lithuanian public, this also means encouraging the galleries to get to know the Lithuanian fine art scene in more detail, to establish a dialogue with other similar organisations and artists, and to get to know their work. apiece is planning for such exchanges with galleries of different European cities to take place at least once a year, and the first result of such exchanges in Vilnius is the “Galleri Toll“ exhibition at apiece, starting on 2 July 2023.

Egle Pilkauskaitė gives importance to the environment around her and the questioning of society’s norms of beauty, aesthetics and certain beliefs. In her works she uses craft-oriented materials, along with various technologies and methodologies. She focuses on the process itself, exploring different textures and finishes that she tries to reflect rather than imitate.

Soap Between Fingers is based on the still-widespread belief that women’s needs, especially those related to the body, belong to the private rather than public space. Not unlike lye soap, which is hidden away from guests in a cupboard or pantry and is only used in a domestic setting. Soap, which is the main material in this work, takes on the connotation of a personal ritual of removing emotional dirt. Maintaining an authentic and recognisable texture and a link to private space aims at evoking memories and personal experiences. The latter are not based on romanticised nostalgia, as is often the case when talking about the past. For post-Soviet countries, the material used in the work is reminiscent of deprivation, scarcity of goods and poor living standards.

The shape of the work evokes the symbolism of the ring: not only that of marriage, but also of repetition and continuous action. Taking into account the shape of the work and the display-like space of the gallery, the artist reconstructs the latter into a jewellery shop window, which is traditionally associated with luxury goods and imagery of a better, more beautiful life. This juxtaposition creates an inverse situation which showcases what happens to an object (a ring) when it is transferred from a representational environment to an everyday one, and when it is no longer a desired dream but becomes part of someone’s personal history.

E. Pilkauskaitė’s Soap Between Fingers, presented at “Galleri Toll“, is full of meanings and associations. It not only comments on the themes of privacy, (un)cleanliness and values, but also illustrates the situation of the soap stuck between the ring and the finger. In a figurative sense, it is also a visualisation of seeking personal perfection through the nurturing of one’s exterior, while the soap residue is reminiscent of dirt accumulated in the subconscious, or may also be a reflection of certain rituals, such as hand-washing, which is a reminder of the pandemic and its consequences that are only now being understood.

Eglė Pilkauskaitė is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Vilnius. She graduated from Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London in 2014 with a BA in Drawing. Since 2016 she has been actively participating in exhibitions and art projects in Lithuania and abroad.

More about artist: pilkauskaite.com

Gallery apiece is a showcase-style gallery dedicated to exhibitions of artworks of contemporary visual art and/or conceptual design.

More about apiece:  apiece.lt

Galleri Toll is a non-institutional showcase-style gallery located at „Ropsten“, the last metro stop on the eastern part of Stockholm’s mainland, in the inner Stockholm archipelago.

More about Galleri Toll:  galleritoll.com

Exhibition is open until August 20, 2023

Exhibition curators: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė

Graphic Design: Marek Voida

Exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Lithuanian Cultural Attaché in Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

Exhibition is supported by the Lithuanian Culture Institute and Vilnius City Council

On April 7 V. Suncovas’ exhibition-research is opening at “apiece”, a showcase-style gallery strategically focusing on autonomic artistic expression. The exhibition presents various objects, fragments and models of conceptual design that have a specific function. Some of them are earlier unrealised ideas for public urban spaces, while others are new objects. These exhibits made available for viewers to consume and subjectively evaluate can be seen as alternative directions in creating identity for public spaces in Lithuania, and include details of children playgrounds, pieces of furniture, urban landscaping ideas, small-scale architecture and site-specific art, along with other urban elements. As the author of the exhibition himself puts it: “That which makes you smile doesn’t have to be silly; that which is childish doesn’t have to be straightforward; that which is patriotic isn’t always majestic – because it can all be both cosy and tasty”. So, one could likened the exhibition presented at “apiece” gallery to a menu at a new restaurant inviting viewers to enjoy the urban delicacies “freshly” prepared by V. Suncovas.

apiece: Vladas, were the associations of urban elements with delicacies dictated by form or aesthetics, and why did the works veer towards a dessert menu rather than a main course menu?

Vladas Suncovas: Actually, the work has both desserts and main courses. There are also other elements of a carefully set table: cutlery, napkins, toothpicks, spices, glasses, uninvited guests, produce gone bad, abandoned items and much more. I also use the word “delicacy” rather loosely, just to describe something that is exceptionally tasty. The tradition of serving tables in different themes is very old and exceptionally rich. Looking through my “fridge of ideas”, I realised that I have a lot of urban models, sketches and ideas related to food in one way or another. So I decided that it would be appropriate to exhibit these ideas by loosely interpreting the concept of a served table.

a.: Your works tend to be two different things at once, since one can easily recognise in them connections between, and methods of, different artistic movements, as well as associations having ambiguous purposes and imagery. Why is it important for you not to be “trapped” in the field of representational art alone?

V. S.: For starters, I think the answer is encoded in your question: since I make objects containing multiple meanings, they readily find their place in different contexts. When I think of an idea for a new project, I feel most comfortable when I don’t limit myself to a preconceived notion of where and for what purpose it will be realised. When I think of a gazebo shaped as a clementine peel, I experiment with the shape and materials, I let my imagination tun in all directions. Once I’ve reached a certain point, I realise that in order to develop it further, I need to move on to the second phase, which is preparing a specific project for specific clients, specific locations, etc. I would develop it one way as scenography, another way as an architectural pavilion for a public space and yet another way for a private space. Or else the idea could be best expressed as a painting, sculpture or short story.

Secondly, exhibition “Urban Delicacies” presents my initial ideas that haven’t yet reached their final shape. Some of them might be realised in the future, some will change shape as they get developed further and some other of these “dishes” are perfectly expressed as scale models.

a.: Artwork-research “Urban Delicacies” is based on creative reflection on Lithuanian public spaces and is presented at a one-piece showcase-style gallery located in a public space. Does the choice of the exhibiting space expand the meanings of the work?

V. S.: I’m very happy about the opportunity to present my ideas in this particular space. I do believe that „apiece“ gallery expands the understanding of the work and provides it with a specific context. Speaking of urban public space while being in this space constitutes a unique opportunity. I believe that exhibition “Urban Delicacies” will be viewed by people of different ages, social status and worldviews. This is especially important if we are to have a sane dialogue leading to changes.

Vladas Suncovas graduated from Vilnius Academy of Arts (BA) and the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (MA). He uses architecture, design and technology to create spaces and tools that they require. V. Suncovas develops his creative practice by making art in public spaces, scenography, exhibition design, small architecture, installations, experimental furniture and educational projects. His work is characterised by modular, deployable constructions, mechanical elements of engineering, parametric design, as well as transformation of space through conceptually based, often critical solutions.

Exhibition curators: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė

Graphic Design: Marek Voida

Communication: Menų Komunikacija

Exhibition funded by Lithuanian Council for Culture

Exhibition open from April 7 to May 31 2023

Exhibition can be viewed 24/7

Eglė Pilkauskaitė’s single artwork exhibition “Soil Surface #2”.

On February 19, E. Pilkauskaitė’s exhibition opens at “apiece”, a showcase-style gallery strategically focusing on autonomic artistic expression. Artist’s work attaches great importance to the surrounding environment and to places affected by processes of exclusion and decay. Materiality also plays an important role in her work. These are craft-oriented materials, adapted using various technologies and methodologies, including researches into different textures and use of textures in which they are not imitated but rather reflected upon.

“Soil Surface”, exhibited at “apiece” gallery, is a new version of the work, in which the imprint of the soil is cast in concrete slabs. According to the artist, it aims to make sense of the value of (the) “earth” being turned into an exhibit, and of the issues relating to the Anthropocene, all the while highlighting the importance of man’s physical relationship with nature.

– Eglė, was the choice of material affected to the showcase-like space of the gallery or was it motivated by other reasons? Also, what do you think is the relationship of contemporary (urban) person to nature (specifically to earth), and why is it important for you to make sense of it in your work?

– The idea of the work does relate to the location of the gallery. It is located in a little park in a rather busy area, marking a stretch of Čiurlionis street, leading to the city’s largest park, Vingis Park. The object displayed at the gallery becomes a kind of boundary marker between the industrial and recreational spaces of the city. The casting of a direct earth imprint in concrete creates a deliberately misleading allusion to the surface of the now fashionable organic material. The human relationship with the earth tends to remain consumerist, from the cultivation of exotic plants at home to large-scale building projects. Concrete has become the second most consumed material in the world after water. For this work I have chosen a form that can become a kind of pedestal for the contemporary search for a balance between man and nature.

– In your work, you often make use of objects found in various places to convey the beauty of decay. You have previously indicated that you are interested in questioning social norms of beauty and aesthetics. Why is it important for you to balance the line between beautiful and ugly in your work?

– I’m interested in why something is attractive to one person and not to another. The process that determines our aesthetic choices is extremely interesting. I try to look at aesthetics through a social perspective.

Eglė Pilkauskaitė lives and works in Vilnius. She graduated from Camberwell College of Arts, University of the Arts London in 2014 with a BA in Drawing. Since 2016 she has been actively participating in exhibitions and art projects in Lithuania and abroad.

Exhibition curators: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė

Communication: Menų Komunikacija

Graphic design: Marek Voida

Exhibition  partly funded by Vilnius City Municipality

Exhibition open from February 19 to March 31 2023

Exhibition can be viewed 24/7

More about artist: www.pilkauskaite.com 

1/3 of a Second, a single-artwork exhibition by Misshapen, at apiece gallery

Starting from 12^th January, a conceptual design exhibition by MISSHAPEN, titled 1/3 of a Second, will be hosted at apiece – a gallery strategically focused on autonomic artistic expression. It was Misshapen that featured apiece during its opening exhibition in 2018, when the gallery was still located in the oldtown of Vilnius (Didžioji St.). Then, a hand-made porcelain object from the very first MISSHAPEN collection was showcased. The artwork to be presented now is explained by Milena CM, the author behind MISSHAPEN, as follows:

One third of a second encodes an impulsive choice or an unreasoned human act. It’s a moment of an unconscious decision; a moment that requires no efforts. On the contrary, this amount of time is even impossible to be consciously noticed. It is thought that 95% of decision-making brain activities are unconscious, and only 5% of them fall within the field of our consciousness. According to neuroscientists, it is obvious, and normal, that many actions we take are unreasoned and environment-driven, or – so to say – out of our understanding. It is by no means a negative thing though, as we simply could not function otherwise. This phenomenon is sometimes called an intuition that is said to be responsible for our unconscious, but right decisions. And what I doubt today is the very concept of “right decisions”. Thus the exhibition title, and the third Misshapen collection itself, refer to both my research in consumer behavior and the artwork that coronates it: the crown.

I have spent more than a year digging into what actions are possible to be taken – or, more precisely, refused – during these 313 milliseconds. The purpose of my 1/3 of a Second artistic research – that included numerous fields, such as neuromarketing, consumer behavior, trends, personalized design, and neuroscience – was to answer the following major question: why, and how much, do we consume today, and what could be done differently, more consciously.

In the process of the research, I have concluded that ethical values of jewelry are more important to me than aesthetical ones. The latter, by the way, change and fade away very quickly, together with trends, fast consumption, and a human desire to own yet more and more. That’s why the collection speaks for immoderate consumption rather than importance of jewelry aesthetics.

Why did you choose a crown as your single collection object?

The crown has been created while rethinking the historical aspect and roots of jewelry, as well as my own perception of importance of jewelry today. I designed it as a collection of artefacts, where the history and natural elements – such as shells, tree branches, nails, and horns – intertwin with what they are meant to protect from: witches, snakes, and demons.

A crown is a historically significant symbol of luxury, power, and a status. To ironize certain “royal” facts – that’s why I chose a crown as a symbol to sum up my artistic research, for the MISSHAPEN crown embodies the other side of the history of jewelry, it cannot be acquired, or owned.

MISSHAPEN It is a signal. The one sent by pairing together a human body with a unique on-body object. Loose in form but strong in message, MISSHAPEN handmade objects may require a body full of open-yet-sure personality. Well. That is the way your signal breaks through the ordinary glamour noise.

MISSHAPEN emerged out of the idea that beauty of jewelry should not be framed or reflect traditional aesthetical values. As the idea evolved, the litteral meaning of “misshapen” transited from the level of matter to the one of approach – so MISSHAPEN could be our perception of what is beautiful, and what is not, rather than just slightly weird jewelry. Today, it is an approach to misshapen consumer habits that questions the impact of neuromarketing to our unconscious desires and emotion-based decisions to act, i.e. to buy.

The curators: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė.

The communication: Menų Komunikacija.

Graphic design: Marek Voida

The exhibition is partly funded by Vilnius City Municipality and the Lithuanian Council for Culture.

The exhibition will be open from 12 June to 17 February 2023. The exhibition can be viewed 24/7.

More about apiece: www.apiece.lt

More about MISSHAPEN: www.misshapen.eu

The single-artwork exhibition LIGHTS, by Saskia Fischer

LIGHTS is an installation of six hand-made neons floating inside apiece gallery. The illuminated sculptures possess an organic, bulbous, and feminine formal language, resembling phosphorescent vermicular creatures. The coloured borosilicate glass tubes contain the inert gases neon and argon. The contrast between the glass tints and the electrified gases creates a vibrant, animated visual effect. 

In public spaces, vitrines typically function as communication devices or advertising. However, since the advent of modernism, governments and economic powers have systematically restricted the meaning of ‘public’ by excluding female and queer identities. LIGHTS affirms a renewed celebration of plurality to characterize our shared, collective spaces. It offers everyone a beacon of optimism and joy through the city’s darkest months.

Saskia Fischer (Germany) is an interdisciplinary artist working with images, objects, texts, and environments. Her research is concerned with the paradigms that form and inform landscape as a reflection of cultural and social values. This research is expressed through photographs and installations synthesizing diverse media blending materials and motives from architecture, gender studies and art history. Saskia studied postgraduate fine art at Goldsmiths, University of London (2018), photography at Folkwang University in Essen (2015), and sculpture/installation at Estonian Academy of Arts (2014). 

The exhibition is open: November 25^th, 2022 – January 8^th, 2023.

Visitors are welcome 24/7.

Exhibition curators: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė.

Graphic design: Marek Voida

Communication: Menų komunikacija.

Exhibition is funded by Vilnius City Municipality.

Exhibition in cooperation with Goethe-Institut Lithuania

The single-artwork exhibition Gimme, Gimme, Gimme Just a Little Smile, by Remigijus Praspaliauskas, at the apiece gallery

The author of the first emoji – Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis?

It is symbolic that the first retrospective exhibition of paintings by M. K. Čiurlionis – who is considered as a representative of symbolism – was opened in London (Dulwich Picture Gallery) on September 22^nd, 2022 – more than a century (!) after the painter’s death… Obviously, the painter, and a composer, acknowledged as the national pride and the most remarkable Lithuanian artist ever, is not known enough internationally. So, maybe the fact that Čiurlionis possibly is the author of the first – and most popular – emoji could help popularizing his artistic legacy?

This theory about the emoji of a smiling face is based on a single fragment of a drawing found in one of Čiurlionis‘ sketchbooks. This fragment, transformed into a contemporary wall carpet, will be exposed at the single-artwork gallery apiece, where the exhibition by Remigijus Praspaliauskas, titled Gimme, Gimme, Gimme Just a Little Smile, opens on October 20^th, this year.

All kept at the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art in Kaunas,  more than one Čiurlionis’ sketchbooks exist. Although the drawing in question has never been transformed into a painting, more similar sketches – featuring lines waving together into some ornament – were drawn by the author in the period of 1907-1908. The drawings of this type are thought to possibly fix theosophic thoughts.

The reconstruction of the drawn fragment into the contemporary artwork by R. Praspaliauskas invites to wonder, if the original emoji was some kind of “message” left by Čiurlionis to us – the generation of social networking. Or was it a painter’s vision of the future, where people communicate using emotion icons rather than words? As the artwork has been partly inspired by the location of the gallery, situated on M. K. Čiurlionis street, its exhibition is a contemporary way to commemorate Čiurlionis‘ legacy, as well as to fulfil the name of one of the most beautiful streets in Vilnius.

Remigijus Praspaliauskas – a lyrical Samogitian gangster – is an author of texts, objects, and products. His creative practices focus on the search for surrealism rooted in words and illogical verbal constructs of the Lithuanian language, as well as in the very nature of an image. Together with his twin brother Egidijus, Remigijus is behind the well-known Egyboy fashion brand dedicated to “shake that dull reality”.

Exhibition curators: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė.

Communication: Menų komunikacija.

Graphic design: Marek Voida

The exhibition is open: October 20^th – November 22^nd, 2022.

Visitors are welcome 24/7.

The exhibition is funded by Vilnius City Municipality.

Mindaugas Reklaitis’s single-work exhibition MORPH at gallery apiece

What would happen if a house could be rebuilt every month or every day using the same existing materials? If every new house could “learn” and become more and more suitable for its inhabitant, or the two of them shaped each other in a never-ending performance of “measurements and fitting”? Would this lead to better living environments, cities, communities?

On 2 September, the interdisciplinary exhibition MORPH by Mindaugas Reklaitis will open at apiece, a showcase gallery presenting one single autonomous artwork at a time. The main focus point and discussion theme of the exhibition is changing, adaptive and performative architecture. The exhibition aims to go beyond conventional architectural boundaries and, with the help of evolving technologies, enter new dimensions of critical architecture, a discipline that has not been widely practiced in Lithuania so far. The work on display (available 24/7 and viewed through the showcase window) is a device perpetually creating an architectural form in the space of the gallery—a robotic manipulator inviting the viewers to reflect on new possibilities for architectural practice. Using this live-creating device and a supply system of cyclic wax as a material, the author aims to subvert the usual features of architecture, such as stability or materiality, and to speculate on alternative realities of dynamic, performative and variable spatial forms.

The MORPH manipulator will shape—in real time and through cyclical processes—an ever-changing architectural object. In other words, like a living organism, the piece will become a prototype for future architectural scenarios.

At the same time, the exhibition will work as a stimulus for discussions on the future of architecture, involving architects and members of the different parties involved in architectural process. The discussions will take place on Sunday 11 September (3 PM).

Mindaugas Reklaitis is an architect and cofounder of the architecture studio Sprik. He is currently working as an exhibition architect at the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, studying for a PhD in art at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, and researching performative architecture as a critical spatial practice. Besides more than ten years of experience in designing award-winning buildings in Lithuania and abroad, Reklaitis has also been involved in projects organised by various NGOs. Moreover, he has extensive experience working with Lithuanian national pavilions at the Venice Art and Architecture Biennales: in 2018, he was the project manager of the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 16^th Venice Architecture Biennale; in 2019, the co-producer and architect of the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 58^th Venice Art Biennale (the piece won the prestigious Golden Lion); and in 2021, the producer of the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 17^th Venice Architecture Biennale.

Curators of the exhibition: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė

The discussions are organised in cooperation with the Architecture Fund

Communication of the exhibition: Menų Komunikacija

Graphic design: Marek Voida

The exhibition is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Vilnius City Municipality.

The exhibition will be open from 02.09.2022 to 14.10.2022

The exhibition can be viewed 24/7

apiece gallery presents “The Order of The Spur: These Boots Are Made for Walking” – the artwork by Vytenis Burokas.

The layers of the drawings rest on plaster fragments stuck on a folding screen made from a metal net separated by plastic film. In these drawings, Vytenis’ alter-ego characters, living in fictional stories of the secret society “The Order of The Spur”, appear along typical-to-them iconographic motives: bodies in spurred boots, fragments of plants and animals, imaginary musical instruments.

The artwork allusion to a fresco, which in turn holds a pretension to timelessness, contrasts with temporality of the artwork materials, resembling some building construction site, as well as with the very function of a folding screen: to hide, divide, to isolate. The partial transparency of both the base (the plaster and metal net) and the content (the drawings) evokes the impression of ephemerality and the feeling of temporality.

Although the narrative is embodied in the drawings, the construction itself is more than just an underframe: it invites to follow the details, to scrutinize the materials – their characteristics, to project the tools used for the construction and gestures made by the constructor while “plastering”.

In other words, the artwork manifests itself not only as a visual image, but also as a text to be read in terms of contemporary art language; or embodies the metaphor of a rider in spurred boots, yet with no horse.

Vytenis Burokas (1990) is an artist, a curator, and a lecturer. His field of interest includes the history of arts and culture, everyday rituals, social roles, and the change of the mind-set due to progressing knowledge about our world. The author has been graduated from Vilnius Academy of Arts, obtaining a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in contemporary sculpture, as well as finishing art pedagogy studies. In 2013-2014 he also took part in an educational program at Rupertas. Works by the artist have been exhibited or performed in Lithuania and abroad.

Curators of the exhibition: Milena Černiakaitė and Aušra Trakšelytė.

Graphic Design: Marek Voida

Communication of the exhibition: Menų Komunikacija.

The exhibition is partly funded by Vilnius City Municipality.

The exhibition will be open from 19 June to 2 August 2022. The exhibition can be viewed 24/7.