White Darkness (fog installiation & short film), 2025

Ephemeral medium: artificial fog in situ, interacting with historical landscape and light

On the evening of 27 March 2025, the rhythm of Vilnius Old Town (Lithuania) was disrupted by a poetic act of protest art: the fog installation White Darkness, staged on Savior’s Hill beside the Missionaries’ Ensemble. A dense fog enveloped newly built apartment blocks controversially inserted into the baroque complex — exposing the ongoing erosion of a UNESCO World Heritage Site for short-term private gain.

“Vilnius is many cities, layered on top of each other… Vilnius is a giant cocktail, shaken by mad fog gods.” — Ričardas Gavelis, Vilnius Poker (1989)

The fog symbolised both the loss of cultural reference points and the “whitening” of investor-driven development from the East. It temporarily erased the intrusive complex and the “Old Town view” promised to buyers, before revealing the uncomfortable reality of an irreversibly altered landscape. The gesture invited reflection on what it means to “build” in the Old Town today.

“The damage is a permanent monument in the city centre, showing how public interest protection can be reduced to zero,” the artist noted.

According to cultural policy researcher Dr Skaidra Trilupaitytė, the work is “an original case of real cultural policy in action”. It dismantles the “fog” that conceals harmful decisions and urges society to rethink urban memory, resist “square-metre thinking,” and revive trust in cultural reference points. As art critic and curator Dr Laima Kreivytė observed, the project “held up a mirror to power — through subtle, poetic means.”

Afterlife and Documentation

The installation lives on through documentation: photography (Vidmantas Balkūnas) and film. The short film White Darkness (directed by Rėda Brandišauskienė, shot by Eitvydas Doškus, with original music by Dominykas Digimas) premiered at Pasaka cinema, Vilnius, on 2 June 2025, followed by a discussion with philosopher Dr V. Bachmetjevas. It has since been screened at the Titanikas gallery and during a seminar for Lithuanian administrative court judges. Further screenings are planned.

Significance

White Darkness demonstrates how even a fleeting artistic gesture can become a powerful political and aesthetic intervention — a symbolic imprint of protest in urban life.

Trailer: