Legends have it that when people die, their souls, with all the wisdom they have accumulated over their lifetime, go to some sort of reservoir of spirits and float freely there, waiting for a suitable new form to incarnate. Their interiority is unaltered by the transition of their physical vessels, and with the material transformation, they are capable of doing what was impossible in their fragile forms.
The Ember (Žarija) is the second part of the Pack (Ruja), an ongoing project of the youngest generation of artists. The glowing ember left over from the irrational burst of flame ignites the already rational mind – as befits the aftermath of a rampage, one begins to reflect on one’s being and origins.
In the Pamėnkalnio Gallery, adjacent to the Pamėnkalnio (now Tauro) Hill, the artists created an in-between space – a repository of bodiless souls that appear to emerge from the underworld, while the artworks hang on the walls as if they were its reflection. Activating phantoms of senses evoked by the given location, the authors contextualize contemporary painting from the perspective of other artistic and cultural realms, with a focus on the historical and cultural context of this place.
That leads us to assume that this exhibition is just one form of their burning insides, transforming the observations of their fleshy ears and eyes into individual reflections and access to the world in their minds. Local contexts, stories, and legends have transformed into the artists’ distinctive memory, overlaid with veils of mist over time, and the forms that glow from its depths seem abstract to them, but take on new meanings as they are covered in reflection. The exhibition offers an opportunity to witness how different artists can see the same object in different ways and to reveal painting as a form of co-cultural dialogue.
Artists: Paulina Domašauskaitė, Kristijonas Gurčinas, Benas Matijošaitis, Jonas Meškauskas, Liucija Pačkauskaitė, Emilis Šeputis.
Graphic designer: Jokūbas Juršėnas.
Lights by: Adomas Kaikaris.
Text by: Monika Radžiūnaitė.
Organiser: Pamėnkalnio Gallery.
Sponsors: Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius City, Lithuanian Artists’ Association.
