That morning I woke up as a sentient being. A beautiful garden appeared before my eyes. Full of lush greenery and passing sounds. I noticed the source of some of these sounds in the distance – surrounded by curved branches – the backs of two figures murmured. I could not hear their voices. Yet the bodies seemed vibrant, sitting on a little bench discussing something forever, showering in the sublime.
They left me with a map, made up of words, which fell into a poem. Not only did it help to navigate surroundings, it also gave directions for building a home. It read:
to build a house you should start by listening to the materials, their form is not accidental it is what reminisce from the time long before us – metal, glass, wood, and threads. The ever-changing nature of these materials makes you look closer, maybe even too close. Will you be able to avert your gaze? If not, you will need to use your other senses to get the full picture. And maybe, just maybe you will start to feel not only the space but what the space lacks and create accordingly. Only then you will notice the natural rhythm of breathing of walls. With each breath, the microcosmos changes just a little bit, and a way back is lost. This house is alive, by placing objects in it part of the unconscious trapped its frame, giving even more directions, but never steering the way.
Before my eyes surrounded by a lush garden appeared two figures. Sitting on a bench I could hear their voices getting quieter with every footstep I took their direction. As much as I would have loved to overhear this conversation It would have been quite useless, as words can be deceiving if one does not share the experiences. Yet these figures taught me to listen to the in-between, to silence, to the materials and their silent whispers.
The sun beams caress you with the sound of silver reflections. The new generations won’t know my lessons, yet they’ll feel the gentle touch of the objects we left behind. These abstractions, these objects are the closest things left to us by our predecessors who just like us created things, yet left no instructions, the air they breathed has changed and so have the times. However, it would be naïve to think they do not guide our hands. The figures listened and told me what they heard in the way of a poem.
Turns out the figures themselves have their separate journeys, but they know every intersection is a place to share their discoveries and celebrate uncovered wisdom.
Eglė A. Benkunskytė
Artists:
Eglė Petrošiūtė (b. 1991) is an artist living and working in Vilnius, who graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts with a Master’s degree in painting in 2016. Her artistic practice is interdisciplinary: through video art, installation and sound, she speaks through the connections between materials. Her creative strategy is based on the problem of the notion of corporeality, identity and intimacy.
Liudvika Sonia Koort (b. 1994) is also an artist living and working in Vilnius, currently studying at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, where she is pursuing a Master’s degree in Sculpture. L. S. Koort began her artistic career as a theatre set designer, then switched to an individual artistic practice. Her work explores the corporeal, the experience of intuitive knowing, and the magic of everyday life. Today, she prefers the mediums of drawing, object creation, poetry and the universal language of symbols, forms and metaphors.
Curator: Eglė A. Benkunskytė
Architect: Dovydas Alčauskis
Graphic design: Vytautas Volbekas
Communication: Deimantė Bulbenkaitė
Words of Gratitude
The artists and the organisers would like express their sincere gratidute to the people who have immensely helped to makes this exhibition come alive: Valentinas Varnas, Aurelijus Blažinauskis, Ramutė Toliušytė, Vytautas Viržbickas, Izabelė Šuikaitė and Alexandra Bondarev.
This exhibition is partly funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and is part of the creative programme of Lithuanian Artists’ Union.
Eglė Petrošiūtė and Liudvika Sonia Koort
Sounds like a Silver Teaspoon
2024.03.08–2024.04.06
Photography: Laurynas Skeisgiela
