On Friday, 16 May, at 7PM, a self-organised photography exhibition by three artists – Donata Šiaudvytytė, Morta Narkauskaitė, and Alexandra Bondarev – titled ABEJUR, opens at the VU Botanical Garden, Vingis Park (M. K. Čiurlionio St. 110), in Greenhouse No. 10. The exhibition’s title, drawn from an authentic Lithuanian word meaning ‘both here and there’, refers to a state that permeates not only the artists’ creative practices but also their lives – manifesting uniquely in each of their works.
Being in two places at once is not merely a physical condition here; the works first and foremost suggest conceptually liminal spaces: fiction and reality, dream and ‘objective’ perception, mythology woven into contemporaneity, water as a threshold between states. They also reveal certain universals embedded within apparent dichotomies: harmony between nature and city life, human–animal coexistence, the playfulness of both child and adult, the sacred otherworld within the earthly – and, above all, beauty that is omnipresent: bothwhere, and everywhere. These images also carry the authors’ intentional agency, bearing witness to life unfolding on both sides of the lens. Authorship, too, is situated bothwhere – in the act of capturing images and in the art de vivre. The central axis of the exhibition is the body, visually and conceptually uniting it into a cohesive whole: most often naked, sculptural, always real, and not limiting, but enabling a simultaneous existence in multidimensional spaces. Finally, the exhibition’s location itself evokes ‘bothwhere’: a natural oasis nestled within the largest park in the capital city – VU Botanical Garden.
The exhibition features monochrome, mostly analogue photographs, the majority of which are being shown for the first time. As the artists themselves say: ‘Our autonomous, independent, and intentional coming together for this joint exhibition – without hierarchical roles, without funding, and outside traditional institutional art spaces – is also a manifesto: to create for the sake of creating, and to foster an open, self-sustaining community. In doing so, we hope not only to connect with more like-minded people, but also to inspire other creators to gather and work freely, unbound by institutional expectations or conventional norms of the art field, and – if it’s not too banal to say – to create from the heart.’
Exhibition Opening: Friday, 16 May, 7PM at VU Botanical Garden, Vingis Park (M. K. Čiurlionio Str. 110), Greenhouse No.10.
The exhibition will run until 6 June, 2025.
Visiting hours for the exhibition and the VU Botanical Garden are Tuesday–Friday, 11AM–8PM, and Saturday–Sunday, 10AM–8PM. Admission is free on the opening evening; on other days, entry is with a regular VU Botanical Garden visitor’s ticket.
At the opening event, visitors will be able to purchase the artists’ works, enjoy an edible installation by tablescaping designer Teklė Uršulė Šečkutė, listen to a specially composed soundtrack by composer Simon Gimelstein, and stroll through the blooming VU Botanical Garden. Weather permitting, the evening will conclude with a bonfire.
Artists: Alexandra Bondarev, Donata Šiaudvytytė, Morta Narkauskaitė
Lighting Design: Justas Bø
Sound Design: Simon Gimelstein
Sound installation: Laurynas Kamarauskas
Reception Feast Installation: Teklė Uršulė Šečkutė
Poster Design: Normantas Matonis
Exhibition Text: Alexandra Bondarev
Donata Šiaudvytytė is a photographer who grew up on the Lithuanian seaside and currently lives in Vilnius. Her images create dreamy, melancholic atmospheres, often focusing on the beauty of youth through the natural, naked (yet deliberately uneroticised) female body and an ongoing dialogue with nature. Since 2024, Donata has been developing an ongoing project, Artists and Their Everyday Life, which captures the daily lives of Lithuania’s younger generation of creators – in their studios and immediate surroundings. Her work has appeared in publications such as Lamų slėnis, Moteris, and Teatro žurnalas. Abejur marks the debut presentation of her work in an exhibition format.
Morta Narkauskaitė is an artist born in Elektrėnai and currently based in Vilnius. She studied acting at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre and now works primarily in the field of analogue photography. Morta’s work explores themes of mythology, magic, and memory, often conveyed through the body and its relationship with nature. She is also collaborating with friends on the newly established Lyduokiai Residency, which aims to bring together a community of creators open to play and exploration. In 2021, Morta had a solo exhibition Susiliejimai (Confluences) in Smiltynė (Klaipėda City Municipality, Lithuania).
Alexandra Bondarev is a Vilnius-born traveller, photographer, poet, translator, and language editor in the cultural field. Her artistic practice is rooted in an anthropological approach to humanistic documentary, with images of different cultures that are intentionally un-exoticized, revealing timeless, interpersonal values. Alexandra’s work has been presented in group exhibitions at artist-curated spaces such as Studium P (2021) and Retrito Smarsas (2024) in Vilnius, Anykščiai Chapel (2024), and Fotografia Gallery in Tbilisi, Georgia (2023), as well as in the solo exhibition Homing Around at Drifts Gallery, Vilnius (2024). In 2024, she was awarded the Romualdas Rakauskas Photography Award, completed an artistic residency at the Jam Factory Art Centre in Lviv (Ukraine), and documented political protests in Tbilisi.
