Kipras Dubauskas. Pirogenia. Folla e demoni (Kipras Dubauskas. Pirogenia. Crowd and demons) is the Lithuanian artist’s first solo exhibition in Italy, presented by NOS Visual Arts Production and Meno Parkas Gallery in the Project Room of the MAMbo – Museum of Modern Art of Bologna. The exhibition is part of the Cultura Lituana in Italia 2025-2026 program – implemented by the Lithuanian Cultural Institute and the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Italy. The project is curated by Elisa Del Prete and Andrea Pastore and is the outcome of a long-term research and production residency that Dubauskas began in Bologna in 2021 invited by NOS and the museum.
At the core of the project is Firestarter (2024, 16mm, 15′), the third chapter of a trilogy dedicated to the theme of “rescue,” conceived by the artist in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. Filmed among porticoes, underground canals, and industrial spaces in the cities of Bologna and Vilnius, the work intertwines archaic rituals and urban drifts in a contemporary parable on fire: a salvific and destructive element, metaphor of ongoing crises and symbol of rebirth. The figure of Saint Anthony Abbot, who according to tradition descended into the underworld to bring humanity the vital spark, becomes the pivot of a choral narrative where firefighters appear as secular angels of civil society, alongside a noisy crowd and demons of ambiguous origin.
The exhibition takes the form of a large immersive diorama, conceived to evoke a state of alert. Among precarious architectures, shelters, construction debris, scenic remnants, and works by artists with whom Dubauskas collaborates, a landscape emerges suspended between ruin and renewal. Sculptures, drawings, collages, and archival materials intertwine with the film, expanding its vision and reflecting the complexity of a situated research nourished by collective practices, film experimentation, and a constant exploration of marginal spaces, urban interstices, undergrounds, and forgotten infrastructures.
The exhibition time: October 16 2025 – January 11, 2026
Opening evening: October 15 | 18:00 – 20:00
Venue: MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna – Project Room (Via Don Giovanni Minzoni, 14, 40121 Bologna, Italy)
Project by NOS Visual Arts Production and Meno Parkas Gallery
Promoted by MAMbo – Museo d’Arte Moderna di Bologna | Settore Musei Civici Bologna.
In collaboration with Lithuanian Cultural Institute in Rome, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Italy, Home Movies Foundation – National Family Film Archive, Canals of Bologna.
Financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.
