On 16 December, 6 pm, the opening of Gediminas G. Akstinas’s solo exhibition Nudes will take place. The exhibition is displayed at the Radvila Palace Museum of Art (24 Vilniaus St, Vilnius).
If one is exceedingly busy, or feeling unsociable, one might simply pick up a pair of full lungs, install them, and leave one’s emptied lungs on the other side of the room. If one has a few minutes to spare, it’s simple courtesy to connect the empty lungs to an air dispenser and refill them for the next person. But by far the most common practice is to linger and enjoy the company of others, to discuss the news of the day with friends or acquaintances and, in passing, offer newly filled lungs to one’s interlocutor. While this perhaps does not constitute air sharing in the strictest sense, there is camaraderie derived from the awareness that all our air comes from the same source, for the dispenser are but the exposed terminals of pipes extending from the reservoir of air deep underground, the great lung of the world, the source of all our nourishment. (Ted Chiang, Exhalation, 2019).
Gediminas G. Akstinas’s exhibition responds to the qualities and characteristics of the Radvila Palace Museum of Art. It is envisaged as a continuation of Nudes – a series of sculptures by the artist, which started in 2020.
Inspired by the science fiction stories of Ted Chiang, the exhibition is just one of many possible attempts to look closely at the people, places, practices, and objects that surround us, at the reliance on daily habits and the choices that we all make.
Gediminas G. Akstinas is a Lithuanian artist currently living and working in Vilnius. In his artistic practice, special attention is given to aesthetics determined by both the speed of the economy and impulsive, often irrational decisions, the thin line between authorial and anonymous action, and the connections between collective work and individual discoveries. Most of his work uses various sculptural practices, including objects, installation, and performance. His solo exhibitions include Nudes at Paneriai Sculpture Park and a rented apartment in Vilnius, Companions at a rented office space in Vilnius and The SHIP at Kunstverein, Amsterdam.
The exhibition will run until February 12th, 2023. Open during museum visiting hours.
Organiser The Lithuanian National Museum of Art
Visual: Gediminas G. Akstinas
