Artists have frequently faced exile because their craft necessitates conscience. This is the conversation emanating from the exhibition “Belonging to the End of the World” opening at the Lithuanian Artists Association Project Space on March 21. 6.30 PM. The exhibition will be on view until April 6.
Emerging from the discussions at the Nida Art Colony, the team continuously returned to the importance of recovering a sense of origin and identity. The residency incorporated emerging artists and students from Lithuania and Belarus, and the conversations delved into how many of them feel uprooted from their initial homes and homelands. Nida served as a very appropriate place for this residency and the artworks and exhibition that have emerged from it because it is an art colony that in many senses of the phrase, is: “at the end of the world.”
Belonging speaks to our attachments through love, through heritage, through place, and through our constructed identities. The word “belonging” bears within it two overlapping stems: “belong” meaning to be attached or bonded, and “longing” meaning to think of or wish for something that is not present. They are describing feelings of home and genesis, but also that of needing to find new sources of grounding on unfamiliar terrain in a foreign land. Their artworks ultimately pay homage to those outside themselves who have contributed to their own composite sense of self.
Participating artists: Austėja Glušokaitė, Ianis Povilaitis, Jeffrey Taylor, Rusnė Ivanauskytė, Karolina Stundžytė, Alix Stseryna, Lukrecija Jurėnaitė, Svetlana Gužavina, Aliaksei Rodzik, Katsiaryna Miats, Darya D, Oleg Burkov, Aliaksandra Tratsiakova, Jana Shnipelson.
Support for the exhibition is provided by:
Vilnius Academy of Art
Nida Art Colony
US Fulbright Program
European Humanities University
