Zoetrope II
Opening: January 9th 6p.m.
The exhibition will be on display: January 9th – January 31th.
Beneath the daily breaking news of the world lies a story of eternal change. Zoetrope, the first moving media mechanism mentioned in antiquity, joins the work of three artists for the second time at the VDA Gallery Akademija, giving a physical body to the thoughts about the restless suspense that permeates everyday life, the constant change between the old and the new, and the sacred. In the context of today's world events, the endless transitory state is felt particularly acutely. Deva Bartninkaitė, Sinaima Kontautė, and Marija Žiemytė reflect these abstract experiences by weaving them into pictures, video artworks, and object installations, turning the viewer's gaze towards the contemplation of regeneration and eternity.
Deva Bartninkaitė presents paintings woven from VHS tapes. The titles of the works allude to the content within each film, but the flickering of the dark plastic loops becomes a new language accessible to the viewer. The artist reflects on the transience and instability of information, contemplating its temporality in a fast-paced world.
Sinaima Kontautė uses installations of animal bones to create narratives about life and its transitional stages. The juxtaposition between the organic body and artificial materials is important for Kontautė. The artist combines organic materials and urban remains. By creating new stories out of fragments of bodies that are no longer moving, she engages the audience in a reflection on the temporary relationship of the body and the soul to the physical world, and on their own role in this infinite cycle of intermediate states.
Marija Žiemytė's works, inspired by the honeycombs built by bees and the role of bees in Lithuanian traditions, give the exhibition as a whole the concept of the "circle of life". In a space filled with the buzzing of bees, the artist presents documentation of the creation of her honeycomb made of textiles, wax, and paint. It is a process of "temple-making". This is how Marija Žiemytė describes the feeling that accompanies the creation of this series of works.
Whether it is obsolete technology, unused materials, or the body left behind by the soul, the artists give it a new meaning and tell the story of endless change - the only unchanging phenomenon in the universe. The works of these three artists complement each other, creating a fabric of existential thoughts, whose threads weave the viewer's thoughts and invite the viewer to continue the eternal narrative of the circle of life.
Exhibition curator Rūta Matulevičiūtė
About the artists:
DEVA BARTNINKAITĖ (b. 1997, Klaipėda, Lithuania) currently studying Master's in Fine Arts, Department of Textile Art and Design, Vilnius Academy of Arts. In 2022 she graduated with a Bachelor's degree in Fine Arts, Department of Textile Art and Design, Vilnius Academy of Arts. In the years 2019-2020 studied Textile design studies at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia, Erasmus+ exchange programme. Since 2019 Deva Bartninkaitė has been participating in solo and group shows in Lithuania and abroad. A few of them: 2022 – YTAT’22 4th Young Textile Art Triennial, The City Art Gallery, Łódź, Poland; 2022 – VHS. Extinction and Transformation, Solo BA degree show, Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania; 2019 – Drawing 2019 Algimantas Švėgžda drawing contest exhibition, VAA Akademija gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Sinaima Kontautė (born 1998) completed her Bachelor's degree in Textile Art and Design at the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2022. Exhibitions: In 2022, she had a solo exhibition of her bachelor's thesis work titled "BŪTIES (NE)DARNA" at the VDA Textile Gallery "Artifex," Vilnius. In 2021, she participated in the exhibition "NE / PANAŠŪS. RYTAI VAKARUOSE" at the VDA Textile Gallery "Artifex," Vilnius. In 2020, she took part in the 9th Lithuanian Textile Art Biennial "RIBA #30" at the LDS Gallery "Arka," Vilnius.
Marija Žiemytė (born 1988, Vilnius). In 2022, she completed her Bachelor's degree in Textile Art and Design at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Main exhibitions: International multidisciplinary participatory art event "Making of ..! Malmö" / 2023, Rostrum Gallery, Malmö, Sweden; The 7th Riga International Triennial of Textile and Fiber Art, Tradition & Innovation, QUO VADIS / 2023, Riga Art and Design Museum, Latvia; Contemporary Art Fair "ArtVilnius’22," Project Zone: "Karščiuojantys kūnai" / 2022, Lithuanian Exhibition and Congress Centre LITEXPO, Vilnius.
