Marija Marcelionytė-Paliukė | Po__ledinė__ (eng. Under__Ice__)
14/4–8/5/2026
Opening | April 14 (Tuesday) at 6 PM at the VAA gallery ARTIFEX (Gaono str. 1, Vilnius).
I invite you to experience the exhibition / gallery space according to the right-hand principle. I ride a motorcycle, and the season has just begun, so here I borrow a definition from traffic rules.
When thinking about the works for the Artifex Gallery, they naturally coalesce into a cohesive narrative through the language of textiles: needle, embroidery, fabric, a ball of thread, canvas, bleaching, rhythm, ritual, the dimension of time (duration), sound, weaving, stacking, screen, pattern, repetition, water, sun. Discovering these connections was engaging, intriguing, and somewhat unexpected.
The title of the exhibition, “Po__ledinė__” (eng. “Under__Ice__”), refers to time—or, more precisely, to different temporalities. It also refers to states of being. The inserted pauses recall the moment when, having learned to read, one begins vocabulary-building exercises. You learn to think, and there is no longer a single correct answer. Most often, the word will simply be read as “ice,” and before you even notice it, an association emerges—fishing. A frozen lake, a drilled hole in the ice, time passing as you follow the almost imperceptible vibrations of the fishing line, and all around—endless space and silence—these have recently become my moments of clarity and survival.
Lithuania’s political realities, especially in the field of culture, weighed so heavily on me that the only way to endure became the most ordinary manual work—handling materials—because all my thoughts and attention were absorbed by the cultural protest. A silkscreen mesh pulled across hundreds of times; charcoal drawing after drawing; dozens of monotypes—and so as not to waste time hammering yet another canvas onto the wall—you paint. It is patient, allowing you to erase yesterday’s tension by voicing today’s. In the background, LRT Radio is constantly playing—discussion and current affairs programs—a numbing, under-the-ice state. And as if that were not enough, I was also making an ice floe.
Marija Marcelionytė conjures. In her art, conjuration (performative language) and convening (bringing people together) form a distinctive creative environment. Marija conjures by convening. Even a chance encounter with the artist and her works carries the power of transformation. She does not strike like lightning nor unseat you; rather, she quietly instils confidence through line, word, sound, and action.
The exhibition Under__Ice__ is also post-glacial. Layers of time shift here like the seasons, although winter may last for millennia. So too may spring. Upon entering Marija’s exhibition, one ought to forget clocks and telephones, unfinished to-do lists and the feeling of guilt. To immerse oneself in a meditative (as if watching slowly melting ice) and performative (tearing off a slip bearing a telephone number) flow of time. The internal time of the works does not necessarily coincide with that of the external world. Yet the traces and reflections of lived histories are palpable.
I first encountered the work of Marija Marcelionytė in 1998, on the notice board of the Vilnius Academy of Arts. A simple tear-off advert read: “I Can Help. Marija” and included the artist’s telephone number, which one could tear off. At the time, this was a familiar poster-on-a-pole format. I was captivated by the authenticity and simplicity of the work. An everyday address was ritualised, and art became part of life and popular culture. The name Marija refers not only to the author or the Holy Virgin, but also to the heroines of popular television series of the early years of Lithuanian independence (Simply Maria). Most importantly, the telephone number was real, as was the help offered. This is where the convening conjuration began.
This work is reactivated in the exhibition. As is another timekeeper – Lygiai metai (One Year Exactly) – composed of tear-off wall calendars. Not only Marija’s language, but also her works are performative. They contain within them the internal possibility of action. It is no coincidence that Pareidolijos (Pareidolias) proposes, in a Fluxus-like manner, instructions for the use of the work. Upon reading them, one might expect a technical, constructed, rational piece. In reality, they are exercises of imagination that allow one to give form to clouds while listening to poetry.
It is precisely poetic connections that bind the works of Marija Marcelionytė. For in poetry it is possible to unite the impossible – different times, cultures, materials, experiences, languages. And Marija connects – she creates meshwork and other conceptual nets, of the kind described by Ursula Le Guin in The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction. Into these nets is drawn, and from them emerges, the vendace tattooed on the artist’s hand – a freshwater fish that cannot abide silt. In its own way, it is symbolic that the vendace swims together with the artist’s hand, carving an ice floe. A performative under_ice effort to reach oxygen and to fill the gallery space with it.
Curator Laima Kreivytė
Poster and promotional materials by Emilė Krutulytė and Vilius Juozapas Vingras
The exhibition is partially supported by Art and Research Projects Fund and Graphic Art department of the Vilnius Academy of Arts
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Meetings with the artist and guided tours will take place on:
April 18 at 1:00 p.m. | April 25 at 2:00 p.m. | May 8 at 5:00 p.m.
You can read about the exhibition here:
https://echogonewrong.com/photo-reportage-from-the-exhibition-under__ice__-by-marija-marcelionyte-paliuke-at-vaa-gallery-artifex/
https://artnews.lt/marijos-marcelionytes-paliukes-paroda-po__ledine_-135922
And listen here!
https://lrt.lt/radioteka/irasas/2000712195/kelione-menininko-smegenu-vingiais-su-marija-marcelionyte-paliuke
