On February 16 and March 11, Lithuania celebrates its Independence - first won and later restored. We know how many years it took to reach these dates, how many sacrifices and traumas were brought by the occupation. The occupier has not changed; today it is testing its strength in Ukraine. We do not see all the horrors of this war - only fragments reach us - yet the terrible images constantly remind us of distant thunder that may one day roll closer.

Ukraine defends itself heroically and, in doing so, serves as our shield. For this reason, on Independence Day the outdoor gallery +1000 of the Vilnius Academy of Arts presented the exhibition “Everything Will Be Fine” by associate professor Židrūnas Mirinavičius of the Site-Specific Art department together with students from Ukraine — Daria Sorokina, Maria Isaieva, Sofia Dzyha, and Ulyana Baravik.

The idea developed by Židrūnas Mirinavičius and realized with the students in a site-specific glass artwork reminds us both of painful loss and of the attempt to continue living. Glass shining in the sunlight appears decorative and luxurious, yet it is filled with bullet casings and fractures. Shards do not disappear - they remain on the ground and in memory. Thus, while going about our everyday work, somewhere in the distant corner of our consciousness we always hope that everything will be fine - for Ukraine. And then for us.

Aistė Kisarauskaitė

Location: +1000 outdoor gallery of the VDA (Maironio St. 6, Vilnius).

The exhibition will run until April 1.