JCDecaux Award 2024: fall

“And twist about the past your thoughts Like some parasitic vine Which on an ancient structure’s walls Its widely-scattered arms will twine.” Adam Mickiewicz, 'Forefathers’ Eve', 'The Living Dead' Translated by Charles S. Kraszewski 'fall' began with thoughts on the in-between, the horror and the bounty of an unnamed sense of the present. In five artworks, the artists invite us to enter or observe the relationship between material and human modes of being, between generations, emptiness and filler, something synthesised and homogenous. When young writer Adam Mickiewicz began writing the poem Forefathers’ Eve two hundred years ago, he experienced the destructive force of imperialism, personal losses, heartaches, and the pressures of market and success. He transferred collective and personal anxiety to the character of the spectre. The artworks are ghosts, too. Like the Living Dead in the poem, they are mediators between different times and spaces – forever the same age, trapped in an endless moment, and drifting through the walls of the old house. fall reminds us that it’s not only seasons that recur. Kotryna Markevičiūtė and Ona Juciūtė JCDECAUX AWARD 2024 PARTICIPANTS ELENA LAURINAVIČIŪTĖ is an artist from Anykščiai who currently lives and works in Vilnius. In 2024, she completed her Master’s at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. The artist creates experimental ceramic wind instruments. Their sharp edges cut the invisible air and thus transform it into humming and whistling sounds, from which the artist forms three-dimensional soundscapes of air vibrations. Elena explores the relationship between sound and space, actualising the sonic heritage of clay whistles and connecting past and present with ceramic tools. KAMILĖ PIKELYTĖ is a visual artist who lives and creates in Reykjavik and Vilnius. She uses found footage and physical remains in her work. In her installations and performances, the artist examines humanity’s dominance and the tendency to annihilate non-human life forms. In questioning the systematic labelling of certain things as ‘dirty,’ Kamilė explores the masking of inconvenient truths in such a way. EGLĖ RUIBYTĖ is a visual artist and graphic designer who combines these fields and thus searches for meaning in particularly standardised global processes. She graduated from graphic arts studies at the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts and then studied typography and sculpture at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts (HFBK). Delving into industrial technologies and looking for functional-emotional metaphors, Eglė constructs seemingly mass-produced objects partly by handiwork. In this way, the author deliberately allows mistakes to occur, which speak of contradictory humanity in the industrial machine. ONA BARBORA ŠLAPŠINSKAITĖ is an artist and educator who lives in Vilnius, where she is currently studying for an MA in Sculpture at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. The artist creates installations in which personal memories, family stories, and political contexts unfold and sometimes create conditions for different communities to meet. Recently, she has been rethinking the role of ‘ghosts’ in her work, both on personal and political levels. In using auto- and biographical facts and weaving them into fictional stories, Ona Barbora tries to highlight the influence of history and ideological heritage on past, present and future identities. MANTAS VALENTUKONIS is a painter who lives and works in Kaunas. In 2023, he completed his BA in Painting at the Faculty of Kaunas of the Vilnius Academy of Arts. This year, he organised a personal exhibition, Apparitions, at the Drifts Gallery in Vilnius and also curated the group exhibition Tarpinės gliaumos / Intermediate Glooms at the Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre. The artist has presented his work in group exhibitions in Vilnius, Kaunas, and Klaipėda.