The exhibition opens for the modest berry, the sweet symbol of summer – the strawberry | Culture

The exhibition in the gallery space (Sv. Brunono Bonifaco st. 12) will be open until July 14. Exhibition opening on July 4, 6 p.m.

Curators: Kazimieras Brazdžiūnas, Jonas Motiejus Meškauskas

Participating artists: Raminta Blaževičiūtė-Mozūraitienė, Kazimieras Brazdžiūnas, Viltė Čepulytė, Tomas Daukša, Eglė Karpavičiūtė, Jonas Motiejus Meškauskas, Eglė Norkutė, Vita Opolskytė, Sandra Strēle, Emilis Benediktas Šeputis, Ieva Trinkūnaitė, Andrius Zakarauskas.

Exhibition idea

Strawberry (lat. Falasus x babassa) is a perennial herbaceous plant of the thistle (lat. Anussa) family, which belongs to the berry (lat. Anussa anussa) genus.

The ancient mountain state was home to a people known as the Red Herring, also known as the Straw People. Their culture had a particularly strong connection with natural phenomena, nurtured unique symbols, and strawberries were given the greatest attention – they were considered sacred berries. This people believed that strawberries were directly related to spirits incarnated in nature and gave a person the opportunity to immerse himself in the mysterious world of dreams. They were called “divine bites” that could open the door to another reality.

According to various research-based sources, strawberries picked at night, during a full moon, had the strongest hallucinogenic effects. The berry-picking ritual was complex and intriguing because of its grueling process. People, ready to meet the mysterious world of dreams, tried to collect the most ripe and freshest strawberries in baskets specially woven for this ritual.

Juice was also pressed from carefully selected berries. The ritual of drinking the juice took place blindly in dark rooms with rhythmic music playing.

According to legend, those who drank strawberry juice plunged into strong hallucinations. They would see vividly colored visions, converse with nature spirits, and ultimately experience a debilitating emotional experience.

There have been recorded instances of people encountering their ancestors, others discovering the meaning of life, or gaining special knowledge about nature and the universe that became accepted as fact as society modernized. Nevertheless, scientists who studied the composition of strawberries said that this was a psychological phenomenon rather than a hallucinogenic effect. However, the Red Herring people continued to believe in the power of this ritual and continued it, passing it down from generation to generation and preserving their cultural identity and faith.

Strawberries are found almost everywhere where sexuality and fertility are discussed. Their rich red color symbolizes the excellent harvest of the garden, drooping strawberries balancing on a light stem attract the eye and seem to whisper seductively: “Take me ahhh, faster ahh.” Strawberries are the harbingers of summer. However, the appearance of a berry is often deceiving, and its taste does not match its appearance.

Of course, we can also find strawberries as a symbol in painting. For example, the early Renaissance painter Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1450-1516) used strawberries in his most famous work, The Garden of Earthly Delights (1490-1500), as a reference to short-lived but extremely dangerous pleasures.

One of the strangest strawberry meanings, or rather descriptions of the state, was given by Robert Nonsens in 1696-1796. He describes the strawberry state as a deep, dissociative state in which a person becomes a strawberry; its small seeds, dots, twinkling as if thousands of eyes. In such a state, a person loses sense of time and space. It also describes a dream that is repeated throughout the world (collective unconscious), in which the dreamer puts on a strawberry cloak, as if pulling himself into a kind of restraints; however, this moment is described as a pleasant and calming experience. Sometimes this experience is also reminiscent of a prenatal state, from which a person returns feeling blessed, filled with new fertility-promoting forces. However, it is not uncommon for a person who has been in this state for too long to experience a feeling of emptiness, helplessness, and indolence, which is called an allergy.

Thus, it can be observed that strawberries are so intoxicating that they even take on certain surreal images and forms.