The participants of the competitive exhibition “JCDecaux Prize 2024” are announced Culture

The ninth exhibition “JCDecaux Prize” will present the works of five budding Lithuanian creators – Elena Laurinavičiūtė, Kamilė Pikelytė, Eglė Ruibytė, Ona Barbora Šlapšinskaitė and Mantas Valentukonis – by the decision of the curators of this year’s project. They were selected by the curators from the proposals submitted by the developers during the open call. “We are glad that a number of artists responded to the invitation to look at the exhibition space as an intermediate, changing sum of layers of memory and purpose in their projects.

This exhibition is a competition, and its purpose is to provide a space for the most interesting beginning creators of Lithuania to present their creations, so we want the group exhibition to be cohesive, to create connections and silent conversations between the works. The creators selected for this year’s exhibition will look for connections between the physicality of clay and the intangibility of sound in their works, explore mythical spaces in the format of a video game, invite the ghost of their great-grandfather for a conversation, use performative practice to consider the corporeality of restoration, and in the installation will seek to open up the paradoxes of the durability of materials”, – about the selection and the work of confirmed participants curators Kotryna Markevičiūtė and Ona Juciūtė say.

Photo of the organizers/Participants of the “JCDecaux Prize 2024” exhibition

Over the past three years, the building of the Contemporary Art Center (ČMC) on Vokiečių Street was undergoing a capital repair and a new branch of the institution was established in Antakalny, Sapiegii Palace, so the “JCDecaux Prize” exhibitions were held in various spaces of the ČMC partners: the House of Composers, the National Art Gallery and the Gallery of the Artists’ Union. The exhibition “JCDecaux prize 2024” returns to the premises of the institution, which has expanded this year.

The works of the artist(s) will be presented in the Northern Gallery on the first floor of the Sapiegi Palace. Two open first-floor galleries from the 17th century. designed by Italian architect Giovanni Battista Frediani. The North Gallery is an arched gallery typical of the Italian Baroque with a vaulted ceiling, where the residents and guests of the building could hide from the heat of the sun. 19th century the open galleries were bricked up and turned into indoor spaces. During the current reconstruction of the building, the architecture of the gallery was restored by glazing the arches with showcase windows and thus connecting the indoor and outdoor spaces.

A production budget of up to EUR 1500 and curatorial support is allocated to the work of each participant or collective. At the end of the exhibition, the organizers will announce which of the participants, by the decision of the international commission, will be awarded a monetary bonus of 4000 EUR for the originality and relevance of the artistic expression of the presented work. As every year, viewers will be invited to express their sympathy for the work they liked the most. The author of the project who has received the most public evaluations will have the opportunity to present his or her project in the “JCDecaux Lietuva” outdoor advertising network.

The cycle of annual exhibitions and the established prize is a joint initiative of the SMC and the outdoor advertising company JCDecaux Lietuva, the aim of which is to promote the work of budding Lithuanian artists and its dissemination not only on a national but also international scale.

Participants of the “JCDecaux Prize 2024” exhibition

Elena Laurinavičiūtė – an artist from Anykščiai, who currently lives and works in Vilnius. in 2024 completed his master’s studies at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. The artist is attracted by the idea of ​​creating a dialogue between the physicality of clay and the intangibility of sound. Elena’s works are ceramic wind instruments of an experimental nature. Their sharp edges cut the invisible and intangible air and thus transform it into humming and whistling sounds, from which the artist creates spatial landscapes of air vibrations. Elena explores the relationship between sound and space, actualizing the sonic heritage of clay whistles and thus connecting past and present through ceramic tools.

Kamilė Pikelytė is a visual art creator who lives and creates in Reykjavik and Vilnius. In her work, she uses found material (eng. found footage) and physical remains. In her installations and performances, the artist examines humanity’s dominance and tendency to destroy non-human life forms. Questioning the systematic labeling of certain things as “dirty”, Kamilė examines how inconvenient truths can be masked in this way.

Eglė Ruibytė is a creator of fine art, a graphic designer who combines these fields and thus searches for meaning in particularly standardized global processes. He completed graphic studies at the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, 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 hand. 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 living in Vilnius. He is currently studying for a master’s degree in sculpture at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Creates installations that unfold personal memories, family stories, political contexts, and sometimes intersections that allow different communities to meet. Recently, the artist has been rethinking the role of “ghosts” in her work, both on a personal and political level. Using auto and biographical facts and weaving them into fictional narratives, she tries to highlight the influence of history and ideological heritage on past, present and future identities.

Mantas Valentukonis is a young generation painter who lives and works in Kaunas. in 2023 completed his bachelor’s studies in painting at the Kaunas Faculty of the Vilnius Academy of Arts. This year, he organized a personal exhibition at the Apparitions gallery at the Drifts gallery in Vilnius, and also curated the group exhibition Tarpinės gliaumos / Intermediate Glooms at the Klaipėda Cultural Communications Center. The artist has presented his work in group exhibitions in Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda.