The Pavilion of Lithuania at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
The Pavilion of Lithuania at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia stages Inflammation, an installation by artist duo Pakui Hardware that features paintings by Marija Terese Rozanskait? (1933–2007). Opening on 20 April 2024, the immersive, site-specific project explores the inflammatory effects of current economic and social conditions on human and planetary bodies
The Pavilion of Lithuania at the 60th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia opens with the installation Inflammation. The project is the result of collaboration between three duos: Pakui Hardware, which consists of artists Neringa Cerniauskaite and Ugnius Gelguda; the curators Valentinas Klimasauskas and João Laia; and the architects who created the architectural part of the Pavillion Ona Lozuraityte-Isore and Petras Isora-Lozuraitis.
Occupying the Sant’Antonin church, which hosts a pavilion for the first time, the exhibition presents modern figurative paintings by the late Marija Teres? Rožanskait? alongside a site-specific installation comprising aluminium and glass sculptures by Pakui Hardware. The sculptures resemble an enlarged nervous system with pulsating hotspots of inflammation and resonates with Rožanskait?’s paintings, which depict bodies ravaged by unnamed diseases, sterile operating theatres and medical consultation rooms, viscera-like assemblages, and machines. Drawing on the visions of artists from two generations working in Lithuania in different contexts, Inflammation addresses shared themes of medicine and landscapes—whether natural, industrial, or cosmic. The presentation conveys the interconnectedness of bodies and environments in crisis.
The architects of the exhibition environment, created a unified hybrid techno-organism. This environment includes a surface of hybrid soil, which refers to the condition of a natural body that has been infected and inflamed by synthetic matter. The exhibition conveys the fact that inflammation is by definition a systemic condition, whether it relates to the body or nature, and that systems are fundamentally linked. Inflammation invites audiences to examine the connections between our bodies and the planet, which are becoming increasingly clear.
Inflammation is commissioned by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, presented by the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, and financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.
A catalogue accompanies the exhibition, published by Mousse Publishing. Edited by Pakui Hardware, Valentinas Klimasauskas, João Laia, and Egla Mikalajune, it is richly illustrated and includes texts by Arunas Gelunas, Valentinas Klimasauskas, João Laia, Petras Isora-Lozuraitis, Ona Lozuraityte-Isore, Estelle Hoy, and Inga Lace.
Pavilion of Lithuania
60th international Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia
Chiesa di Sant’Antonin
Castello 3300
30122 Venice
https://www.labiennale.org/en/noticeboard/453
Open daily, 11am–7pm
Access from vaporetto station San Zaccaria A
For media enquiries:
International media
Anne Maier, Send/Receive
anne@sendreceive.eu
+49 170 290 7585
Lithuanian media
Ruta Statuleviciute-Kaucikiene
ruta.kaucikiene@lndm.lt
+370 667 08 548
