The name of the latter was inspired by the Latin inscription on the facade that greets visitors to the palace, which reads: “A majestic palace rising from the ruins will protect the war-weary in peaceful peace.”
Built as a resting place for war-weary heroes, the Sapiegi Palace has changed owners and uses many times over the course of more than three hundred years, but most of its existence has been associated with warfare and healing. The building was a tool of war and a trophy in the 18th century. it housed barracks, later a military hospital, an eye clinic and even an anti-aircraft defense school. This change in the purpose of the building became a response to the curation of a group exhibition of 18 Lithuanian and foreign artists, which will run until the end of the year, but will change slightly over time.
Exhibition curators Virginija Januskevičiūtė and Edgaras Gerasimovičius talk about the exhibition of contemporary art in historical spaces and the thoughts that shaped the vision of “Užovėja”.
– There are no similar spaces for the exhibition of contemporary art in Vilnius, but in other countries, e.g. In Italy, the practice of updating the architectural heritage is very common. What are the biggest challenges of curating in spaces that have their own distinct eloquence and there are significant heritage restrictions, as opposed to the more usual “white cube” format of contemporary art?
– Edgaras Gerasimovičius: Exhibiting contemporary art in historic spaces is nothing new. The “white cube” is a modernist concept, and while it undoubtedly remains the dominant model of contemporary art display, its importance as an idea has become obsolete, and art in a variety of environments is no longer surprising.
First of all, the “white cube” is rarely really “white”, and second of all, it would be a mistake to think that it embodies a space without memory, and when one exhibition ends, another begins like a drawing on a new sheet. The “white cube” represents the idea of the hygiene of the traces of time, and this is the essential difference.
In the Sapiegi Palace, as in any other heritage object, the signs of time are not so much an obstacle, which is obvious, but essential semantic points. It is impossible to ignore them, they require a solution – be it a solution that allows them to be revealed more, or on the contrary, purposefully extinguishes them, as if disrupting them. Therefore, in the first exhibition, many works are a kind of optical devices through which one can look at the palace’s material heritage and history.
– How did you choose the works, author, where did you get your inspiration?
– Virginija Januskevičiūtė: The main themes of the exhibition are healing and fragility, so they determined the selection of works. These themes were partly dictated by the history of the palace (it has served war in various ways or been used as barracks, asylum, hospital), its restoration process, but also the events and contexts that surrounded us while working on the exhibition. Finally, what role does Vilnius play in today’s geopolitical situation.
The selection process was intuitive, it could be called an interview with the palace. We collected the works for the exhibition at a time when the palace was still closed, the restoration process was not finished (it is not finished, of course, even now), during which new questions, dilemmas, new information or new creative ideas appeared, which had a lot of influence on how the palace will look in the future. So the whole of the exhibition was taking shape at the same time as it gradually became clear what kind of place it would be.
The history of the palace, the phenomena of public life related to it were revealed from new angles, all of this really involved us. Later, we unexpectedly learned that the artist Domas Noreika, who we previously knew as one of the owners of the Žeimių Manor and the founder of the residence and event program there, is implementing his master’s thesis in the field of restoration in the palace. His subjective approach helped reveal even more nuances of restoration and working with the past.
Photo by Emilia Filipenkovaitė/Virginija Januskevičiūtė
While curating “Užovėja”, we tried to include the old works of art that are already here in the exhibition – I mean both the famous frescoes of the palace, moldings and the architecture of the building itself. We also envisioned that the new art space, which does not have its own collection, can include works stored in other city, country and world collections in its exhibitions.
A huge inspiration for me personally was the historical magazine “Lapham’s Quarterly”, which I discovered quite by chance, which interweaves literary and artistic works of various periods and places, letters, excerpts from documents, maps and facts from the lives of authors. The list of authors of this magazine includes such names as Plato, Sapho, Rubens, Hokusai, Virginia Woolf and Jennifer Higgie.
For the time being, it is impossible to implement such a principle, where works and artefacts from various periods are displayed together – the walls of the building have yet to come to terms with the fact that it is warm, the internal air climate will change for some time here, the stability of which is very important for archival exhibits and old art . However, visitors will notice that works from quite different periods, and even more so ideas, are woven into the exhibition.
– Do you feel like you have like-minded people in this kind of work?
– Virginija Januskevičiūtė: Of course. In the international context of contemporary art, such steps seem very timely – in recent years, the works of artists of more and more diverse generations, historical artifacts, and the interrelationship between contemporary art and wider, slower cultural processes have been included in major world exhibitions.
Recently, the curatorship of one of the most important museums in Italy – the Museum of Civilizations in Rome, which is a mandatory visit for all Italian schoolchildren – was entrusted specifically to contemporary art professionals – researchers and curators.
The same change took place at the Asiatic Museum in Turin. This does not necessarily mean that the direction of these museums will change or that we will always talk only about the past in the Sapiegi Palace – rather, it is an acknowledgment that the past is a very important part of modernity, and its conversation requires enormous creative efforts and attention to nuances.
- Which artists will come to the opening of the exhibition?
– Virginija Januskevičiūtė: Although they would like to, not all participants will come to the opening of the exhibition. However, many of them will be guests and the most curious visitors of the exhibition will be able to meet them, participate in their performances and tours around the exhibition.
In addition to the artists living in Lithuania, who will definitely be there, several foreign creators are also coming to the opening of the exhibition. For example, Miljohn Rupert from the USA and Ulrik Heltoft from Denmark – their joint work in the exhibition is dedicated to the study of the legendary Voinich manuscript, and Rupert’s independently created cartoon “Janas” will be shown next to it.
Photo by Greta Skaraitienes/BNS/Exploration tour of the Sapiegi Palace
Polish artist Iza Tarasewicz will install her sculptural installations in the spaces and participate in the opening. Andrius Arutiunian, an artist of Lithuanian and Armenian origin living abroad, will participate in the installation of his sound work, which was previously presented in the Armenian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Marianna Maruyama, an American artist living in the Netherlands, will also be in Vilnius. According to her idea, both of her works for the palace will be realized not before the opening, but also during it, after the exhibition has already started.
Photo by Greta Skaraitienes/BNS/Exploration tour of the Sapiegi Palace
During the opening weekend, Sapiegi Palace will host two events that are part of the exhibition – a listening session of Yen Chun Lin and Gediminas Žygaus’ piece “Holding the Blue Wind with Open Palms” in the main art of the palace, as well as a performance by Florins Flueras, where visitors to the exhibition will be able to immerse themselves in certain creative workshops. This Romanian artist, choreographer also represents the creative legacy of one of the artists in the exhibition – he worked for many years together with Alina Popa, whose ritual drawings are exhibited in the exhibition, and has published two collections of Popa’s and their joint work. Some of the participants in the exhibition are no longer alive, and we exhibit fragments of their creative heritage in “Užovėja”.
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–Edgaras Gerasimovičius: “Užuovėja” is dedicated to getting to know the building, with which we try to establish a dialogue with its spaces, its history and the work of the many people who have contributed to its preservation and restoration.
Photo by Greta Skaraitienes/BNS/Exploration tour of the Sapiegi Palace
“Užovėja” can be understood as a meditation on the complexity of the history and material heritage of the Sapiegi Palace, which inevitably leads to more general questions that are relevant today: first of all, what does it mean to open a new space for culture when there is a war on the near horizon? How does the relationship of different Lithuanian contemporary art creators with the art of the past change and what does this change bring to the fore and what does it push to the margins? All this is probably reflected in the first exhibition.
In essence, “Užovėja” is about the palace, because we aim to very gently insert the works into the palace spaces, highlighting the fact that the building is the main and most mysterious exhibit, not just an exhibition place.
I think that in the future, the Sapiegi Palace exhibitions will continue the intensive, but also intimate, dialogue with the history and heritage of the palace, but their main ideas will not necessarily be directly based on the history of the palace and the place.
At the moment, all that can be said is that the 2025 exhibition will be very different from the first exhibition, both in terms of its theme and in relation to the history of the palace, but the most important thing is that it is being developed after already absorbing the experience of the first exhibition and many people who worked on the restoration and updating of the palace.
Photo by Greta Skaraitienes/BNS/Exploration tour of the Sapiegi Palace
On the occasion of the opening of the Sapiegi Palace on April 12–On 15 days, there will be a series of events including old and contemporary music concerts, walks around “Užovėja” with artists and curators, artist performances and listening sessions, tours about the history of the palace, restoration features and art exhibitions, and baroque bas-relief workshops for families. More information about the entire opening weekend can be found on the website www.sapiegurumai.lt
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2024-04-07 00:55:35