On Friday, 19 August, at 5pm, the gallery Meno Niša in Vilnius will open the exhibition The Sun Entering the Room by one of the most prominent Lithuanian artists of the younger generation, Jurgis Tarabilda. Consisting of video and light installations, objects and photographs, the show is like an ephemeral collection of everyday moments.
“The light switch (which is not present in the room) is flipped to not only to illuminate the space, but also to make sure that one is not dreaming,” curator Vytenis Burokas writes about Tarabilda’s fifth solo exhibition The Sun Entering the Room.
According to Burokas, the works on display, albeit independent, connect in a wider narrative of the show. “The exposition is accompanied by an atmospheric soundtrack created by neon light objects: as subtitles of a film, they define the sonic background of the space while remaining mute, making us more attentive to the surrounding sounds; these sonic references can either coincide or contrast with the experience of the viewer. Finally, the exhibition is filled with Tarabilda’s often-used bright blue, reminiscent of observing and interpreting clouds in the sky: the works that emerge in the blue background are left to our imagination—to experience them personally and to recognise “faces” in them, as if in clouds,” says the curator.
Tarabilda’s work is constantly evolving, the artist employs different creative techniques. While his last exhibitions were more focused on paintings, this time he presents light and video installations, objects and photography.
As Tarabilda himself says, the works in the exhibition span several years of work. For instance, one of the video installations was created back in 2013, thus marking the very origins of the artist’s creative practice, today possibly somewhat unexpected both for him and for many who have seen his last paintings—highly atmospheric and pregnant with a sense of illusion.
“I would describe this exhibition as an ephemeral collection of everyday events. With a minimal touch, I want to create a distance from some supposed reality, where one does not try to explain any hidden meanings of objects or events, to prolong and thus question the duration of our perception and habits,” says Tarabilda.
Jurgis Tarabilda is a graduate of the Sculpture Department of the Vilnius Academy of Arts. His work has been presented both in Lithuania and abroad, and his artistic resume includes a number of achievements: in 2017, one of his pieces was awarded the Audience Prize at the Young Painter Prize competition, and in 2020, the viewers selected him as the best artist at the ArtVilnius’20 art fair. This year presenting his fifth solo exhibition, Tarabilda has worked on various artistic projects and received international recognition. In 2021, his exhibition was held at Riga’s gallery LOOK!.
Tarabilda’s works have been acquired by the MO Museum (Vilnius) and private collectors from Lithuania, Latvia, Germany, USA, Estonia and the UK, and successfully exhibited at the contemporary art fairs Positions Berlin and ArtVilnius. This September, the gallery Meno Niša will also present Tarabilda’s work for the first time at the viennacontemporary art fair in Vienna, Austria.
Tarabilda’s fifth solo exhibition is organised as part of the 20th anniversary exhibition programme of Gallery Meno Niša.
Curator Vytenis Burokas:
In the exhibition The Sun Entering the Room, artist Jurgis Tarabilda presents atmospheric works which, albeit independent, connect in a wider narrative of the show. At first glance, the works on display capture mundane situations and objects—the century-old observation of celestial bodies and phenomena, door chains used for protecting one’s home, a hand flipping a light switch—but there is also something dreamlike or virtual in the selection; it accepts doubt, combines documentary and digitally generated images, and implies the tension between the past and the present. The light switch (which is not present in the room) is flipped to not only to illuminate the space, but also to make sure that one is not dreaming. The little circular reflection of light scurrying around the gallery is both an element of the past (captured by the cameraman) and a projection of the present moment, playing with sunbeams that visit the gallery space from the streets. Thus, the exhibition becomes a place where images from different times meet, collide and interact, making the works interchangeable—recognisable, yet with a residue of doubt. The exposition is accompanied by an atmospheric soundtrack created by neon light objects: as subtitles of a film, they define the sonic background of the space while remaining mute, making us more attentive to the surrounding sounds; these sonic references can either coincide or contrast with the experience of the viewer. Finally, the exhibition is filled with Tarabilda’s often-used bright blue, reminiscent of observing and interpreting clouds in the sky: the works that emerge in the blue background are left to our imagination—to experience them personally and to recognise “faces” in them, as if in clouds.
The exhibition is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture
The gallery is sponsored by Vilnius City Municipality
In collaboration with ArtLand, we invite you to enjoy a 3D tour of the exhibition The Sun Entering The Room: