Marija Griniuk | Intercultural Exchange of Knowledge

Until July 31, the VDA Gallery Artifex will present the exhibition “Intercultural Exchange of Knowledge” by Marija Griniuk.

The exhibition Intercultural Exchange of Knowledge presents the artistic and academic research outcomes of Marija Griniuk’s postdoctoral fellowship at the Vilnius Academy of Arts (2024–2026).

During her postdoctoral research, Marija developed the politically engaged performance art festival Performance Studies in Sápmi, connecting Sámi and international performance art. The festival was first realised in Karasjok in 2024 and later in Bodø in 2026, within the traditional Sámi territories of Norway. The outcomes of the project include the book Intercultural Exchange of Knowledge: Curating Lithuanian, Sámi, and Politically Engaged Performance Art, published by the Vilnius Academy of Arts Press in 2026, video documentation of Marija Griniuk’s performances created between 2024 and 2026, and a series of paintings reflecting her life and artistic practice while living and working with the Sámi community.

The project also presents painting on glass as a method of reflective performance documentation, combining a historical and today rarely used painting technique with contemporary media and performative action.

For Marija Griniuk, this project created an opportunity to live and work together with the Sámi community while reflecting on her own position as a Lithuanian artist working within Sámi art and politically engaged artistic contexts. The project also enabled her to discover similarities between Sámi and Lithuanian visual languages when addressing themes of history, colonialism, and memory.

For the artist, artistic projects are inseparable from work with text and publications, as each artistic project extends into phases of analysis and discussion that result in publication. Throughout the project, performance, reflective painting, and text became inseparable elements of her artistic practice.

Marija Griniuk completed her PhD studies in performance art at the University of Lapland in Finland. Her dissertation focused on a new methodology for documenting performance art through biometric data gathered from the performance artist. M. Griniuk is a performance artist and researcher working as Department Lead at Nordlandsmuseet. From 2024 to 2026, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Vilnius Academy of Arts.

On the final day of the exhibition (July 31), from 5PM to 6PM, you are invited to see Marija Griniuk’s participatory performance, “Map of Hospitality.”