Group Exhibition | High Field: Light, Memory and Creativity of Šilavotas

On June 20th at 6 PM, we invite you to the opening of the group exhibition “High Field: Light, Memory and Creativity of Šilavotas.”

This exhibition is dedicated to highlighting the cultural activities of painter Alfonsas Vilpišauskas (1945–2015) in Šilavotas village and reflecting on Šilavotas and its surroundings as a field of artistic inspiration. This is a look at a location where the space of an unofficial women’s monastery that existed for more than a century temporarily becomes an artists’ residency – a space to create, live and share ideas. The remote location with its unique history is immortalized in the artists’ work – here painting, photography, sculpture, graphics, drawing and interdisciplinary practices merge, through which a sensitive, multifaceted dialogue is formed with Šilavotas as a place of creativity and memory.

The plein air was first organized by Alfonsas Vilpišauskas in 2004, who came to paint at Šilavotas Davatkyna for the first time in 2000. The painter had been creating in the Šilavotas region since the early 1980s, visiting poet Gintautas Dabrišius. This year, marking two important anniversaries – Vilpišauskas’s 80th birth anniversary and 10th death anniversary – the activity begun by the painter continues, and the Šilavotas Davatkyna plein air with its creative education program will take place for the twentieth time. This testifies to the long-term and continuous connection of artists with the location, emphasizing creative roots that spread in a specific place and enrich its cultural context.

The exhibition displays archival material and works created in or inspired by this specific location, maintaining an important documentary – memory – layer. They become not only an attentive look at the surrounding landscape, but also part of a cultural dialogue: with local history and with Vilpišauskas’s artistic legacy. This exhibition is a living structure – halfway through the exhibition, it will be supplemented with works created during this year’s plein air. This is not only an artistic tribute to one of Lithuania’s most significant masters of painting, but also a look at Šilavotas as a place where memory, nature, creativity and spiritual experience intersect.

Curator: Petras Lincevičius.
Participants: Alfonsas Vilpišauskas (1945–2015), Arūnas Vaitkūnas (1956–2005), Aušra Vaitkūnienė, Aušra Andziulytė, Agnė Jonkutė, Mindaugas Lukošaitis, Remigijus Treigys, Eimutis Markūnas, Kazimieras Sigitas Straigis, Romualdas Čarna, Povilas Ramanauskas, Rosanda Sorakaitė-Ramanauskienė, Monika Gedrimaitė, Akvilė Poškutė, Romanas Togobickij, Samanta Augutė-Togobickaja, Darius Rakauskas, Šarūnas Baltrukonis, Mantas Valentukonis, Linas Jurčiukonis, Lilija Gotautaitė-Smalinskė, Lukas Marciulevičius, Eglė Marcinkevičiūtė, Ligija Žilinskienė, Arvydas Palevičius, Ausma Bankauskaitė, Jovita Aukštikalnytė-Varkulevičienė, Arvydas Žalpys, Petras Lincevičius.
After the plein air will join: Benjaminas Ančeris, Juozas Petkevičius, Mantas Daujotas.

Organizers: “Arka” gallery, Šilavotas Interdisciplinary Center
Partners: Prienai Regional Museum, Prienai District Municipality

The exhibition is part of the Lithuanian Artists’ Association and “Arka” gallery’s creative program and the LAS 90th anniversary program. The organization’s strategic activities are funded by the Lithuanian Culture Council.