Tour-Discussion around the exhibition Subsuns with artists Geistė Marija Kinčinaitytė and Lidija Kononenko

2024-05-09

On 11 May, 2024, at 4 pm a guided tour will take place to mark the closing of the exhibition
“Subsuns” by Geistė Marija Kinčinaitytė and Lidija Kononenko at Atletika gallery. The tour and
the discussion will be moderated by artist-theorist and curator Paulius Petraitis.

“[…] more light is deflected in all directions creating hazes of copper and brown over the horizon as the
fragments build up into a smog eventually what is left of the rays is not much at all allowing the eyes to
look directly at the sun […].” (Excerpt from phantom currents by Lidija Kononenko)

The title Subsuns acts as an opening to various pathways intersecting in the time-based installation and
video works presented in this exhibition. It refers to an optical phenomenon – a mirroring of the sun
below the horizon, which is conditioned by the atmosphere. This fake sun can be seen from an airplane
as a reflection in the clouds. The optical phenomenon of subsuns also carries another meaning related
to “fire” and “signal” economies. In his book The Parasite (1982), philosopher Michel Serres refers to
it as a representation of a desire to imitate the sun on Earth – the ultimate expression of capital. He
elaborates on the phenomenon of subsuns as reservoirs of oil, gas, coal, dammed rivers, databases, and
satellites put into orbit to facilitate uninterrupted flows of information and capital. However, when the
title is translated into Lithuanian, the term subsuns (posaulės) sounds like a multiplicity of worlds
(pasauliai), losing its initial meaning of fake suns. In the moment of translation, the exhibition title
acquires another purpose, an invitation to imagine alternative ways of being-with the world.

Lidija Kononenko (b. Lithuania) is a London-based visual artist, working with sculpture, video, images,
web, text and sound to explore methodologies of scientific research around the human condition. Her
works interlace the personal with the analytical and interrogate different modes of understanding the
body and embodiment, from the visual expression of physical states such as exertion or falling asleep,
to emotions such as falling in love. Looking at the self through the scientific lens as a site to be mapped
and maintained she considers the expansion of the biomedical into private spheres. Kononenko
graduated from Royal Academy of Arts in London, and has exhibited at Somers gallery, London (solo),
Metenkov House Museum of Photography, Ekaterinburg (solo); The Nunnery Gallery, London; Ya
Gallery, Kyiv; The Photographers’ Gallery, London; and the Finnish Museum of Photography,
Helsinki. Screenings include Plaza Plaza Cinema (online); ECNP Congress (online); Tenderflix,
London; Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris; Ciné 13 Théâtre, Paris; and The Courtyard, London. She is
a recipient of the Art of Neuroscience award, the Netherlands; Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam;
the Peter Rippon Travel award and E Vincent Harris award, both Royal Academy of Arts, London.
www.lidijakononenko.com

Geistė Marija Kinčinaitytė (b. Lithuania) is an artist and researcher, who approaches her photographic
and video practice as an exploration of belonging, alienation, and the unknown. Overall, her practice is
defined by encounters with the eerie, which is understood to be both the cessation of a comfort zone –
whether self, human, habit, habitat, milieu – and alertness to a yet-to-be-identified presence. Since
2014, her work was exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in the UK (The Photographers’ Gallery;
253 Hoxton), Lithuania (Kaunas Photography Gallery; MO Museum; Prospekto Gallery; Sodų 4
project space; Vartai Gallery; Vilnius Picture Gallery; Pranas Domšaitis Gallery), Norway
(Fotogalleriet), Taiwan (National Center of Photography and Images; National Taiwan Museum of Fine
Arts), South Korea (The Museum of Photography), China (Inside-Out Art Museum). In 2018, she was
also commissioned to create a four-channel video installation for the Boiler Room x Tinder events in
Bristol, Glasgow, and London. She holds a PhD in Film and Screen Studies from the University of
Cambridge.
www.geistekincinaityte.com

Exhibition design – Dovydas Černiauskas
Translation – Paulius Balčytis
Technical manager – Matas Šatūnas

Exhibition dates and times: 6 April–11 May 2024, Wednesdays to Fridays 4–7pm, Saturdays
1–5pm.
Closing event: tour-discussion with artists 11 May 2024, 4 pm, in English. Moderated by
Paulius Petraitis.
Address: Atletika gallery, Vitebsko Str. 21, Vilnius. Free entry.

Image: Exhibition “Subsuns”. Lidija Kononenko, installation view, 2024. Photo by Laurynas Skeisgiela.

Organised by the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association (LIAA). Activities of LIAA
are supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Vilnius City Municipality.