Post Ars. Stuff

9 April – 29 June, 2025

Whether or not tomorrow comes, the group Post Ars is growing the Tree of Life. They sow something in their own peculiar way, seeds falling straight into the sky. What will grow from them? Will a new world emerge, or will everything plunge into the abyss—where there is nothing but decay, ashes, and the remnants of civilization? In times of uncertainty, truth distorts, but faith in art/non-art/anti-art endures, along with hope, restrained by sarcasm. The artist’s free gesture snags on a staff of barbed wire, ringing out a note of boundless optimism.

 

Post Ars was formed in 1989 when a group of young artists set out to carry forward the determination of the interwar artist group Ars and shape a new artistic era in a reborn Lithuania. They recognised that “change in art is essential—if not us, then who will initiate it?” Their aim was to grasp the universal dimensions of existence by breaking through the narrow artistic boundaries imposed during the Soviet era. They drew on Fluxus playfulness, Dada semiotics, and a Kharmsian deconstruction of meaning. Terms such as “installation,” “action,” and “performance” entered the artistic vocabulary. They experimented with musical acts, assemblage, text and printmaking, design, pedagogy, video art, photography, sculpture that rejected permanence, and transformations through fire. Land art also found its place—at the 1993 Europa-Biennale Niederlausitz II in Germany, the group’s renowned work The Score won the Grand Prix. In many ways, Post Ars can also be seen as pioneers of artistic research.

 

In its early days, Post Ars sought to involve as many artists from different fields as possible. They were invited to a founding conference-happening and an exhibition at the Contemporary Art Centre. Over time, as many pursued their own paths, the group’s core solidified around Aleksas Andriuškevičius, Robertas Antinis, Česlovas Lukenskas, and Gintaras Zinkevičius. However, exhibitions, happenings, and handmade books continued to welcome collaborators and guests. Upholding this tradition, the current exhibition features Laima Kreivytė and Cooltūristės, a collective she founded in 2005—sporty, “cool” cultural tourists from outer space who find it strange that equal rights are still not recognised for all variations of Homo sapiens. Through their interventions, the exhibition will uncover poetic resonances, ruptures of meaning, and assemblages of our time.

 

After thirty-six years of growth, the branching tree has borne fruit. Yet, as the world crumbles, it is once again time to raise the Post Ars flag—who, if not artists, will defend the freedom of the spirit?

Agnė Narušytė

 

 

Organiser: The Radvila Palace Museum of Art of the LNMA

The project is financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania

Media partners: LRT, JCDecaux Lietuva 

 

Curator: Agnė Narušytė 

Artists: Aleksas Andriuškevičius, Robertas Antinis, Česlovas Lukenskas, Gintaras Zinkevičius, Laima Kreivytė and Cooltūristės 

Coordinators: Justina Augustytė, Viltė Visockaitė 

Architect: Aleksandras Kavaliauskas 

Graphic designer: Vytautas Volbekas

 

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Radvila Palace Museum of Art,
24 Vilniaus st, LT-01402, Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 250 5824