Spatialities

Spatialities is the first in a series of open-air exhibitions by the National Gallery of Art addressing the artistic aspects of architecture development and encouraging both architects and society to take a closer look at architecture, its inner dynamics and goals, and its meaning for society and culture.

The open-air exhibition was realised in cooperation with architects Gintaras Kuginys and Gabrielė and Antanas Šarkauskas (ŠA atelier). In the installations created specifically for this exhibition, The Golden Ratio and 057 wall, the authors focus on separate creative elements of architecture, plane and ratio, and offer to revisit the concept of space as a multi-faceted and manifold phenomenon, as a tentative labyrinth of meanings in which not just one of Ariadne's threads but their entire network can be found. It is a set of definitions for the concept of space that meets a large variety of personal and collective demands.

Space is one of the basic categories of human cognition and self-awareness, which is defined while drawing on almost all areas of knowledge. Space is also an inseparable element of architectural work and the expanding field of its interpretations has become both inspiring and boundless. As one of today's leading architects Rem Koolhaas noted: 'Today, no architect would venture to present a single generalising description for what the components of architecture are and how they should be put together'. This is also reflected in this exhibition-although two projects are presented, the means of expression and principles used by their authors allow us to look at the space from different and, at the same time, reciprocally complementary creative viewpoints.

One of them, 057 wall, visually and symbolically separates a part of the National Gallery of Art's outdoor space by the central entrance, thus emphasising the plane as one of the basic elements of architectural expression and space structuring. The other one, The Golden Ratio, while symbolically interfering in the newly formed space, points to the importance of the ratio of proportions of different elements as the key principle of space structuring for artistic expression in architecture.

Artists and works:

Gintaras Kuginys

The Golden Ratio, 2022

Concrete paving block, gilding

ŠA atelier (Gabrielė Šarkauskienė, Antanas Šarkauskas)

057 wall, 2022

Concrete paving blocks, OSB boards

Exhibition curators: Mindaugas Reklaitis, Giedrius Gulbinas

Designer: Laura Grigaliūnaitė

Exhibition organizer: National Gallery of Art / Lithuanian National Museum of Art

The project is financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture

Exhibition partners: UAB Betono Mozaika, Taurus

Media sponsor: Magazine Centras/Interjeras.lt