"I have always thought about death. Only the fear of it, as the realisation of fear, came much later, not when I was a child, clinging to the sheets, worried that my parents would die while I slept. But when my mother bought a book and gave it to my sister, who was studying psychology, Irvin D. Yalom's book "Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death". Then I grabbed it and read it, and I didn't overcome the fear, I grew it. I grew it by realising that I had always been afraid of it and I identified with the characters, or rather the patients, in the book."
Stories about real or fictional events from personal life.
Memories of childhood and adolescence. The environment I grew up in.
Did it affect my fears?
I live in between a hospital and a cemetery. There is a nursing home for the elderly in the neighbourhood. There I have seen old people lying in beds and losing their strength. In my childhood memories, I have visited funerals, open caskets and the faces of the deceased. It all blends into one.
I started keeping a diary of memories. Searching for the key to my fear in the subconscious. I discover the core stories that are buried in the texts and video works. In them I look for a relationship with death and try to understand where the inner anxiety comes from. Through terrifying aesthetics and introspection, I embark on a therapeutic journey of feelings and memory. Specific images and short stories of real or fictional events from personal life.
Interdisciplinary artist Karolina Latvytė-Bibiano received her education at the Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts, where she completed her Bachelor's degree in Painting at the Kaunas faculty, and her Master's degree in Sculpture at the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2023. Using photography, drawing and video techniques, the artist explores fear, anxiety and a state of vulnerability.
Thanks to Simona Žemaityte, Henrik B.Andersen.
The project is financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.
