Exhibition time: 23 03 2023–23 04 2023
Opening: March 23 | 18:00
Meno Parkas Gallery (Rotušės a. 27, 44279 Kaunas, Lithuania)
It is said that conversations about death are a social TABOO. However, with the Covid-19 pandemic and the war that has started in Europe, they have returned to public discourse, scientific discussions, and everyday life. The exhibition raises questions such as: how do we understand and try to "solve" the "problem" of mortality today? Are simulations of death possible? What happens to consciousness during death, and so on? Answers to these questions are sought through conversations with YouTube bloggers, lucid dreaming specialists, cryogenic freezing experts, founders of digital legacy platforms, death doulas, alternative funeral service providers, and more.
Accepting the fact of non-existence and disappearance is not easy for the human mind. Throughout different periods, geographic, religious, and cultural contexts, people have addressed the "problem" of death by using scientific knowledge and metaphysics. Today, we speak not only about physical and social death but also about digital death. Religious beliefs intersect with atheistic ones, scientific theories and technological solutions with new spirituality theories. The exhibition features images and conversations filmed in the context of world-shaking events (Covid-19), with limited resources, material recorded via zoom platform or mobile phone. The video works examine how we perceive "good death" and "proper preparation" for it today. The Internet, social media, the digital side of death, and scientific innovations affect how we imagine the end of life, how we prepare for it and experience it.
Simona Žemaitytė's works have been awarded at the 15th Tallinn Triennial and Sheffield Documentary Festival. Her films have been exhibited at the Kaunas Biennial, Oberhausen Film Festival, Cinémathèque Française platform, Kasa Gallery, Galata Perform Istanbul, BAFTA, RichMix London, ŠMC, Vartai, Titanikas, and Kairė-Dešinė in Vilnius, CreArte exhibition in Pardubice, Linz and Genoa, Centrala in Birmingham. She has lectured at Royal Holloway and UCL in London, and is currently studying for a PhD in Fine Arts and teaching at the sculpture department of VDA.
The exhibition is supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.
