There are legends that when souls die, they go to a reservoir of spirits with all the wisdom they have accumulated in their lifetime, and float around freely, waiting for the right new form to incarnate. Their interiority remains unchanged by the change of their corporeal vessels, and after the material transformation has taken place, the souls are able to do what they were unable to do in their previous forms.
"Zarya" is the second part of the ongoing project of the youngest generation of artists, "Ruja". The smouldering embers left over from their irrational flame outburst ignite the already rational mind - as befits the aftermath of a rampage, one begins to reflect on one's own being and origins as the rage dies down.
The artists have created an intermediate space in the Pamėnkalnis Gallery on the nearby Pamėnkalnis (now Tauros) Hill, where a container of disembodied souls emerges from the underworld, and the authors' works hang on the walls as if they were a reflection of the inside of it. By activating the feelings evoked by a particular location, they contextualise contemporary painting from the perspective of other artistic and cultural spheres, emphasising the historical and cultural context of this space/place. This makes us realise that this exhibition is just one form of their burning inside, transforming the observations of their fleshy ears and eyes in their minds into individual reflections and access to the world. Local contexts, stories, legends have transformed into the artists' distinctive memory, overlaid with veils of mist over time, and the forms that glow from its depths seem abstract to them, but take on new meanings as they are covered in reflection. The exhibition offers an opportunity to see how different artists can see the same object in different ways, and to reveal painting as a form of co-cultural dialogue.
