From April 4 to April 29, 2023
Exhibitions of posters are a rare phenomenon in Lithuania’s cultural landscape, as there are few designers who create artistic posters in the country. One such rare bird is graphic designer Marius Žalneravičius, who has been working consistently in this field for fifteen years. In his fourth solo poster exhibition “Now to Be Here,” the artist addresses the awareness of the moment and the desire to fully experience the place where both everyday life and creative processes unfold. For the creator, this place has become Vilnius, a city he fell in love with in childhood, where various cultural manifestations have found their way into his posters over the years. Among these are depictions of classic film nights, documentary film festivals, song poetry festivals, and other cultural events that have attracted attention on the capital’s streets over the past decade. The artist’s hometown of Šiauliai also contributes to the dialogue with Vilnius through artistic events and posters from contemporary art and fashion festivals.
Designing posters for cultural and non-commercial events provides the artist with greater space for self-expression and improvisation. In creating posters, Žalneravičius aims to avoid repetition, not to replicate the same style or models, and to experiment with different tools. According to the designer, an aesthetically appealing image is never his sole goal – the true aim is to convey a strong message through the poster. Humor and irony, as well as eye-catching characters, serve this purpose. In posters for bard festivals, the artist chooses to create a cozy, magical image of the music performers, with his heroes being birds, forest animals, or the mysterious shadow of a pianist. Conversely, posters for the documentary film festival “Nepatogus Kinas” feature characters that reflect an unpleasant aspect of our society, intended to provoke and invite resistance to injustice.
One of Žalneravičius’s largest groups of works is cinema classics posters. Before creating a specific poster, the artist first watches the film several times to grasp its essence. The artist often chooses not to directly depict the film’s characters but to reveal the film’s atmosphere and reflect the director’s style. For exhibition posters, the artist adopts a different strategy, opting for a minimalist expression to avoid overshadowing the exhibition participants, composing only typographic elements. In this case, an effective result is achieved through the conceptualization of fonts, turning letters into elements of architecture or grotesque, and introducing futuristic moods.
The “Now to Be Here” exhibition presents not only posters familiar to residents of Vilnius and Šiauliai but also variations that have not been publicly displayed and the artist’s sketches. These sketches are particularly interesting, as the designer works not only with digital tools but also pays considerable attention to drawings in various styles, watercolor paintings, and collages made from fabric scraps, plasticine, and photographs. The sketches offer insight into the process of graphic design creation, from the initial idea capture and selection of suitable tools to the development of the concept.
Photos – Vytas Nomadas
