What would a space look like after the collapse of humanity? This can be seen in the latest exhibition at Vilnius Town Hall, where on September 3, Česlovas Lukenskas’ exhibition, accompanied by the performance “PO-PO”, will open. The exhibition by one of Lithuania’s most prominent interdisciplinary artists centres on a dialogue between fragility and destruction, revealed through the artist’s latest works: “krematai” (burnt works), collages, assemblages, objects and “motographic” drawings.

The exhibition “PO-PO” invites visitors to contemplate the state of “after”: after an event, after a word, after a structure. “It is a visual territory after the collapse of humanity,” says the artist, describing the concept of the exhibition. “It brings together fragments of destroyed cities, cracked window surfaces, relics of burnt structures and the density of black, which functions not as a background but as the key component of the exhibition’s content.”

As Č. Lukenskas emphasises, this exhibition is “not about beauty, but about truth. The textures of charred remains and collected objects resemble archaeological finds from a civilisation that has yet to be named.” This is how the artist, who explores themes of human cruelty and collapse in his work, describes the exhibition.

“The artist invites us to imagine a state after a global catastrophe, when death cuts short dreams and aspirations, fire returns organic matter to the indifferent state of carbon, states and cities collapse, culture is reclaimed by nature, and extinguished light leaves behind only primordial darkness, still awaiting an event, a word, a thought,” says art critic Agnė Narušytė. At the same time, she notes, “Česlovas Lukenskas’ exhibition is not merely a requiem infected with a premonition of the end – it is also a prelude to (re)creation, juggling with paradoxes and striking back at nothingness.”

The exhibition consists of five parts. The first, “Algiukas’ Heart, Which Was a Home”, will greet visitors in the centre of the Town Hall vestibule. A blackened and shattered heart will be placed here – a monument to a lost, and still ongoing, struggle for life. Yet, as Č. Lukenskas says, “Algiukas’ story becomes a universal narrative about the condition of our time – about hope that does not disappear even when what seemed most solid collapses.” Thus, the heart also becomes a symbol of light and hope in the face of a collapsing world.

Another part of the exhibition, “Little Skulls”, addresses an especially painful subject: children dying in wars. Č. Lukenskas describes the “Little Skulls” as the coals of suffering, in which the flame of human cruelty continues to smoulder. “Behind the statistics of every war lies a child’s interrupted laughter, an unfulfilled future, a family’s loss. Children dying in wars become the most painful symbol of humanity’s inability to stop violence,” the artist reflects on the immeasurable cruelty of humankind through his work.

On the second floor of the Town Hall, the “Stained Glass Windows of Hell” are connected with February 24, 2022 – a date that became an irreversible turning point and one of the most significant dates in contemporary European memory. “It is an illusory world in which darkness is concealed behind glittering, colourful facades. Here, the darkest reflection of the soul, through which no light can penetrate, becomes a symbol of human fears, sins or inner struggle,” says Č. Lukenskas, describing the “Stained Glass Windows of Hell”.

Another part of the exhibition, “Carpets of Consciousness”, reflects not a physical but an informational catastrophe. Created from analogue film strips, the work consists of thousands of fragments once intended to disseminate information and propaganda. They lose their original power and transform into layers of informational noise and memory. “Carpets of Consciousness” speaks of the constant struggle for human attention and attempts to influence the mind, while at the same time leaving room for a critical perspective and inner freedom.

The final part of the exhibition is “Krematai Figurines”. Here, charred oak figures become not signs of destruction but markers of memory. Emerging from wood, the figures resemble idols of ancient cultures or human forms returning from antiquity. They are mounted on fragments of broken furniture board – the ruins of civilisation. The work is about the fragility of human existence, the memory held within matter, and new life emerging from what has been discarded or destroyed.

The author of the exhibition, Česlovas Lukenskas (b. 1959), is one of the pioneers and reformers of Lithuanian contemporary interdisciplinary art and a founder of the avant-garde art group “Post Ars”. He has held several dozen solo exhibitions and projects in Lithuania and abroad, and his works have been exhibited in Düsseldorf, Berlin, London, Paris, Nîmes, Brixen, Porto, Copenhagen and elsewhere. Works by Č. Lukenskas are held in the collections of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, the National M. K. Čiurlionis Museum of Art, the MO Museum, as well as by private collectors in Lithuania and abroad. In 1993, at the “Niederlausitz II” European Biennial in Germany, the artist and the “Post Ars” group received the main prize for their project “Score”.

The opening of Česlovas Lukenskas’ “PO-PO” exhibition will take place on September 3 at 6:00 PM at Vilnius Town Hall.