URTĖ JANUS

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In Flowing Bodies, Urtė Janus examines the porosity and permeability of matter through a site-specific installation at the Panevėžys underground water reservoir. The reservoir is imagined as a vast container, an underground belly where metabolic and chemical processes unfold. Ceramic vessels, created in collaboration with local craftsmen using ancient waterproofing techniques—such as dipping hot clay into sourdough starter or milk before firing—are filled with local wild and domesticated water and acidic liquids that undergo chemical and microbial fermentation, slowly transforming over the course of the exhibition.

Janus developed the liquid recipes in collaboration with wild local yeasts, bacteria, nearby plants, and reservoir water. The variations in clay porosity cause the vessels to “sweat” and “cry,” reflecting Janus’s interest in systems that are never closed but open and permeable, through which water carries nutrients, minerals, metals, pollutants, and toxins. By working with traditional vessel shapes in repetitive arrangements, the installation evokes bellies or organ systems: both containers and bodies that hold, yet never fully contain, always seeping, sweating, and dripping.

The exhibition is part of (AV17) Gallery project which aims to present young Lithuanian interdisciplinary female artists and their works in non-traditional spaces.

Text by (AV17) Gallery