Artist Urtė Janus, who currently resides and creates in London, presents the sculptural installation All the Seas Long Gone. With this piece, Janus offers us a glimpse of our planet’s history, spanning beyond the limits of human time and existence, leading us to the present day. Janus’ sculpture is created using natural materials formed over different periods – salt, limestone, and human-made aluminium. When aluminium is exposed to salt, natural chemical reactions occur, leading to slow, irreversible changes in texture and colour. By encoding the natural evolution of materials in her artwork, the artist reflects on deep time, human existence in a wider cosmic context, and the invisible processes constantly unfolding around us.
The JCDecaux Award is an annual cycle of exhibitions, initiated in 2016 by the Contemporary Art Centre and JCDecaux, aimed at promoting the work of emerging Lithuanian artists, raising their profile both in Lithuania and abroad. In Exchange to Ages was organised by the Contemporary Art Centre and presented in the National Gallery, Lithuania. The exhibition interwove folklore, gossip, electricity, weather forecasting, coding, and the ratio of metal to soluble minerals, with artistic expression ranging from sculpture to performance.
Text by Kotryna Markevičiūtė and Ona Juciūtė