During the Vilnius Gallery Weekend, a joint exhibition titled Still Life by artists Urte Janus and Paweł Olszewski opens at the Editorial space (Latako Str. 3, Vilnius). Lithuanian artist Urte Janus’ sculptures and the paintings by the younger-generation Polish artist Paweł Olszewski, transform seemingly familiar, human-made objects into time-stopping relics of civilisation, creating new dimensions of time and space.
Urte Janus’ sculptures, displayed on shelves resembling meat curing cabinets, are crystallised under thick layers of salt. What do we choose to bury and what do we choose to preserve? Food, bodies, poisons, memories, secrets, treasures, hopes – what is worth freezing in salt molecules, whose history of extraction and dispersal has catalysed wars, revolutions, and technological progress? Through compositions of found objects – tools, toxic waste, debris – Janus creates a microrepository, a small model of that immeasurable layer of salt in the earth, beneath which lie the most toxic traces of humanity’s activities, destined to outlive us.
In Paweł Olszewski’s canvases, time and space multiply around everyday objects. Painted specifically for this exhibition, his works feature a muted color palette and futuristic geometry that divides the canvas surfaces into thin layers, shimmering like digital screens in the dark. Or is it the screens that are observing us and the objects around them, rather than the other way around? Olszewski flips the usual perspective, turning familiar surroundings into still lifes lost in time, like binary oppositions seen through a technological lens.