For more than a century, the closed and city-separated territory of Lukiškės Prison has today become a vibrant cultural space where art, music, and various cultural events meet. In this history-rich place, Urtė Jasenka invites you to meet face to face – but not quite in the usual way.
In the performance center – a small fairy-tale house with a window. The visitor is invited to sit on one side of it, insert the desired amount, and become a model for a few minutes, while on the other side of the window the artist awaits.
During the three-minute meeting, Urtė Jasenka draws the person sitting opposite, and after the meeting, the visitor takes home the original drawing created for them. Thus, the performance experience does not end when the person leaves the space – they take not only the drawing but also the trace of this meeting. However, this is not an ordinary portrait drawing.
“What looks back” is an attempt to look at a person not only as an external image. The work raises the question: who are you? Is a person only their name, face, and social role, or are they part of a broader living system – connected with nature, animality, memory, and invisible inner worlds? The drawing here becomes not a copy of the portrait but an intuitive interpretation of the person’s inner state. It may include forms of nature, an inner animal, dream images, or hard-to-define symbols.
The performance invites you to meet that part of yourself which often remains invisible but constantly “looks back.”
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The materiality of the performance objects is also important. Each work is handmade on paper specially produced for this project. The house, scenography elements, and other objects are made from already used, recycled, and reused materials. It is important for the artist to give them a new form and life, so sustainability naturally becomes part of the creation process.
Throughout the event, music specially composed for this project by Antanas Jasenka will be played.
“What looks back” has already been presented in Klaipėda, in the urban HOFO space, and at the Užventis MENE festival, in P. Višinskis’s childhood home.
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Idea author and performer — Urtė Jasenka
Sound — Antanas Jasenka
September 19, 18:00-22:00
Lukiškės Prison 2.0 — Lukiškių skg. 6
