The Photography Master’s program in Kaunas—FoMAK (VDA KF)—is graduating its first class this year. Over the course of two years, four students, together with their advisors Dr. Geistė Marija Kinčinaitytė, Dr. Paulius Petraitis, Lecturer Visvaldas Morkevičius and Assoc. Prof. Gintaras Česonis have embarked on a journey of engaging lectures, workshops, study visits and critical thinking, learning to use photography not only as a medium but as a way to see and listen to themselves, others and their surroundings.
The public defense of the final projects will take place on May 29th.
Defense schedule:
12:00 p.m. 12:10–12:50 p.m. Ieva Stankutė
12:50–1:30 p.m. Rytis Šafranauskas
1:30–2:10 p.m. Andrėja Taranda
2:10–2:50 p.m. Severina Venckutė
In her project “What do I Grasp When I Touch the Dust”, Ieva Stankutė explores the microcosm of dust that formed in her grandmother’s home following a loss, where objects, dust and memories become a unified, closed system. Here, dust functions as an archive of memory and a world suspended between security and decay, while the motif of pollen
dust—suggests that life and decay are parts of the same cycle.
Rytis Šafranauskas in “Longing for the Land” searches for traces of history in the village where he grew up. After discovering three abandoned farmsteads, he began visiting them, observing the surroundings and the landscape. Although he never knew the people who once lived in these farmsteads, he discovered numerous artifacts of the past in the abandoned homes, which allowed him to imagine life in the past. Reflecting on these places helped him establish an authentic connection with the sites of the disappearing farmsteads. This process allowed me to sense the intertwining of different temporal perspectives and, in this way, to perceive the beauty of cyclicality.
Andrėja Taranda presents the installation “Thorns” — a photographic exploration of a complex relationship with her brother. Using performative self-portraits, documentation of the Airsoft subculture and family archives, the artist seeks to empathically understand her brother’s changed world. The project explores how human sensitivity functions within the context of militarized ideology.
In her creative project “how to become space”, Severina Venckutė delves into the human capacity to experience the world through bodily presence. By questioning the physical environment, she seeks an answer within her own body, where does space begin and end within me? The works on display invite viewers to expand the boundaries of material experience. Panoramic photographs, translucent materials, and paper-based spatial objects become reflections on what it means to be a body in the contemporary world.
We invite you to visit the exhibition through June 14th.