…but on the night of November 1st, I sleep and dream of a voice that tells me, “Humble yourself!” I wake up a little scared and start thinking about my exhibition at the Academy Gallery. When I have everything in mind, I fall asleep, and in the morning of All Saints’ Day, I write a message to curator Vaidilute and ask for a meeting and to discuss my possible exhibition…
Time: 2-24 April, 2026
Location: Gallery “Akademija”, Vilnius, Lithuania
Curator: Vaidilutė Brazauskaitė-L.
The power of Kęstutis Vasiliūnas’ unexpected parables and metaphors
Some artists hold exhibitions almost “synchronously”, routinely, every couple of years or even more often. Kęstutis Vasiliūnas has a radically different attitude.
His exhibitions do not appear by chance, simply from the accumulation of unexhibited works or on the occasion of some ordinary anniversary. He needs an authentic spiritual, moral stimulus, although sometimes the persistent persuasion of the curator also helps, but this takes quite a long time…
As Kęstutis himself mentioned, contemporary religious art rarely intrigues anyone when there is no hidden or shocking intrigue, such works do not contain self-praise, erotic elements, shocking eccentricity. These are works of a completely different emotional, spiritual field, in which it is as if one travels through time, through the pages of history, art history, linking well-recognized, iconic images, artifacts with current events, stimuli and anxiety.
The typographic style of the poster, the banners and the title of the exhibition “Goya 1808-2026” can also cause a sense of confusion, because they do not visually suggest what the works will be, and the discourse on the famous Spanish painter of the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries can raise even more questions. Here is to you, the audience, and intrigue.
In the El Prado Museum in Madrid (Spain), Francisco Goya’s painting “The Third of May 1808 in Madrid” hangs, painted in 1814, after the invasion and atrocities of Napoleon Bonaparte’s army against the Spaniards had already ended.
This tragically themed and dramatic, extremely expressive painting immortalizes the execution of the participants in the Madrid uprising against the occupiers. What emotions incredibly suggestively greet the viewer? The cruelty of Napoleon’s soldiers is symbolized by the impersonalization of the executioners, all attention is focused on the heroes being shot, whose figures reflect fear, determination to fight and prayer before their last breath. In the center is a rebel in a white shirt, with his arms outstretched like the crucified Jesus Christ. He meets death, but does not lose faith and believes in redemption… In every art history textbook or monograph dedicated to F. Goya, this composition and its main accent, the man in a white shirt, are treated exactly like this. It is a symbol of resistance, fideism, devotion and sacrifice, comparable to the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross.
The exhibition will also see a specific reference to this programmatic work, which, as a source of inspiration, was the beginning of K. Vasiliūnas’s unique interpretation of the atrocities of war. Modernly equipped soldiers are once again aiming at the Crucifix, which symbolizes all those who suffer in unjust and brutal wars, who suffer but do not lose hope that it will end. In Ukraine, invaders are killing innocent people, burning churches and literally shooting at the Crucifix in the altars of already destroyed churches. Such is the present, which can be “illustrated” by a painting from 1814, because nothing changes, does not change throughout the ages, because brutal, wild force targets everything, even holy images, women, children. This does not allow us, people of the 21st century, to sleep, because in our minds the thoughts that war, war, endless war, people are dying and it is extremely scary about the future…
1808 Napoleonic era in Spain, the war in Ukraine that will continue in 2026 and has started again in the Middle East, drug cartel wars in Latin America. When will these atrocities end, apparently never, because human nature is quite unpredictable…
Kęstutis “speaks” to us with quite simple metaphors, perhaps unexpectedly taking us to the nineteenth century with the help of parables, the exhibition of the El Prado Museum, using a mashup of words and numbers, but that language is truly understandable to anyone, even if they have never seen a Goya painting. The artist often uses quotes from iconic works of art, using them as visual metaphors that complement the idea. Whether it be well-recognizable works by Dürer or Goya, or a dirt road or crucifix carved by Lithuanian masters, all this is used to reinforce the idea, because people react more vividly to recognizable symbols, artistic clichés, etc.
The details of the installation, printed by Kęstutis Vasiliūnas, appeal to humanity, to spirituality, to the enlightenment of the mind through God’s providence, the image of God, painted or imagined. It is like a cry in the wilderness, but perhaps it makes us think, feel the pain of others and the injustices of war, pray for peace, so that at least for a short time, for a while, those wars that prevent us from dreaming peaceful dreams would cease. Easter will come, Jesus Christ will rise and maybe we will have hope for peace again! – Vaidilutė Brazauskaitė-L.
Text translated into English by Google Translate.
© Text: Vaidilutė Brazauskaitė-L.
© Artist’s Book Creators 2026