Danas Aleksa’s solo show “Sculptor’s Body” at the Kunstverein Wagenhalle project space in Stuttgart

The solo exhibition “Sculptor’s Body”by Lithuanian sculptor and interdisciplinary artist Danas Aleksa has opened in the project space of the exclusive art center “Kunstverein Wagenhalle” in Stuttgart. Kunstverein Wagenhalle is one of the most important and visited contemporary art centers in Germany, renowned for its unique architecture and interdisciplinary activities. This art space focuses on showcasing the works of emerging local and international artists, as well as hosting performances, workshops, film, theater, and music projects.

Traditionally, when it comes to sculpture, the emphasis is on the finite object of art, usually dissociating it from the process of implementation, but in the exhibition “Sculptor’s Body” Danas Aleksa blends this separation. Here the viewer will not see any object that could be called a sculpture, but the object will be the creative process itself. Often in this process, the sculptor’s body becomes a mediator between the creative mind and the tool, with repetitive monotonous movements reminiscent of meditation, combining the physical and metaphysical poles of this creative process. The various devices used while creating dictate the movement of the body, determining its relationship to space. Thus, the exhibition aims to look at the process of creating a sculpture as a performative action, choreography, which is directed by the sculptor’s instruments.

Recently, the artist Danas Aleksa has been supplementing his usual topics of social and institutional critique with observations and research results of the process of change and urban landscape in his works. In most cases, the artist seeks not to create a straightforward questioning, but rather to engage a reflection on what is happening in the relationship between the present time and the environment. By combining various artistic disciplines, D. Aleksa often turns fragments of everyday situations related to a specific place, its processes of fading, change, or destruction into objects of creation. However, a significant part of the artist’s creative process is occupied by the research of the social environment and the search for the meaning of one’s social status and identity as an artist in various realities.

Danas Aleksa (b. 1971) in 1997 has graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts, where he obtained a master’s degree in sculpture. Since then, the artist actively participates in solo and group exhibitions, international residencies. Danas Aleksa’s works have been added to public spaces in Vilnius and other Lithuanian cities. In 2012, he became a member of the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artist’s Association. The artist lives and works in Vilnius.

The exhibition organizer (AV17) is one of the few galleries in Lithuania presenting exclusively contemporary object, sculpture and installation art. In addition to its continuous exhibition activities, the gallery implements various international projects, and carries out exchange programs with foreign and Lithuanian creators, thus promoting the dissemination of contemporary art in our country and Europe.

Danas Aleksa’s exhibition “Sculptor’s Body” will be on view from December 3rd to 13th at the Kunstverein Wagenhalle at Innerer Nordbahnhof 1, Stuttgart.

The project financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.