Danas Aleksa

Danas Aleksa is a conceptual interdisciplinary artist working with sculpture, object, performance, and video art. The main axes of the artist’s work are time and place and their interrelation. In his work, the artist analyses the environment around him, social and virtual spaces, and highlights fragments of everyday situations related to them. Danas Aleksa often refuses to be a straightforward questioner and a passive observer and perceives himself as a participant in these actions. By disturbing the surrounding context in various ways, he awaits the final response, thus assessing the individual and societal significance in the processes of events. By becoming part of the work or its creation, Danas Aleksa attempts to grasp his own identity as an artist and that of others in various social realities.

In the solo exhibition “Landscape at 8 km/h”, Danas Aleksa presented his latest works – object, video, and sound installations that analyzed movement and self-perception in the surrounding environment. The exhibition presented themes that have never lost their relevance and are constantly rethought in the history of culture, the connections of which can be found in a quote from Milan Kundera’s novel Immortality: “Route has no meaning in itself; its meaning derives entirely from the two points that it connects. A road is a tribute to space. Every stretch of road has meaning in itself and invites us to stop.” For the exhibition, Danas Aleksa has drawn on his personal experiences of running around different cities and experiencing their urban plan. The fragmented journeys expressed in the gallery halls and the changes of the planned path created by various circumstances, subtly touched on the themes of self-knowledge in space and time. Identity issues were highlighted through the use of easily identifiable objects, such as Nike sneakers, which became a kind of social shell for the runner, allowing them to feel safe in unfamiliar contexts. The eternal theme of travel in the artist’s work was revealed in the context of contemporary processes – the artist does not limit himself to physically visited spaces but also appreciates the experience of technological possibilities when we know a place before we have been there. Danas Aleksa drew the viewer into the dynamic atmosphere of the exhibition and encouraged them to reflect on their own relationship to the ever-changing environment around them.

Danas Aleksa (b. 1971) – in 1997 he received a Master’s degree in sculpture from the Vilnius Academy of Arts. In 2012, he became a member of the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association. The artist actively participates in solo and group exhibitions, and international residencies. Danas Aleksa’s works have been added to public spaces in Vilnius and other Lithuanian cities.

The project was financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.