Roma Salė solo show “Alternative Narratives” at The Fourth Fort in Kaunas

Roma Salė (Mikalauskytė) is an emerging interdisciplinary artist working with light installations and sculptural objects. Her practice extends to moving image, illuminated and glass items, projections, and mixed-media installations. Her projects explore mythology, social issues, and the intersections of science and art.

In the exhibition “Alternative Narratives” in The Fourth Fort in Kaunas, the author created site-specific light installation, which contemplates the connection between time, space and history in more depth. Drawing on the theories of Richard Feyman and David Deutsch, Roma Salė highlighted the notion that a single place tells a thousand stories. The theories lay the groundwork for the focus point of the exhibition: time travel, in the context of which historical deviations, paradoxes, or logical errors reveal themselves, thus exposing the fragile and changing nature of history. The space selected for this exhibition – the postern – is an underground corridor connecting separate sections of The Fourth Fort. In the past, the postern was a way to move and communicate safely for the soldiers, and in the author’s exposition it becomes an analogy to define hypothetical instabilities and changes in the timeline. The main installation embodied a synthetic portal, inviting us to rethink the possibilities of alternative narratives. The light installation and the specifically created audio composition (author aki-05) act as a form of storytelling, creating an interactive, engaging experience for the viewer and inviting to look for different perspectives.

Roma Salė (Mikalauskytė) (b. 1999) is an interdisciplinary artist with a BA in Graphic Arts and an MA in Site-Specific Art from Vilnius Academy of Arts. Since 2021, she has held several solo shows, participated in group exhibitions in Lithuania and abroad, and created light installations for festivals. She completed an internship at Estonian Academy of Arts and has been awarded scholarships from the Research Council of Lithuania and the Antanas Smetona Foundation.

“Alternative Narratives” was a part of a bigger-scale initiative by (AV17) Gallery, which aimed to present the work of emerging Lithuanian interdisciplinary women artists in unconventional spaces. In August, “Low Frequency Memory”, a duo show by Salė and Elena Laurinavičiūtė was on view at the Liepkalnis Water Reservoir in Vilnius, and Urte Janus’ show “Flowing Bodies” was presented in the underground water reservoir of Aukštaitijos Vandenys in Panevėžys.

The (AV17) Gallery has been actively working in the field of contemporary art for fourteen years. It is one of the few galleries in Lithuania that focuses exclusively on sculpture and installation art. In addition to its regular exhibition program, the gallery initiates international and regional artistic and educational projects and runs exchange programs with both Lithuanian and foreign artists, thus promoting the dissemination of contemporary art in Lithuania and Europe.

The exhibition “Alternative Narratives” was on view until September 30th at The Fourth Fort in Kaunas, Plytinės g. 15, Rokai.

The project was funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.