KUNO Biennial 2023

People are natural storytellers and gatherers of tales. It’s an innate part of human nature to imagine individually and together. But can our collective imaginations still foster a sense of togetherness today or are these connections as mythic as our ancestors’ tales? In myriad ways, we try to link ancient myths with their contemporary reinterpretations which shift from sacred to comedic, from finite to meta. Those stories and tales travel through different periods and social layers –shared imagery that speaks to issues of authority, deception, and transparency.

The exhibition Shared Imaginations brings together a wide-ranging collection of works in response to the concept of shared imagination. It is the result of an open call, to which students from all the fine art academies in the KUNO network, were invited to apply.

We are constantly in search of vessels to care for and contain the great myths, tall tales and the archetypal characters that inhabit folklore. As such, we gather common ground tools to decipher the meaning of iconographic imagery and its bearing on our lives. The artworks in Shared Imaginations show how those myths and stories lead us to virtual shapeshifters, individual remnants and shared vessels.

The KUNO network unites 18 Nordic-Baltic fine art academies with the intention of creating an art school without walls. Shared Imaginations is the first KUNO Biennial and was developed from a proposition to imagine how this transnational school would manifest as a single exhibition. It builds on the momentum of two earlier exhibitions at Tallinn, Estonian Academy of Arts in 2021, and Arts Academy at Turku University of Applied Sciences in 2022.

Participating artists:

Adelina Allberg, Asta von Apfel, Aurelija Bulaukaitė, Jack Faber, Daniele Di Girolamo, Siri Hammarén, Moa Hjärtström and Charlie-Vince Jakobsson, Deepa R. Iyengar, Marija Gabrielė Karputė, Dominika Kemilä, Elza Lapiņa, Natalija Lokcikaitė, Theodor Öhrn, Raghad Resres, Ang Siew Ching, Sofie Sjöö, Tine Suaning Leone, Ingeborg Tysse, Katrín Guðmunds Sigrúnardóttir (Katrín Sirru), Mirjam Varik, Yuliia Yeromina

KUNO Biennial 2023: Shared imaginations

2023 10 12 – 11 18

Organiser: Vilnius Academy of Arts
Curators: Marija Martinaitytė, Vytautas Vaščiūnas, Vincentas Zienka
Curatorial advisor: Julija Fomina
Architect: Povilas Marozas
Graphic designer: Valentin Duduk
Technicians: Jonas Aničas, Liudvikas Kesminas

Special thanks to the KUNO steering group: Kirke Kangro, Josefina Posch, Nabil Ahmed, Bjarki Bragason