PR Odessa (EN)

Sigitas Staniūnas
THE SAIL OF THE MOON

Sigitas Staniūnas, named art legionnaire and pilgrim creator, is one of the most notable interdisciplinary artists in Lithuania. His exhibitions were held in Canada, USA, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Brazil, Hungary, Indonesia, and Taiwan. He became a winner of many International Art Grants and competitions. The most important of them are: Grant by Artist International (1995 USA), Grant by UNESCO International Fund for Promotion of Culture (IFPC) and Ford Foundation (1999, Indonesia), Grant by Sacatar Foundation (2002, Brazil). The artist has also participated in many international artist-in-residence programs and has worked in Switzerland, Finland, USA, Taiwan and several other countries.

Such media as painting, installation and performance help to realize the purpose of artist’s oeuvre: to create a universal language of art using symbols, codes and signs. Colours, masks, figures allusive to form of a pyramid represent exclusive meanings and create romantic, mystery atmosphere. Beauty, in author’s words, is a code or some sort of special elements which touch human soul directly. It is very important to find these elements, to encode secrets and to share your own experience with audience in this way. Meanings uprising in Sigitas Staniunas’ paintings aren’t perceived by mind at first, but refer to sub-consciousness. The glamour of colour vibrations enchains the audience. Subtle irony creates dialogue, flirt with viewer. In using old Western Europe masters painting technologies (by Sigitas Staniūnas) the process of creations becomes similar to a ritual in which the artist works with the entire group of oeuvre simultaneously. Western thinking and oriental sensitiveness blur in monochromatic and expressive painting of Sigitas Staniūnas.

It is symbolic that paintings, which were created all around the world: near Pacific Ocean, Baltic Sea, China Sea, now will be exhibited in Odessa near the Black Sea. In the exhibition “The Sail of the Moon”, the artist creates a labyrinth of meanings of closed spaces and separate worlds. The moon, in the author’s words, is a neutral element because it doesn’t matter in what waters it reflects or to which nation the viewers belongs to, it clears our souls and takes us to the world of fantasy and romance anyway. The environment of exhibition and the energy of the location are very important for the artist. It is a composition of various elements as a whole. That is why the sound, objects, installations find their places in “The Seal of the Moon”. The opening of exhibition will be accompanied by video film and performance, which help to emphasize the ideas of the presented art works. Three musicians (Šarūnas Tamulaitis “Omenas”, Rytis Tankevičius “Taraila” and Žydrūnas Mockūnas “Žyža”) made sound specially for “The Seal of the Moon” and are coming to perform together with the artist.