Discussion “The City and Artistic Practices”

Public Programme curator Povilas Marozas will speak with artists Paulina Pukytė and Stefan Pedersen about the relationship between art and the city.

Paulina Pukytė will present two contemporary art exhibitions in public space and the public sphere that she curated: the 2017 Kaunas Biennial “There and Not There: (Im)possibility of a Monument” and the 2024 project “Reiškinys M” in Klaipėda. She will approach these projects as examples of site-specific art and raise the question of what happens to artworks in public spaces afterwards: what becomes of them, whether they remain in the city over the long term, or whether they are temporary.

Drawing on his experience leading a public art project at the new Gothenburg Central Station and teaching in “OPI Lab”, an interdisciplinary programme for artists and architects in Stockholm, Stefan Pedersen will discuss the possibilities of integrating art into the city. He will consider art that is not simply placed within urban space, but instead takes the city’s own infrastructure — both physical and bureaucratic — as its creative material.

The discussion will be held in English at the City Change Pavilion. Participation in the event is free.

Povilas Marozas is a researcher and architect working with landscape, public and art spaces, based in Vilnius. Having studied architecture and architectural history in Lithuania and the United Kingdom, he is currently pursuing an artistic research doctorate at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. He began his professional practice in London in 2012, working in public-space and urban landscape architecture. After returning to Vilnius in 2019, he founded his own practice, “Studio Space/Time”. Alongside his design practice, Povilas Marozas also teaches in the Department of Interior Design at the Vilnius Academy of Arts.

Paulina Pukytė is an artist, writer, critic and contemporary art curator. She studied at the Vilnius Academy of Arts and the Royal College of Art in London. She teaches at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. Her practice includes interventions in public spaces, site-specific installations, conceptual projects, text-based performances and experimental poetry. Using various strategies of appropriation, chance, found artefacts and unwitting participation, Paulina Pukytė deconstructs socio-ideological myths and socio-cultural clichés. She explores intersections between loss, memory and history, as well as tensions between presence and absence, perception, ambiguity and manipulation, inertia and freedom of choice. She is also interested in seemingly insignificant things and various glitches — errors, misunderstandings and failures — that reveal the absurdity, humour and tragedy of human existence.

Stefan Pedersen is an artist, educator and consultant living and working in Copenhagen, Denmark. He studied visual art and cultural theory in Vienna. His work has been exhibited internationally, he has taught at various art academies, and he currently works as a coordinator of exhibition and public art projects across Europe.

Urban Change Pavilion Public Programme

Over the past decade, Panevėžys has undergone significant changes in its architecture, public spaces and cultural infrastructure. The Urban Change Pavilion talk series invites a critical reflection on these transformations and asks how urban change can involve local initiatives, respond to social and cultural challenges, and address a rapidly changing ecological environment.

Pavilion Architecture
IXL Studio (authors: Petras Išora, Ona Lozuraitytė; architects: Gabrielius Dovydėnas, Dovydas Alčauskis)

Graphic Work
Nerijus Rimkus

Public Programme Curator
Povilas Marozas

Project Manager
Vilius Vaitiekūnas

Communication Coordinator:
Šeila Žilinskaitė

Public Programme Coordinator
Urtė Pirugytė

Image used in the promotion of the Public Programme:
sesupe.com

Project financed by
Lithuanian Council for Culture, Panevėžys City Municipality