Year of the sun / Paulius Šliaupa

Year of the sun2020, digital video, 04:50’, 16:9Nature and technology intertwine in the Year of the sun. The digital world is virtual and nothing in it can be touched. Strangely, in order to interact with it, a gentle and precise human touch is necessary. Video displays, growing from the soil, become parts of this landscape as exhibits of interaction. As the distance between natural and the virtual world dissolves, a seeming symbiosis develops. Nature, interconnected with technology, begins to exchange substances and initiates cyclical transformations. Meanwhile, flies buzzing around create random connections between objects and ideas. Made in collaboration with Elia Claessen.Music developed for the project by Suzan Peeters.

Paulius Šliaupa‘s (1990, Vilnius, Lithuania) works explore the relationship(s) between culture and nature, the interaction of ambience and light that affect our daily lives. From video-installations and experimental movies for the cinema to objectlike paintings, his oeuvre encompasses a wide range of artistic media. By accumulating the flow of painterly images, atmospheric sounds and poetic energy, the artist creates sensual narratives. Most projects consist of multiple works, grouped around specific themes such as organic structures, rituals in nature, the flow of natural and artificial light and absurd poetic happenings. Šliaupa holds a BA in painting and a MFA in contemporary sculpture from the Vilnius Academy of Arts as well as a MFA in media arts from KASK, Ghent. Selected exhibitions include the solo exhibition “Dès Vu“, Meno Nisa, Vilnius (2019) and the group exhibitions "Oooh", Netwerk, Aalst, Belgium (2020), “ “The upper hand“, IKOB, Eupen, Belgium (2020) and “In connection“, Δωμάτιο/Domatio, Athens, Greece (2020). Šliaupa is part of the HISK post-graduate programme 2020 & 2021.