MO invites visitors to discover animals and robots

MO is about to open its second major exhibition "Animal – Human – Robot", which hopes to foster a re-examination of the human relationship with other living beings. The purpose of the exhibition is to reveal how art features the change in the behaviour of humans towards animals and predict what kind of creatures will dominate in the future?

“This is an exhibition on change. What have animals and other forms of life, including non-human creatures, become in our life, and what have we become for them? Who will survive, who will win, and who will determine the future? Relationship with other life forms and man-made artificial intelligence tells a lot about us, people, so we invite everybody to rediscover themselves and experience it at MO Museum,” says Milda Ivanauskienė, Director at MO.

“So far, representation of the relationship between human and other beings in Lithuanian art has not been thoroughly analysed. Rapidly developing bio-based and information technologies have generated particular interest in various life forms. That is why it was very interesting to take a look at the MO collection from this perspective,” says art historian, one of the exhibition curators Erika Grigoravičienė, explaining the motives of the exhibition.

"As our own lives are taken over by technologies, the issue of human co-existence with others seems even more interesting to us. It looks like people will have to abandon the idea of their supremacy, recognise biodiversity, and try out hybrid models of the society,” adds the second curator of the exhibition Ugnė Paberžytė.

For the first time, MO introduces foreign artists, including the famous contemporary art star Hito Steyerl (), with her work "Liquidity Inc." In 2017, one of the best-known art ratings ArtReview Power 100 announced H. Steyerl the artist having the greatest impact on contemporary art. Her works were exhibited at the (MoMA) in New York, in galleries in London and Madrid; she, also, represented Germany at in 2015 and has received awards during art festivals in the Netherlands and Denmark. Other foreign artists participating in the exhibition are Katja Novitskova (Estonia), Daiga Grantiņa, and Miķelis Fišers (Latvia).

At the exhibition, the total of 170 works are displayed that cover the period from the sixties of the 20th century until today and use a variety of means of expression – from traditional arts and photography to post-digital space and video installations. The exhibition is divided into nine topics, which tell separate stories and raise different questions. “We first worshiped and sacrificed animals, later sought to get to know and tame them, and ultimately we enslaved them. In search of perfection and efficiency, we have created artificial intelligence and robots. And now we are looking for our own place in the pyramid of biological and artificial life,” says Paberžytė, Curator of the exhibition.

Exhibition visitors will be able to see the works of classic Lithuanian artists – Šarūnas Sauka, Vincas Kisarauskas, Mindaugas Navakas, Romualdas Rakauskas – as well as some pieces of the young ones (Emilija Škarnulytė, artist duo Pakui Hardware). "The denial of the endangered boundary between life forms and anthropocentric approach is an important topic for young Lithuanian creators, which they successfully speak about, in line with artists throughout the world", says Curator Grigoravičienė. New works (by Birutė Zokaitytė, Jonas Jurcikas, etc) were actually purchased to supplement the MO collection for this particular exhibition, and some that do not belong to the collection (by Elvyra Kairiūkštytė, Valentinas Antanavičius, Kęstutis Grigaliūnas) were also additionally included.

MO muziejus, Pylimo g. 17, 01141 www.mo.lt | [email protected] | +370 609 83764

Visitors will see a completely changed MO exhibition space. This is how the idea of the famous architect Daniel Libeskind, who designed the MO building, is being implemented – to remain open to a wide range of ideas and visitor experience.

The exhibition was built by a team of very diverse experienced team: prominent art historian Erika Grigoravičienė (Lithuanian Culture Research Institute), Curator at MO Ugnė Paberžytė, and architect Justinas Dūdėnas and designer Akvilė Paukštytė, who both have already introduced many interesting decisions for exhibitions. The exhibition catalogue was created by designers Laura Klimaitė and Indrė Klimaitė.

The exhibition "Animal – Human – Robot" will be opened on 6 April, followed by the opening weekend programme-festival.

MO Museum is the best place for your leisure. We invite you to spare some time for yourself – to experience, surprise, contemplate or laugh. But most of all, we hope you leave the museum with new ideas about human’s relation with the surrounding world.

About MO

The building of MO, designed by world famous architect Daniel Libeskind, opened its doors on 18 October 2018. Until this opening, MO Museum, originally founded as the personal initiative of scientists Danguolė and Viktoras Butkus, has been a museum without walls for almost a decade. Its collection of over 5,000 works of modern and contemporary art contains the best of the Lithuanian art from the fifties of the 20th century until today. During the first three months, almost 100,000 visitors attended MO.

MO Museum is a place for excellent leisure that also tells stories about us. You are invited here for exhibitions, movies, educational activities, concerts, and other events for various age groups. One of the goals of MO is to build an active community – MOdernists – who support the MO idea and help create the new museum together!

MO muziejus, Pylimo g. 17, Vilnius 01141 www.mo.lt | [email protected] | +370 609 83764