Rūtenė Merk at Vent Gallery

Artist: Rūtenė Merk

Exhibition title: Virtualacra

Venue: Vent Gallery, Vienna, Austria

Date: September 1 – October 1, 2018

Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Vent Gallery, Vienna

URBANDICTIONARY: Virtualacra is a disturbing intersection of the real-world and virtual aspects of one’s experience; a train wreck caused by one’s interpersonal and Internet lives colliding

CHUCK NOLAND: We’ve made real fire, huh, Wilson. So, Wilson?

ART HISTORIAN: Here we grasp the roots of that very contradiction which will forever characterise images: images make a physical (a body’s) absence visible by transforming it into iconic presence. The mediality of images is thus rooted in a body analogy.

EDITOR: Julliene never seems to stress much and will spend her days in peace. After waking up very early at midnight she will spend the next six hours wandering aimlessly around the Lustratorium. At 6am she will pick up her mortar & pestle and start mixing up potions, eventually stopping at 10am. Her remaining time, until 6pm, she will spend wandering around the Alchemy center before heading back to the upper floor of the Mage Quarters and going back to bed.

PHILOSOPHER: Even the Pyramid, however, will not be as interesting as the dead king within it, as he is the only subject whose dreams are truly worth interpreting.

GENERAL HEIN: Where is the PROOF?

DOCTOR AKI ROSS: Here

RŪTENĖ MERK (b. 1991) is a painter based in Munich. In 2013 she received Painting BA from Vilnius Academy of Arts and curretly she studies in Munich Academy of Fine Arts. Selected shows: (How did I get here) Painting in Lithuania, CAC, Vilnius, 2012; 24 Spaces – a Cacophony, Malmö Konsthall, Sweden, 2014; Žilvitis, Vartai Gallery, Vilnius, 2016; Body and Darkness, Vartai Gallery, Vilnius, 2017; Children of the New East, Art Hall Tallinn, Estonia, 2017; White Walkers, Talinas 10, Riga, 2017; JCDecaux Prize, CAC, Vilnius, 2017; Entangled Tales, Rupert, Vilnius, 2018; Virtualacra, Jahresausstellung, AdBK Munich, 2018; Spirits Within, solo show, Editorial, Vilnius, 2018.