The Cave & The Garden at Futura

Artists: Gailė Cijūnaitytė, Tomas Daukša, Uli Golub, Laura Kaminskaitė, Donna Kukama, Jumana Manna, Katrīna Neiburga, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Artūras Raila, Darius Žiūra, Artur Żmijewski

Exhibition title: The Cave & The Garden

Curated by: Valentinas Klimašauskas

Venue: Futura, Prague, The Czech Republic

Date: August 11 – September 27, 2020

Photography: Tomas Souček / all images copyright and courtesy of the artists and Futura, Prague

The exhibition title refers to two well-known allegories that interpret the world – Plato’s Cave and Voltaire’s Garden.

According to Plato, the shadows frame reality for the prisoners within the cave as they are allowed to experience existence solely through their observation. According to such logic, the fire, or human-made light, such as a film projection, TV, or VR – to use contemporary examples – is set ablaze by artists, in order to illuminate, teach or critique the dominant doctrines of time and place. The fire or light may be further interpreted as the political doctrine – Plato named nation-state as one of its sources and nowadays we surely could add many more lighthouses of propaganda.

In “Candide: or, The Optimist” (1759), Voltaire famously concludes by advocating a practical precept – “one must cultivate one’s own garden”. When Voltaire was writing “Candide”, similarly to the present day, the world did not appear a harmonious place – the satire refers to historical events such as the Seven Years’ War, the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, and also ridicules colonialism, positivism, theology, governments, you name it.

“Cultivation of one’s garden” may relate to cultivating life, profession, or global eco-socio-political system. However, the idea reveals a paradox – in nurturing these “gardens”, one changes the nature of the world which determines them. What then constitutes the differences and similarities between the analogies of the world as a cave and a garden? For an individual in the cave, the act of seeing and understanding may be interpreted as a rather passive and solipsistic act, while gardening is seen as a more active and, possibly world-changing practice. To act constructively, however, one has to have clear perception and understanding of reality, and they both share this dilemma.

The group exhibition contains mostly works by artists from Central and Eastern Europe that were created during the last two decades. They reveal the multifaceted and problematic nature of our societies and the world, having in mind the current conditions of quarantine and COVID-19 wave(s), the activation of nationalist inclination and border-building, social unrest, rising commotion in response to the racist and colonialist past and present, the sixth extinction, and others.

In this context, both the artists and spectators drift between the two allegories: as cave prisoners who need to differentiate between projections and ideologies; and as gardeners who cultivate certain ideas and practices in various artistic formats, poetic gestures, research, or socio-political manifestations that may produce an impact on the so-called nature and vice versa.

Jaakko Pallasvuo, “the way you almost wholly omit to flower”, 2020, Pages from the PDF book, Various locations throughout the exhibition

Katrīna Neiburga, “Traffic”, 2003, 18 mins,, video installation

Katrīna Neiburga, “Traffic”, 2003, 18 mins,, video installation, video still

Artur Żmijewski, “Glimpse”, 2017, Single channel video transferred from 16 mm, b/w, no sound, 14 min

Darius Žiūra, “Gustoniai”, 2001-ongoing, 6-channel video installation

Laura Kaminskaitė, “Its Own Unfolding Elsewhere”, 2019, Text, light box (42 cm x 60 cm)

Laura Kaminskaitė, “Sugar Entertainment”, 2011– (ongoing), Sugar (1,5 cm)

Tomas Daukša, “No Limit”, 2019, Various sizes, plastic, rubber, foam, hot glue, artificial fur, aerosol paint, metal, LED lights, sound, Various locations throughout the exhibition

Artūras Raila, “Under the Flag”, 1999-2015, Video, 00:20:00, 2 channel digital video, color, sound

Donna Kukama, “In Not Yet (And Nobody Knows Why Not)”, 2008, Video, 4’56”

Uli Golub, “Babushka in space”, 2017, video 00:23:46; HD 1920:1080, 24 fps; color, stereo sound, English subtitles

Jaakko Pallasvuo, “Blue”, 2016, Video, “the way you almost wholly omit to flower”, 2020, Pages from the PDF book, Various locations throughout the exhibition

Gailė Cijūnaitytė, “FEELS SO REAL! Binaural ASMR personal attention while WHISPERING”, 2020, VR installation, Tomas Daukša, “No Limit”, 2019, Various sizes, plastic, rubber, foam, hot glue, artificial fur, aerosol paint, metal, LED lights, sound, Various locations throughout the exhibition

Gailė Cijūnaitytė, “FEELS SO REAL! Binaural ASMR personal attention while WHISPERING”, 2020, VR installation, video still

Tomas Daukša, “No Limit”, 2019, Various sizes, plastic, rubber, foam, hot glue, artificial fur, aerosol paint, metal, LED lights, sound, Various locations throughout the exhibition