Kristina Inčiūraitė
Kristina Inčiūraitė. Orchestra of Holes, 2018. Photo Evgenia Levin
The most important theme in the work of Kristina Inčiūraitė (born 1974) is female identity and its shifts in accordance with changes in socio-political, economic, and cultural circumstances. She creates films, photographs, drawings, installations, and objects. Inčiūraitė explores female identity through the components that she finds meaningful: the female voice and narrative (in her films, the female is usually only implied, represented by an off-screen voice) and the public space where her heroines usually act. She uses these means to question stereotypical representations of women. For her heroines, the artist chooses women from different walks of life: businesswomen, athletes, actresses, public figures, residents of a small town, service industry workers, and so on. She focuses on a “moment of change” in the stories of their ordinary lives. The artist is not interested in social status, but rather in thoughts and feelings, and ways of relating to the social environment, which reveal a woman’s multifaceted worldview. In her work, a feminine prosaic quality coexists alongside poetry, manifesting in the paradigm of losses and not-yet discoveries, of nostalgia and anticipation for the moment of change. Her creative path is summarized in the book ‘I want everything – love, children, adventure, intimacy, work’ (published by Kristina Inčiūraitė Studio, 2020), which Inčiūraitė edited herself and in which the paradoxical and experimental path of her creative work is explored through theoretical texts by various authors and delicate design solutions.
Kristina Inčiūraitė’s work has been exhibited in numerous venues, including the 15th Tallinn Print Triennial (2012), the 4th Ars Baltica Triennial of Photographic Art (2007–2008), the PragueBiennale3 (2007), the 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2007), and the 9th Baltic Triennial of International Art (2005). She has also shown work at the National Gallery of Art, the MO Museum and the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, the MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome, the National Art Museum of China in Beijing, the National Art Museum of Ukraine in Kiev, Oi Futuro Cultural Center in Rio de Janeiro, the Kalmar Museum of Art in Kalmar, Műcsarnok/Kunsthalle in Budapest, and KUMU Art Museum in Tallinn. Her films have been presented at festivals such as the 30th Sao Paulo International Short Film Festival, the 40th Festival du Nouveau Cinema in Montreal, the 28th Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, the 10th East End Film Festival in London and the 15th Vilnius International Film Festival.