Everything you are not supposed to do. 21st-century Lithuanian female artists within the historical painting exhibit

The exhibition “Everything You Are Not Supposed to Do” invites you to explore the practices of 21st-century Lithuanian female artists against the backdrop they deserve – within the historical painting exhibit at the Radvila Palace Museum of Art.

Situated alongside 16th-to-19th-century Western European artists, these 21st-century artworks also come from the repositories of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, which safeguard not just tapestries and photographs but also an idea of what our state should be, its cultural and memory priorities. To reveal and actualise this collection, we too must do things we are seemingly not supposed to, such as breaking polite silence or giving up our curatorial authority. And we are only successful some of the time – even as I am writing this text, I am not sure how everything will work out. Whatever happens to this exhibition and to the world, I hope that, at least for a short while, it will allow you to do if not all, then perhaps some of the things you are not supposed to do: marry whomever you want, read strangers’ conversations, proudly accept sickness and loneliness, insist on gifting art, and recognise yourself as a deity; create ever-so-slightly too elaborate names for joy, both shared and personal, which is one of the most natural weapons against cruelty.