Karolina Latvytė-Bibiano | Girl and the Rabbit

K. is an eight year old fictional character who is looking between reality and realness.

K. is interested in the art of taxidermy and collects stuffed animals. There are over 100 of them in her room. For the girl, it’s not just a hobby but also a playground. K.’s favorite specimen is a brown rabbit that she skinned herself. The name of the stuffed animal is Pypsius. To the girl, it’s her best friend – she goes shopping with it, visits her grandparents. They play together, draw and eat. While K. sleeps, the stuffed rabbit usually stands on the nightstand next to her bed, though sometimes she falls asleep hugging him. Her mother doesn’t like it. After all, it’s a taxidermied corpse.

Drawing on personal experiences and inspired by Louise Bunce’s article “Still life? Children’s understanding of the reality status of museum taxidermy” (2019), in which she explores children’s perception of what is authentic and real, artist Karolina Latvytė-Bibiano creates a fictional character K. and delves into the different perceptions of children and adults of reality. Children often confuse imagination with perception. They see stuffed animals both as real and as play objects. Adults, on the other hand, tend to view taxidermy through the lens of biological accuracy and historical authenticity. This contrast reflects developmental differences, where interpretations of reality are deeply contextual.
By combining different media, the artist questions what it means to be real or authentic, blurring the boundaries of representations of life and death.

Karolina Latvytė-Bibiano (1991) graduated with a Master’s degree in Sculpture from the Vilnius Academy of Arts in 2023. Member of the Lithuanian Union of Interdisciplinary Artists, ambassador of the mental health programme “Look Deeper”. By using video installations, AI, photography, and drawing techniques, the artist explores fear, anxiety, and vulnerability. She fills her works with biographical details and weaves them into fictional stories, creating an aesthetic of unease.

Exhibition funded by Lithuanian Council for Culture
Exhibition consultant Kamilė Vaškelytė-Grigaitytė

Opening: April 29 at 6 PM at VAA gallery ARTIFEX.