Presence of the Absent

After more than twenty years from the collapse of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, its legacy, marks and remnants are still visible in the consciousness of people, urban development, and everyday life. They are newly reborn in the present day consumer culture, intermixed with the present realties and keep existing to­gether pointing to what does not exist anymore. The Group Lithuanian-Ukrainian exhibition «Presence of the Absent» had 8 young artists from Lithuania-and Ukraine (four from each country). In April of 2012 an exhibition was presented to the public during the art festival «Non Stop Media» in Kharkov City Gallery (Ukraine). In November of the same year it is open to the visitors in Klaipeda Culture Communication Centre (Lithuania). The exhibition presents artists from a young generation of two post-Soviet countries - Lithuania and Ukraine. The organizers deliberately invited artists who had been born in Soviet times but are now grown up and are creating work in a democracy. They still remember the times of the old regime, however they have matured in the systems supported by democracy and are not bound to a deep nostalgia; therefore they are able to re­ cord and reveal the strange existence of remnants of Soviet times in the present day context - sensitively and clearly.