Book tickets
And Then It Fades (Away) is a new bilingual publication offering a rare insight into contemporary Lithuanian photography.
Bringing together the work of twelve artists, the publication assembles a fragmentary yet compelling portrait of the contemporary moment; unfolding through personal, cultural and ecological narratives. Published by Six Chairs Books, the project foregrounds photography as a dynamic mode of inquiry, one that responds to and reflects the complexities of our current environment.
These ideas will be introduced through a discussion with editors Geistė Marija Kinčinaitytė and Paulius Petraitis, joined by contributing artist Ona Julija Lukas Steponaitytė and Vytautas Kumža. Moderated by Elaine ML Tam, the conversation will trace the book’s central themes, from placelessness and archival thinking to identity, instability, and the visual conditions shaping Lithuania’s cultural present.
Bringing together the work of twelve artists, the publication assembles a fragmentary yet compelling portrait of the contemporary moment; unfolding through personal, cultural and ecological narratives. Published by Six Chairs Books, the project foregrounds photography as a dynamic mode of inquiry, one that responds to and reflects the complexities of our current environment.
These ideas will be introduced through a discussion with editors Geistė Marija Kinčinaitytė and Paulius Petraitis, joined by contributing artist Ona Julija Lukas Steponaitytė and Vytautas Kumža. Moderated by Elaine ML Tam, the conversation will trace the book’s central themes, from placelessness and archival thinking to identity, instability, and the visual conditions shaping Lithuania’s cultural present.
Bios
Geistė Marija Kinčinaitytė is an artist and researcher working at the intersection of film and screen studies, contemporary art, and philosophy. Her photographic and moving-image practice explores notions of belonging, alienation, and the unknown. Since 2014, her work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions across Lithuania, the United Kingdom, Germany, Norway, Taiwan, South Korea and China. She holds a PhD in Film and Screen Studies from the University of Cambridge.
Ona Julija Lukas Steponaitytė (b. Vilnius, 1992) is an artist working with photography and film. Her work has been presented in solo exhibitions at Reethaus, Berlin Art Week (2024); Medūza, Vilnius (2024); and Inter.pblc, Copenhagen (2024), alongside Ssi Saarinen and Iida Jonsson. Group exhibitions include Neven Gallery, London (2025); Moving Bodies, Moving Images, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2022); and The Milk of Dreams, Arsenale, La Biennale di Venezia 59th, Venice (2022), with Eglė Budvytytė and Marija Olšauskaitė; as well as Liste Art Fair, Basel (2020).
She is featured in And Then It Fades (Away) (eds. G. Kinčinaitytė and P. Petraitis, 2024), and her work is held in the collections of the MO Museum and the National Gallery of Art, Vilnius. In 2023, she received Kunsthall Charlottenborg’s Deep Forest Land Art Prize. She is a PhD candidate at the Vilnius Academy of Arts and lives and works in Vilnius.
Vytautas Kumža examines the emotional power of objects, shaped by a childhood where small details signaled shifting dangers. Combining this instinct with studies in composition and psychology, he creates carefully staged scenes that seem alluring but carry underlying tension, where still objects feel physical, delicate, and on the verge of action. Working mainly with photography and sculptural installation, Kumža builds contradictory visual worlds to explore the fractured logic of everyday life.
Selected solo exhibitions include CODA Museum Apeldoorn, The Netherlands (2023) and Museum Villa Mondriaan. Winterswijk, The Netherlands (2019). Select group exhibitions include Museum of Photography Seoul (MoPS), South Korea (2021); Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (2024); Mystetskyi Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine (2020). His works are held in the collections of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen; MO Museum, Vilnius; CODA Museum, Apeldoorn; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and various private collections. He received the NN Art Award (2022) and the Sybren Hellinga Art Prize (2019). He’s represented by Copperfield Gallery, London and Martin van Zomeren, Amsterdam.
Paulius Petraitis is a Vilnius-based artist-theorist and curator whose work investigates how photographic images generate meaning within contemporary sociocultural and technological contexts. His research and exhibitions have been presented internationally, including at The Photographers’ Gallery, the Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia, Tromsø Kunstforening and the Riga Photography Biennial. His artist books are held in major public collections such as MoMA, the Met and the Danish Design Museum.
Elaine ML Tam is an itinerant writer, editor and occasional curator based in London. She day-jobs at White Cube, a contemporary art gallery, and night-jobs at FIELDNOTES, a publishing project supporting non-conforming creative practices. In both contexts, she works with contemporary artists and thinkers to create new forms and forums for critical engagement. Her research interests include psychoanalysis, media theory and conceptual art. Her essays, short stories and poems have been widely published in anthologies, artist monographs and exhibition texts.
Book tickets
07:00 pm
Wed, 04 Feb 2026
Cinema 1
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Cinema 1
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