Carmen: Utopias of Belonging

Carmen: Utopias of Belonging

IEVA LYGNUGARYTĖ
Curated by Meral Karacaoğlan

01.05 – 31.05 2026

Carmen: Utopias of Belonging is a video installation by artist Ieva Lygnugarytė that reactivates a little-known story from the early sixteenth century.

In 1523, the poet Nicolaus Hussovianus wrote Carmen de Statura, Feritate ac Venatione Bisontis. As a diplomatic gesture, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania intended to send this poem together with a straw-stuffed European bison to Pope Leo X. The attempt sought to introduce a peripheral European region to the cultural center of Reinassance Rome. Alas, the gift never fullfilled its purpose. The pope died before it arrived, leaving both the poem and the animal unreceived as intended. The episode faded from historical memory.

Lygnugarytė’s film reinterprets this episode in a contemporary key and offers a reflective engagement with Hussovianus’s poem, considering how its imagery and intentions resonate across time. Through moving images, acting, and carefully composed atmospheric scenes, the video delicately interweaves historical and imagined temporalities. The poem is presented through a meditative voice that invites reflection on continuity, memory, and the transmission of meaning. The work emphasizes attentiveness and listening, allowing the historical material to unfold without judgment or polemic.

The installation is presented at the Oratorio dei Crociferi, a historic religious site shaped by centuries of passage and encounter. Tucked away from the main Biennale venues, the location reinforces the project’s focus on invisibility, marginality,  and access. Furthermore, it invites visitors to think about issues that are still relevant today: who is seen in the present and past Europe? Who remains peripheral? How is cultural value assigned?

The exhibition will be open until May 31st. It will be visitable from Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.
Closed on Mondays.