Bells and Canons: Contemporary Art in the Face of Militarisation

The exhibition ‘Bells and Canons: Contemporary Art in the Face of Militarisation’ takes as its starting point the ongoing deployment of German troops in Lithuania, part of NATO’s strategy of strengthening NATO’s Eastern borders in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The exhibition explores contemporary artists’ strategies facing an increasingly discordant world and maps out some of the ways culture meets militarisation.

Audio guide script: Eglė Murauskaitė
Narration: Eglė Murauskaitė, Anna Maria Strauß
Translators: Laimonas Kinčius, Eglė Murauskaitė
Language editors: Birgit Hoffmann, Gemma Lloyd, Dangė Vitkienė
Sound recording and editing: Freakin Studio

1.
Forensic Architecture
‘No Traces of Life’: Israel’s Ecocide in Gaza 2023–2024

Video, satellite images
2023–ongoing

2.
Michael Stevenson
Strategic-Level Spiritual Warfare

Doors, kinetic soft-close door closer, computing hardware, competing gaming bots, and the hiss of compressed-air lines releasing
2014/2025

3.
Sana Shahmuradova Tanska
Fell asleep at the river shore in 2022

Oil on canvas
2022

4.
Fedir Tetianych
Various artworks

1970s–1980s

5.
Henrike Naumann
Breathe

Various objects, monitor and video
2023

6.
Trevor Paglen
Behold These Glorious Times!

Video
2017

7.
Jan Eustachy Wolski
Pelexiton (Excerpts 1 to 6)

Oil and crayon on jute
2024

8.
Maithu Bùi
cưa bom IIII

Bomb Shell I–IIII
Metal, steel balls
2025