Visiting Card
XII International Biennial of Textile Miniatures
Gallery ARKA, Vilnius, LT
28.10. – 26.11.2021

The International Biennial of Textile Miniatures, which started in 1992 and is held every two years at the Arka Gallery and reflects contemporary textile art, is being organized for the 12th time this year. The latest collection of the biennial, consisting of works by artists from 24 different countries, is dedicated to the narrative of a visiting card as a small-format recognizable sign, presenting an author's unique style, mastered technique, or researched themes that shape the artist's identity.

In this exhibition, the participants look at the visiting card in various ways – historical, ideological, social, artistic – and examine not only the themes of personal experiences but also the themes of memory. The size standard set in the early 20th century was the format of one cigarette’s length and seven cigarettes’ width, as the cards were stored in tobacco packaging. Modern technology has made a visiting card an attribute of everyday life, and a variety of technologies are used to produce it. Modern technology has pushed the visiting card as a physical object into the margins of social communication. It is very often replaced by digital formats for the exchange of contact information. These are "becoming friends on Facebook or LinkedIn, following each other on Instagram, and so on. Nevertheless, the metaphorical meaning of the visiting card has remained. The latter is reflected in the collection of this year's biennial, formed from the works proposed during the open call, of which more than seventy were selected for the exhibition by the jury.

Curator of the biennial: Žydre Ridulytė

The biennial exhibition at the gallery “Arka“ will run from October 28th to November 26th and is supported from the Lithuanian Artists' Association.

Gallery ARKA
Aušros Vartų g. 7
Vilnius 01129, LT
www.arkagalerija.lt