Adomas Narkevičius appointed curator of 15th edition of Kaunas Biennial

Adomas Narkevičius. © Anne Tetzlaff. Courtesy Kaunas Biennial

September 12 – November 23, 2025
Kaunas, Lithuania

The 15th Kaunas Biennial is set to run from September 12 to November 23, 2025, with Life After Life as its title and theme. Renowned for its innovative approach to contemporary art, the Kaunas Biennial continues to foster international dialogue while exploring critical social and cultural issues. This year, Adomas Narkevičius nominated as curator by the organisers, bringing his sharp curatorial vision to one of the Baltic States’ most prominent cultural platforms.

Life After Life invites audiences to engage with the pressing themes of uncertainty and transition. By challenging the globalised biennial format and its limitations, the exhibition seeks to reimagine contemporary art’s role in addressing the contradictions of the present. Curator Adomas Narkevičius reflects: “My aim is for this edition to imaginatively address the palpable shifts in the international order and the long-held ideas surrounding contemporary art, while, above all, serving as a space of possibility for the invited artists and their visions.”

This edition experiments with the biennial as a malleable form, embracing diverse artistic practices and genres while interrogating the boundaries of contemporary art’s social and aesthetic conventions. By situating Life After Life in Kaunas’ historical and evolving venues—including the Stumbras distillery and the interwar Temporary M.K. Čiurlionis Art Gallery—the Biennial highlights the city’s ongoing transformation as an integral part of its narrative. In addition to its primary exhibitions, Life After Life will feature a satellite program in collaboration with the Lyon Biennale, CHRONIQUES—the Biennale des Imaginaires Numériques, and Biennale Gherdëina.

“Kaunas Biennial has always been a platform for exploring the complexities of our time, for artistic experimentation, and for challenging conventions,” says Neringa Kulik, director of Kaunas Biennial. “With Life After Life, we are eager to see how Adomas Narkevičius will utilize this platform to explore the ideas of transition and uncertainty in a way that resonates with both local and global contexts. We are confident that this edition will generate important new reflections on the contemporary moment and contribute to a dynamic dialogue within the international art community.”

About the Curator

Adomas Narkevičius is currently Curator at Cell Project Space, London. His research explores nonlinear aspects of historical time, focusing on the limits of representation and the untimeliness of postwar and contemporary art in the Baltic region and beyond. Previously, he was Curator at Rupert Centre for Art, Residencies and Education, Vilnius (2016–2019). His MA dissertation, Defiant Bodies: Untimely Art in the Baltics Under Soviet Rule (UCL, 2020), received the Oxford Art Journal Prize. Curatorial projects include solo and two-person exhibitions by Coumba Samba, Josefin Arnell and Max Göran, Ksenia Pedan, Niklas Taleb, Agnė Jokšė and Anastasia Sosunova, Cudelice Brazelton IV, Peng Zuqiang, and Renée Akitelek Mboya as well as Central Eastern European and Diasporic Feminisms Research Group at Cell Project Space, We Don’t Do This: Intimacy, Norms and Fantasies in Baltic Art at MO Museum, Vilnius (2024) and Authority Incorporeal at Rupert for Baltic Triennial 14 (2021). Narkevičius has guest lectured and served as a visiting tutor at institutions such as Goldsmiths, University College London, and the Royal College of Art.