DATE: 6 February – 1 March 2026
Amulets is an exhibition about abjection: that which is expelled in order to maintain the boundaries between “self” and “other,” between cleanliness and impurity, between what is considered worthy and what is rejected. Here, abjection is understood not as rubbish or dirt, but as whatever disturbs order and identity – something that both repels and attracts.
In recent years, while working in residencies in Paris, Amsterdam, and Düsseldorf, Julija Skudutytė has been collecting discarded or damaged objects left in the streets. She brings them home, washes them, slowly composes them, paints, and embroiders them. This process is not restoration but rather an intimate, slow act of care, focused on building a relationship with the object.
The amulets created – through their materiality and their past – become not only witnesses but also vessels. They speak of a melancholy that often conceals an inability to mourn what we never fully lost. A gestural form of motherhood emerges in them as patience, nurturing, and staying with what is fragile and unresolved.
The installations presented in the exhibition do not deny their former state – they remain with it. In Amulets, no answers are offered; instead, the exhibition creates a space to be with abjection and allows the objects to speak for themselves.
The exhibition is included in the Vilnius City Municipality’s cultural route Su–menėk: throughout all weekends in February, Pamėnkalnio Gallery can be reached by a free Su–menėk bus. Gallery opening hours in February: Tue–Fri 11:00–19:00, Sat 11:00–18:00, Sun 13:00–16:00.
Organizer: Pamėnkalnio Gallery.
Financed by: Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius City, Lithuanian Artists’ Association.
