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The Arka Gallery, founded by the Lithuanian Artists’ Union, was one of the first exhibition spaces in independent Lithuania, established in the former architectural ensemble of the 16th century Basilion Monastery, and opened its doors on 16 May 1990. The first event – a charity auction to support the Anti-Blockade Foundation – took place in May, and already in the summer the exhibitions of V. Venckūnienė, R. Dalinkevičius, S. Žirgulis, V. Vildžiūnas, P. Mazūras, M. Navakas, V. Urbanavičius, K. Jeroševaitė. A. Smilingis, J. Meškelevičius, K. Grigaliūnas, A. Švėgždos.

Five years ago, art historians Evelina Januškaitė and Monika Valatkaitė, together with their creative team, implemented the project „White Habitat. Three Decades“, which turned into an archival-documentary and (re)creative exhibition. The spectrum of the gallery’s activities, collected in images, texts, voices, was reviewed, selected, digitised, and the architecture of the exposition was designed. Unfortunately, due to the quarantine in force at the time, the physical exhibition remained closed to the public, and some of the collected material did not make it into the exhibition. Therefore, as the gallery „grew“ by another five years and was enriched by new experiences, the idea arose to organise a similar exhibition, only in a different form, more extensive, but still very fragmentary. It is difficult to cover the long-standing, numerous and highly dynamic chronology of the gallery – it would require careful historical research, more resources and time, because in the previous periods it was not usual to document everything, to photograph everything, not all exhibitions were accompanied by catalogues, and virtual documentation disappeared over the course of the years with the change of technologies and media.

The 35th anniversary exhibition does not pretend to tell the history of the gallery per se, or to recreate the exact timeline of its activities – it will be an episodic, reduced, subjective narrative based on nostalgia and small narratives – people’s recollections and incidents – about the exhibitions, events, communities and artists that have taken place here. The exhibition presents photographs, objects, videos, posters, publications, texts, and dots and recalls both the development of the gallery and the events of the Vilnius art scene in recent decades and the relationships between their actors. The archive, gathered in objects and photographs, is relatively modest, but it is still filled with 35 years of continuous activity on Aušros Vartų Street, the living memory of witnesses and participants, and the shared stories that keep the pulse of Arka’s events beating daily.

Thanks to Lukas Stanionis, Monika Valatkaite, Artūras Meškauskas, Aušra Lukošiūnienė, Diana Stomienė, Linas Liandzbergius, Egle Ganda Bogdanienė, Gediminas DJ Astral, VDA students, participants and witnesses of the events, and all those who shared their stories for their contribution to the exposition.