Artist Ieva Lygnugarytė presents "Carmen: Utopias of Belonging," a video installation at Oratorio dei Crociferi in Venice. The work reactivates a little-known story from 1523, when poet Nicolaus Hussovianus wrote "Carmen de Statura, Feritate ac Venatione Bisontis" as a diplomatic gesture for the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, intended to accompany a straw-stuffed European bison.
This exhibition matters because it brings historical diplomatic and cultural narratives into contemporary art, exploring themes of belonging and utopia through the lens of a forgotten episode. By situating the work in Venice, a historic crossroads of diplomacy and art, Lygnugarytė invites viewers to reconsider how objects and texts travel across borders and time, connecting past political gestures to present-day questions of identity and community.