Marija Cipkute ^{Emerging artist}

Artist's country of origin: Lithuania

Marija Cipkute graduated from Vilnius Academy of Arts (Lithuania) in 2017 with a Master’s degree in painting.

In autumn semester of 2016 Cipkute studied in Czech Republic, in Prague Academy of Arts in the framework of the exchange program. There she worked on a collaborative art project in the studio of artist Christina Della Giustina. 

In 2017 winter she started to work on the topic of Garden, interpreting it to herself as a natural space that is constructed by human being and is the secured place that one should take care of and cultivate that all the plants would grow properly.

In her project she explored the long-living Lithuanian women tradition to grow the flower garden in their parents’ home as a symbol of condition of being a young, unmarried, virgin girl. Femininity plays important role here. 
Cipkute was cultivating her own transferable flower garden in her painting studio in small boxes and greenhouses. She was growing the traditional flowers that young Lithuanian girls used to grow in their flower-gardens. Also, during the centuries there were many folk songs created about those flowers. This was an important point for her – the idea of growing the “traditional culture” – the traditional flowers.

The actions of protecting, guarding and taking care of the garden becomes a metaphor for Cipkute. It is a metaphor of the process of growing the artwork, the process of growing the personality.