++++ Laura Stasíulytë (born 1977, lives and works in Vilnius). Still a student at the department of photography and media of the Vilnius Art Academy, she started developing a body of work and ideas based on language, and particularly on half-automatic, stereotypical language usage.

++++ The project of the Lithuanian artist, Laura Stasíulytë, for Manifesta 4 bears the title FROM THE LIFE OF YOUNG LADIES. It is based on an intensive study of the Lithuanian teenager magazine PANELE (young lady) on whose pages there is an obvious interest in sexuality treated openly. Laura Stasíulytë shows on slides selected questions corresponding to questions which she posed directly to young girls on the street. Not only curiosity about sexuality in all its various facets, but also a lack of sex education becomes apparent through these encounters. The political and cultural changes in Lithuania also brought a kind of sexual revolution which can be clearly felt in the explosive force of these questions. A denotative use of language and a vocabulary beyond medical terminology or derogatory jargon developed in Lithuania only in the nineties and was communicated especially in teenager’s magazines, mostly in a question-and-answer format. (Meike Behm)

Carpet,2001.Installation view