Pakui Hardware

Live and work in Vilnius

Pakui Hardware is the name chosen by collaborative artist duo Neringa Černiauskaité and Ugnius Gelguda. Pakui Hardware refers to Pakui – special attendant of Hawaiian Goddess, a runner who could circle an island six times in a day, thus embodying velocity and mythology, and Hardware which stands for materiality, bodies, and resources.

The duo’s work explores plasticity of bodies, their yet undiscovered potentials. They trace how diverse technologies expand, test and control these bodily promises. Hybrid materials that the artists employ correspond to hybrid bodies that surround us. These questions are analyzed through such examples as invasive and transformative relationship to bodies, automation, synthetic biology and new materiality.By combining natural and man made materials, sterile and organic forms, the artists merged design, biology and art history into hybrid and curious creatures immersed in their autonomous environments.

The artistic duo has been chosen to represent Lithuania at the 60th Biennale di Venezia in 2024, curated by Adriano Pedrosa. In October 2023 Pakui Hardware opened their seminal solo exhibition at the National Museum in Vilnius, Lithuania. Past solo exhibitions include East Contemporary, Milan; BALTIC Art Center, Newcastle, Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Düren; Future Gallery Mexico, Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig (MdbK), Bielefelder Kunstverein, EXILE, Museum of Modern Art Ludwig Foundation Vienna (MUMOK). Past group exhibitions include MOCO La Panacée, Montpellier; Istanbul Biennial; CCA Tel Aviv; MAXXI, Rome; Musée d’Orsay, Paris; Kunshalle Basel; Kunstverein Braunschweig.

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