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.
Selected Works
Pakui Hardware
Inflammation, 2023
casted aluminium, glass, stainless steel, rubber
140 × 100 × 45 cm
Pakui Hardware
Heat Treated, 2024
casted aluminium, laboratory glass, bees wax, stainless steel, silicone rubber
85 × 50 × 11 cm
Pakui Hardware
Inflammation, 2024
casted aluminium, glass, stainless steel, rubber
150 × 64 × 35 cm
Pakui Hardware
Absent Touch 1, 2020
From the series “Absent Touch”
giclee print, aluminum frame, museumsglas, diptych
100 × 70 cm (each)
Pakui Hardware
The Host 2, 2021
stainless steel, fabric, resin, glass
150 × 120 cm
Pakui Hardware
Pakui Hardware
Breed, 2021
Installation. Glass, stainless steel, silicone, textiles
Variable dimensions
External Exhibitions
Solo Exhibition
Virtual Care | Radvila Palace Museum of Art, Vilnius
19.06.–01.12.2024
Duo Exhibition
Inflammation – Biennale Arte 2024 | The Lithuanian Pavilion, Venice
20.04.–31.10.2024
Solo Exhibition
Inflammation | National Museum of Lithuania
27.10.2023–11.02.2024
Solo Exhibition
The Host | East Contemporary, Milan
15.09.–30.11.2021
Special Presentation
Breed | Novartis Campus, Basel
20.–26.06.2021
Solo Exhibition
Virtual Care | BALTIC, Gateshead
19.05.–03.10.2021
Solo Exhibition
Underbelly | MdbK, Leipzig
10.08.2019–26.01.2020