Exceptional Spaces The Cosmic Vision of Aleksandra Kasuba

10.00–10.20: Welcome and Introductions

Nabila Abdel Nabi, Senior Curator, International Art (HTRC:T); Anne Barlow, Director, Tate St. Ives; and Arūnas Gelūnas, Director General, Lithuanian National Museum of Art.

10.20–10.55: Keynote | Elona Lubytė

Elona Lubytė will discuss her scholarship on and relationship with the late artist – an expertise drawn upon in the development of Aleksandra Kasuba: Shelter for the Senses at Tate St. Ives. Lubytė was instrumental in bringing Kasuba’s work and archival documents into the collection of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, donated by the artist between 2018—19.  Forced to flee Lithuania in the wake of World War II, Kasuba’s displacement profoundly informed her artistic vision. She united Lithuanian cultural and ethical traditions, with the rebellious experimentation and innovation of 20th century New York. Elona will speak to the unique power of Kasuba’s art, rooted in the exploration of an imaginary future that might serve as respite for the wandering soul.

This keynote will be followed by a conversation with Anne Barlow, co-curator of Aleksandra Kasuba: Shelter for the Senses and Director, Tate St Ives.

10.55–11.00: Break

11.00–12.05: Kasuba and Architecture

This session explores the development of Kasuba’s architectural vision. She saw sustainable architecture as a social instrument for new and joyful ways of living. Rejecting right angles as symbols of social constraint, her innovative spatial designs and public installations embraced curves and forms commonly found in nature.

This panel brings together Nikola Radeljković (Numen / For Use), Valle Medina and Benjamin Reynolds (Pa.LaC.E) and Liz West, tracing the legacy of Kasbua’s experimentations within contemporary design practices. Discussing their work in resonance with, and building upon, Kasuba’s spatial imaginations, this session explores Kasuba’s thinking around modern alienation, and the transformative potential of tension, light and colour.

The session is followed by a conversation and audience Q&A, moderated by Katrina Nzegwu (Assistant Curator, International Art).

12.05–12.20: Break

12.20-13.15: Kasuba and Energies

This panel expands upon Kasuba’s fluid approach to perception. Kasuba spanned the fields of art, ecology and technology. She drew upon the logic of cybernetics – the study of flows of control and communication within systems – to design immersive shapes that mirrored the unifying energy flow of living structures.

Bringing together Lucia Pietroiusti and Nina Wexelblatt, this panel explores the importance of systems of exchange to Kasuba’s work. They explore Kasuba’s union of scientific and spiritual structures, to imagine alternative ways of living freely and communally with one another, and the fundamental forces of the environment.

13.15-14.15: Lunch Break

14.15-15.05: Inside Other Spaces

In 1975, Kasuba presented the work Spectral Passage (1975) as part of The Rainbow Show, an experimental exhibition held across the Fine Art Museums, and various other cultural institutions in San Francisco. Installed in the de Young Musuem, the immersive installation marked a profound shift in Kasuba’s work towards the creation of “non-ordinary mind-spaces”: forms designed to transport audiences to different sensory planes.

This session brings together presentations by Marina Pugliese and Adomas Narkevičius. It will explore the crucial role played by Kasuba's environment in the overall framework of the Rainbow Show, and the creation and transformation of space within their own curatorial practices.

15.05-15.20: Break

15.20-16.00: Digital Fermentation

Sanchit Bembi delivers a lecture-performance and prototype version of his installation Digital Fermentation. An evolution of his presentation at the 2025 London Design Festival, Bembi’s installation speaks to Kasuba’s creation of ‘sensory-enhancing spatial circumstances’. Playing with lights, smells, textures and sounds, Digital Fermentation mirrors Bembi's own experience of synaesthesia, or “blended” senses. Bembi will demonstrate the installation’s various elements, including a web cam that takes in a real time feed as audiences speak, sing, clap and make other noises. Connected to a projector, such gestures are directly translated from sound to colour to create a shifting, fluid image. Bembi will also demonstrate one of the work’s total four sandstone terracotta speakers, transforming sound into different scents in relation to the different audio frequencies created by the audience.

Please note that this presentation includes the diffusion of artificial fragrance. Those with sensitivities, allergies or asthma may wish to take necessary precautions.

16.00–16.15: Closing Remarks

Asta Radikaitė, Ambassador of Lithuania to the UK, and Anne Barlow, Director, Tate St. Ives.

Participants

Adomas Narkevičius

Adomas Narkevičius is Founding Director of Upė Foundation. His research focuses on the limits of representation, and the ‘untimeliness’ of postwar and contemporary art, in the Baltic region and beyond. He is the co-curator of the Latvian Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale, 2026. Previous positions include Curator at Cell Project Space, London (2021—25) and Curator at Rupert, Vilnius (2016—2019).

Dr Elona Lubytė

Dr Elona Lubytė is an art historian and Chief Art Critic, Curator of Lithuanian Contemporary Sculpture at the Lithuanian National Museum of Art. Her research explores the modernisation of Lithuanian visual art in the second half of the 20th century. She is a Professor within the Department of Art History and Theory, Vilnius Academy of Arts, and the President of the Lithuanian National Section of AICA (Association for International Art Criticism).

Liz West

Liz West is a British artist, whose vivid environments mix luminous colour and radiant light. Using a variety of materials, she blurs the boundaries between sculpture, architecture, design and painting to create playful and immersive works. She has been commissioned worldwide by institutions and organisations including Natural History Museum, London Design Festival, and Paris Fashion Week; and has presented solo exhibitions at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Farol Santander São Paulo, and more.

Lucia Pietroiusti

Curator Lucia Pietroiusti is Head of Research & Emergence at the future Hartwig Museum, Amsterdam, opening in 2028, and in 2027 will be the Curator of the 6th Autostrada Biennale (Prizren, Kosovo). Until August 2025, Pietroiusti was Head of Ecologies at Serpentine, London, where she founded the General Ecology project (2018-2025). She is the curator of the Golden Lion winning Lithuanian Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale, Sun & Sea.

Marina Pugliese

Marina Pugliese is an art historian, and Head of Public Art and Director of MUDEC (Museum of Cultures), Milan. She has founded Museo del Novecento (2010), MUDEC (2015) and started the Public Art Department of the City of Milan (2020). She co-curated the award-winning exhibitions Lucio Fontana Ambienti/Environments (2017 Pirelli Hangar Bicocca, Milan) and Inside Other Spaces. Environments by Women Artists 1956-1976 (2023 Haus der Kunst, Munich).

Nikola Radeljković

Nikola Radeljković is an industrial designer and founding member of Numen/For Use, alongside Sven Jonke and Christoph Katlzer. First formed in 1998, the collective works across the fields of conceptual art, scenography, and industrial and spatial design. The group explores material systems, immersive environments, and the relationship between human perception and physical structures. A key part of their practice involves creating objects and concepts without fixed functions, resulting in hybrid and experimental works.

Nina Wexelblatt

Nina Wexelblatt is Visiting Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of California, Riverside. Her research focuses on postwar artists’ experiments with remote control, automated labour systems, and satellite telecommunications. She has a PhD in History, Theory and Criticism of Art from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and has held curatorial positions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art.

Valle Medina and Benjamin Reynolds

Valle Medina and Benjamin Reynolds are co-founders of Pa.LaC.E, a spatial practice based between Basel and London. Pa.LaC.E addresses collaborative estrangement, and deprivation as a productive strategy. Working across space, installation, film, writing and pedagogy, they envision both virtual and built environments and phenomena. They convene High Holdings at the Royal College of Art, a framework examining intimacy and psychic life amidst our overabundance of information. Pa.LaC.E has published two major monographs: Paris Hermitage and Zenith Boil.

Sanchit Bambi

Sanchit Bambi is a mixed-media artist working across digital photography, film and interactive art. His practice emerges from living with synaesthesia and visual snow syndrome. These experiences have led him to develop a play-based methodology, bridging sensory experiences and treating the camera and digital processes as collaborators. His work has been exhibited at Conditions Studio, the Design Festival and Serpentine Gallery.

Convenors

Anne Barlow

Anne Barlow is Director, Tate St Ives. Formerly Director of Art in General, New York, she held curatorial roles at the New Museum, New York and Glasgow Museums, Scotland. She has organised exhibitions including Małgorzata Mirga-Tas, Outi Pieski and Petrit Halilaj, and was Curator of the 5th Bucharest Biennale and the Samdani Art Award at the 2023 Dhaka Art Summit. In 2025, she participated in the Experimenter Curators' Hub in Kolkata, India.

Arūnas Gelūnas

Arūnas Gelūnas is a Lithuanian artist, scholar, curator, and Director General of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art. He served as Commissioner of the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 60th Venice Biennale and has curated exhibitions on Soviet dissident art and Japanese popular culture. His previous positions include Minister of Culture of Lithuania (2010–2012) and Vice-Rector of the Vilnius Academy of Arts (2004–2010). He has published extensively on art, philosophy and cultural theory.

Asta Radikaitė

Asta Radikaitė is the Ambassador of the Republic of Lithuania to the United Kingdom, and the Portuguese Republic. She previously served as Lithuania’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Denmark and as non-resident Ambassador to Iceland from 2021—2025. With nearly three decades of diplomatic experience, Asta has held a number of senior positions within Lithuania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She also served as Minister Counsellor (Antici) at Lithuania’s Permanent Representation to the European Union in Brussels.

Jarelle Francis

Jarelle Francis is a curator with an MA in Curating Contemporary Art from the Royal College of Art. He works as an Exhibitions Assistant and has previously held the same position at The Centre for British Photography. In 2023 he founded Meadow, a nomadic project space which works with emerging artists to produce new solo exhibitions.

Katrina Nzegwu

Katrina Nzegwu is Assistant Curator, International Art at Tate Modern. She has worked across exhibitions, site-specific sculptural commissions and live performance, with a focus on community-based praxis. She has written for platforms and places including Elephant, The London Magazine, Burlington Contemporary and emergent, and is part of the creative collective When They Meet.

Nabila Abdel Nabi

Nabila Abdel Nabi is Senior Curator, International Art, Tate Modern and lead of the Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational. She has worked on exhibitions including The Genesis Exhibition: Do Ho Suh: Walk the House, Hilma af Klint & Piet Mondrian: Forms of Life, and The Making of Rodin, as well as major collection displays including The Shape of Words, Anna Boghiguian and Farah Al Qasimi. She also leads the Middle East North Africa Acquisitions committee at Tate.

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