PROGRAM OF THE CONTEMPORARY ART AND FASHION FESTIVAL VIRUS’30

November 7–29, 2025 – Šiauliai invites you to immerse yourself in the jubilee edition of the contemporary art and fashion festival Virus’30!

RETROFUTURISM OF THE JUBILEE

This autumn, the contemporary art and fashion festival Virus celebrates its anniversary. For thirty editions, it has shaken up the artistic life of Šiauliai with intriguing creative innovations and an incredible symbiosis of art and fashion.

It is a fiesta of artistic freedom that has become a symbol of Šiauliai’s identity, a vital space for creative openness, and a condition for aesthetic growth. That is why the words jubilee and Virus hardly fit together. Each year the festival’s energy is renewed by unexpected art trends, diverse participants and curators, new art forms, and a shifting audience. Every festival thus radiates the spirit of fresh novelty.

Such renewal is inevitable, as the festival is renowned for its fashion events and innovative costume design programs – already a realm of futuristic fantasies. Since every year’s program is full of intrigue and always different, creating the uniqueness of the jubilee is no easy task. The solution? This year, retrospective elements of the festival will merge with festive provocations to create exclusive retrofuturistic sensations.

A symbolic highlight of this year will be the performance Virus Archaeology by longtime festival contributors Reda and Arūnas Uogintas – a synthesis of video, music, fashion, and theatre. The program will also include other artists who have shaped the festival’s evolution: Jūratė Kazakevičiūtė, Arma Agharta, Gintautas Mažeikis, dance theatre Aura, Pijus Opera, Arkadijus Gotesmanas, Herkus Kunčius, Antanas Jasenka, Lukas Svirplys, among others.

The festival is unimaginable without the contribution of innovative audiovisual poetry performances by Rolandas Rastauskas, who passed away unexpectedly last year. The Throw – a special program by his colleagues in memory of Rastauskas – honors the long friendship between the poet and the festival.

For the opening, kinetic sculpture master Kęstutis Svirnelis will create a labyrinth of pulsating life forms, while dance theatre Aura will premiere Sea, a performance uniting two anniversaries – that of M. K. Čiurlionis and the Virus festival. Another anniversary element is the 50th jubilee of Šiauliai’s central landmark, the “Rooster” clock. Festival designer Marius Žalneravičius has playfully integrated it into the festival’s jubilee graphics.

As always, the festival is inseparable from mental workouts. This year’s intellectual events will include the cycle Mental Resistances, with discussions on Šiauliai postmodernism, minor forms of protest, and the interplay between fashion and everyday life. A provocative lecture-performance Tremolo will also take place at the Šiauliai Academy amphitheatre.

The festival will expand into the territory of industrial garages, hosting Justina Laukaitytė’s exhibition Adiósas, while a festive installation Jubilee Table by Lukas Svirplys will light up the shop window on Vilnius Street.

On November 29, the final event will take place at the Šiauliai Athletics and Wellness Center – the international fashion show Virus Fashion.

From the very beginning, the festival has brought together, fused, and synthesized costume design and contemporary art. This unique feature of Virus has now become the central festive and jubilee highlight. Here, the unrestrained dynamics of fashion and experiments in costume design blend with performative forms of contemporary art, sketching the outlines of the future. Once again, we find ourselves at the paradoxical intersection of reflections on the past and projections of the future. This is the Virus style.

— Art critic Virginijus Kinčinaitis

PROGRAM OF THE CONTEMPORARY ART AND FASHION FESTIVAL VIRUS’30

2025 11 07 | 17:00 FESTIVAL OPENING
Opening of Jūratė Kazakevičiūtė’s experimental textile exhibition Ties and Kęstutis Svirnelis’s kinetic sculpture exhibition Civilized Absurd.
Arma Agharta – electroacoustic performance.
Opening DJ – Arturas Vai.
Venue: Šiauliai Art Gallery (Vilniaus g. 245)

2025 11 10 | 18:00 LAURA KUTKAITĖ – LECTURE-PERFORMANCE TREMOLO
Presented by Arts and Science Laboratory (MMLAB).
Recommended age: 16+
Venue: Vilnius University Šiauliai Academy (Vytauto g. 84)

2025 11 15 | 16:00 DISCUSSION SERIES MENTAL RESISTANCES
Lecture by Gintautas Mažeikis: Minor Cultural Resistances in Lithuania and Šiauliai.
Venue: Šiauliai Art Gallery (Vilniaus g. 245)

2025 11 16 | 18:00 KAUNAS DANCE THEATRE AURA – PERFORMANCE SEA
Concept, direction, choreography – Birutė Letukaitė.
Music – Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis.
Performers: Kaunas Dance Theatre Aura, students of the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art Ballet Department, and Mikas Petrauskas School of Performing Arts Dance Department.
Tickets: €11 / €8 (discount)
Buy tickets: https://www.ticketmarket.lt/lt/e/renginys/festivalis-virus30-spektaklis-jura-bilietai-20251116
Venue: Šiauliai State Drama Theatre, Grand Hall (Tilžės g. 155)

2025 11 19 | 18:00 DISCUSSION SERIES MENTAL RESISTANCES
Presentation by Deimantė Bulbenkaitė: Where Do Fashion and Art Meet?
Venue: Šiauliai Art Gallery (Vilniaus g. 245)

2025 11 22 | 18:00 DOMINYKA ŠEIBOK – PERFORMANCE ECHOES OF THE BODY
Venue: Šiauliai Art Gallery (Vilniaus g. 245)

2025 11 22 | 19:30 OPENING OF JUSTINA LAUKAITYTĖ’S EXHIBITION ADIÓSAS
Opening DJs – Artūras Vai & Mantas Ri.
Venue: Independent art space Garage (Liejyklos g. 7A)

2025 11 25 | 18:00 SPECIAL PROGRAM THE THROW – IN MEMORY OF ROLANDAS RASTAUSKAS
Performers: Pijus Opera, Arkadijus Gotesmanas, Herkus Kunčius, Vytautas Balsys, Tomas Kutavičius.
Tickets: €11 / €8 (discount)
Buy tickets: https://www.ticketmarket.lt/lt/e/renginys/festivalis-virus30-metimas-bilietai-20251125
Venue: Šiauliai State Drama Theatre, Small Hall (Tilžės g. 155)

2025 11 27 | 18:00 DISCUSSION SERIES MENTAL RESISTANCES
Presentation by architect Aušra Černauskienė: Intersections of Fashion and Architecture.
Venue: Šiauliai Art Gallery (Vilniaus g. 245)

2025 11 29 | 19:00 INTERNATIONAL FASHION DESIGN SHOW VIRUS FASHION
Reda and Arūnas Uogintai – anniversary performance Virus Archaeology.
Musical aura – composer Antanas Jasenka & Co.
Tickets: €11 / €8 (discount)
Buy tickets: https://www.ticketmarket.lt/lt/e/renginys/festivalis-virus30-mados-sou-bilietai-20251129
Venue: Šiauliai Athletics and Wellness Center (S. Daukanto g. 25)

2025 11 07 – 11 28 | LUKAS SVIRPLY’S INSTALLATION JUBILEE TABLE
Venue: Vilnius Street showcase (Vilniaus g. 245)

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Dear visitors, by attending exhibition openings you agree that they may be filmed or photographed, and the photos may be published on the Šiauliai Art Gallery website, in the media, or on social networks.

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Festival organizer – Šiauliai Art Gallery

Funded by – Šiauliai City Municipality, Lithuanian Council for Culture

Main media partner – Lithuanian National Radio and Television

Partners and Sponsors: UAB Sixteen media, Cupernican, wãpsva LT Design House, Soya Asia, Shopping Center Saulės miestas, UAB Laurema graphics, Tešla ir dešra, Simo Limonadai, SOVLI Toyota Center in Šiauliai, Meno niša, Šiauliai Aušra Museum, Šiauliai State Drama Theater, UAB Rūta, Šiauliai Vocational Education and Training Center of Technologies, Šiauliai Athletics and Wellness Center, Estonian Academy of Arts, Latvian Academy of Arts, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lviv Fashion Week, Independent Art Project Space Garažas, UAB Grafų baldai, Public Institution Aksida, Šiauliai Industrialists’ Association.

Festival designer – Marius Žalneravičius