XI YPP Book

Paulus Fugers
is active as visual artist since 1981, as curator
since 1999. He is founder/director of SomoS
Art House, Berlin. In his art, he applies a project-based,
conceptual way of working. Much
of his work is based on extensive research
into the language of ornamentation and queer
themes, making use of techniques like painting,
installation, ceramics and light projection.
He has been active as curator, initiating and
producing projects since the post-wall era
of Berlin’s “temporary spaces,” that blurred
the lines between the visual arts and the music-
and club scenes. Since that time, he has
sought to independently produce his projects
that included an exhibition on the Iraq War, a
series of Craftism exhibitions, and a recycling
project during the Berliner Kunstsalon Art Fair.
Subsequently, from 2008-2011 he worked on a
program of international exhibitions in project
space “Kunstraum Richard Sorge” in a historic
former brewery in Berlin Friedrichshain, presenting
artists like Charles Craft, Nava Lubelski,
Jn.Ulrick Desért, Hiroki Otsuka and Mumbleboy.
In 2012 he co-founded SomoS, where he
organizes exhibitions and Artist in Residence
Program.
10
Šelda Puķīte
(b. 1986) - Latvian freelance art critic, curator
and researcher living in Estonia. She has studied
art history in Art Academy of Latvia receiving
both Bachelor and Master degree and
now is continuing her doctoral studies preparing
dissertation about pop art influences in
Latvian art. Šeldas special interest is projects
which examines the contact-points between
sociopolitical issues, mass culture and art executed
through interdisciplinary research and
whimsical presentation. For the last years she
has been working on several important exhibition
projects, curating educational programs
and creating catalogues for art festivals, as well
as participating both in local and international
discussion boards, symposiums and lectures
and writing reviews and essays for Baltic press
and publications. Šelda has collaborated with
such institutions as Latvian National Museum
of Art, Latvian Center for Contemporary Art,
Riga Photography Biennale, Tartu Art House
and Tartu Art Museum.
Arūnas Gelūnas
(1968) – head the Lithuanian Art Museum,
Doctor of Humanities. From 2012 until 2016,
A. Gelūnas was an Ambassador of Permanent
Delegation of the Republic of Lithuania to
UNESCO and from 2010 until 2012 - a Minister
of Culture. A. Gelūnas studied printmaking and
graphic art at the Vilnius Academy of Arts (VAA)
and Japanese painting (Nihonga) at the Tokyo
University of the Arts (Tokyo Geidai), has held
exhibitions of his prints and paintings in Lithuania,
France, Japan and other countries around
the world, and has been awarded various prizes
for printmaking and book design.
After defending his doctoral thesis at the Vytautas
Magnus University in 2001, he became
more seriously invested in philosophy and art
theory, taught printmaking, ink painting and
calligraphy, art theory and philosophy at the
VAA and other universities in Lithuania. He has
contributed to the creation of the Lithuanian
Association of Creative and Culture Industries,
was the first chairperson of its board, and it
was during his tenure as the minister of culture
that the foundation for the Lithuanian Council
for Culture was laid and the Lithuanian Film
Centre was founded. In 2013, A. Gelūnas was
named an honorary doctor of the Aalto University
(Finland).