Photo by Debora Morkūnaitė.
Antanas Zabielavičius (AZ) is a conceptual artist who doesn’t fit into frameworks — he builds new ones. Based in Vilnius, he works across media to transform raw emotional and social experiences into provocative philosophical forms.
Using minimal means to generate maximal tension, he has turned meadows into dust, soil into war projectiles, and legal silence into the Declaration of Shadow Rights. AZ resists simplification — his practice is an ongoing effort to rediscover what it means to create in a world on edge.
His recent work centers on the CAA (Certificated Art Asset) — a radical format that reimagines art collecting as a space of conceptual value, co-authorship, and cultural responsibility.
From the Author
The silent meadow before my studio window had been ground to mere dust. A single bed was filled with pieces of dried bread in virus time, and thousands of handmade projectiles were sculpted from water and earth during the war in Ukraine.
I have transformed these activities into sustainable installations that eventually return to nature. I aim to capture experiences shaped by contemporary shifts, using any necessary medium to unveil ideas. My work is conceptual, and creative actions are fundamental to my practice. It reflects my perspective and response to current global challenges — ecological collapse, brutal wars, and cognitive saturation in an age of excessive information. More than pointing out problems, it offers essential insights and thoughtful reflections.
For some years, I have collaborated closely with the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center and its NBA (non budget art) platform, a hub for art experiments and avant-garde in Vilnius.
Mapping Our Losing Meanings: A Blueprint for Tomorrow.
Antanas Zabielavicius, a contemporary voice emerging from the cultural crossroads of Vilnius, Lithuania, was born in 1974. Far from being a quiet artist, he is a vibrant alchemist of ideas, known for his startling depth, crystalline purity, and unvarnished authenticity. His artistic arsenal is as diverse as it is profound, spanning multiple media to breathe life into his visions. Yet one thing remains consistent in his work: his cyclical philosophy of creation. He borrows elements and inspirations from the fabric of contemporary surroundings, only to return them — perceived and with a new sense — back into the world from which they came. As he puts it: 'Art is three letters borrowed from other words.'
Embark on AZ's audacious journey, a quest ignited by an unquenchable "Desire for New Meanings." It is no armchair critique or scholarly debate; it's a visceral plunge into the desolate terrains of social desertification and cultural wastelands. AZ doesn't merely diagnose the decay; he sketches the blueprints for its metamorphosis.
Social desertification is a dynamic, corrosive, constant process that erodes connections, values, and meanings. It's not solely about what's lost but what's been neglected and can still be transformed into new. But here's the kicker: AZ posits that the future isn't some distant horizon; it's right under our feet, waiting to be discovered in every fleeting moment. It is a diagnosis and an invitation simultaneously to seize the present as a blueprint for a future we actively shape.
In a world reluctant to change until the status quo becomes unbearable, AZ is a catalyst, accelerating the beginning of future-making. He doesn't merely map these 'lost cultures'; he offers a telescope for the soul, a fresh perspective to scrutinize our frenetic, ever-changing world.
This narrative transcends individual artistry to engage with the socio-cultural, economic, and ecological issues. It's about the human story, in all its messy, glorious complexity, adapting and evolving in real-time. So, are you merely a spectator, or are you ready to step into the arena?
Prof. Gregory Wide
A fictional character born in response to the vanishing of art criticism and the rising cost of meaning.