7. Poryc Valgyc Dyrbc Valgyc, a collective exhibition organised by Verpejos at Marcinkonies Stoties Galerija
Through a series of dialogues with collections, this project investigates how tools and methodologies—such as molding, baking, and firing—can reactivate cold, discarded historical forms. Biscuits is an exploratory thread of research I develop through projects mixing contemporary art, craft, and design, archival investigation, and culinary experiences.
Rooted in initial experiments conducted with Marion Aeby and Gilles Remy at Jolimont Castle, and developed with the support of the Bakkerijmuseum in Veurne, these projects are endeavors, shaped by public commissions, residencies, and collaborations with bakers, local associations, museums, industries...
By looking at objects and images from the past—the already-made, biscuit "baked twice" —this research seeks to rediscover forgotten crafts and aesthetics. Through the intimate and caring gestures of touching, scanning, printing, and casting, Biscuits approaches, twists, and diffuses these historical remnants, turning the museum collection into an active, everyday toolbox. It explores how heritage can serve the collective in a more dynamic, inclusive way, and tests how the matter of the past can survive through new social roles.
Monika Jagusinkskyte
7. Poryc Valgyc Dyrbc Valgyc
a collective exhibition organised by Verpejos at Marcinkonies Stoties Galerija
https://verpejos.lt/poryc-valgyc-dyrbc-valgyc-exhibition-opening-and-publication-launch/?lang=en
On April 18 at 1:00 p.m., the group exhibition “PORYC VALGYC DYRBC VALGYC” will open at the Marcinkonys Station Gallery (Kastinio St. 1C, Marcinkonys). The exhibition runs from April 18 to May 10, 2026.
Last spring, seven creators from different fields came to the region to explore the local culinary heritage. The researchers visited 15 local residents in the villages and towns of Dzūkija. The artists’ creative inspiration was fueled by their close connection with Dzūkija: helping with farm work, shared tastings, baking bread together, and preparing meals. Through conversations in this shared space, evolving traditions were revealed, the culinary heritage was documented, and this became the central axis of their creative work. The insights from the research take shape in the exhibition through photographs, drawings, installations, tastes, and stories.
Project Team:
Curator: Ugnė Venckė
Artists : Laura Garbštienė, Morta Narkauskaitė, Milda Urbšytė, Justė Margarita, Monika Jagusinskytė, Gabrielė Gudaitytė, Ugnė Venckė, Clémentine Vaultier
The project is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and organized by Verpėjos
Project partners:
SODAS 2123, Artnews.lt, Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Union, Varėna Municipality Public Library, Varėna Third Age University, Priespauda, Baltic Environmental Forum, Dzūkija National Park and Čepkeliai State Nature Reserve Directorate.
6. Waffles tiles
research and development at Normandy Ceramics
In context of the public artwork commission Met Plaizirs, I develop a series of tiles after molds of waffles irons.
5. White snake
Dinant couque snake, white sigillata
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4. How the snakes
research residency at SODAS2123, Vilnius
I was invited by Kamilė Krasauskaitė in the context of a social and cultural program around a bread oven she built in the artists' community SODAS 2123. I stayed one month and ended my stay at the Verpejos residency.
Travelling to Lithuania, I was interested in types of (tiled) heating devices, from traditional houses to palaces. At the National Museum – Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, rebuilt on its ruins, I went to visit the collections and met archaeologists Erika Striškienė and Justina Ramanauskienė. https://www.valdovurumai.lt/ I also discussed and remade some molds with the great help of ceramicist Dainius Strazdas from the Vilnius Potter's Guild, and I want to thank the National Museum of Lithuania for letting me wander in their collections. https://lnm.lt/en/
At the Palace of the Grand Dukes, my first spark was one single tile in a showcase. I instantly made a connection with a love for a snake mold back in Brussels, and I got interested in finding more and more about it. I collected information on it (amongst other treasures): where it was found in the soil under the palace, discarded from an old stove, reproduced by Dainius in his studio, drawn by the museum collection staff, remade in a pedagogical context, and reproduced for the palace exhibition—with slightly different details and marks of techniques and time.
Through this in-situ research, I could investigate the concept of the mold as a way to transform, copy, disperse, and deform. I became fascinated by how a figure would be reproduced, gain or lose details and meaning, or get translated into different materials, and I simply started playing with it.
I invited Marion Aeby for the residency outcome event around the bread oven at SODAS2123. We played with recipes and the moulds I found during the research.
3. Smoking dragons
experiments around a couque de Dinant mold at the Fournil Hof Ter Musschen
With Marion Aeby and Aziz from the Fournil Hof Ter Musschen
2. Met plaizirs
concept for a public artwork commission, Vlaamse Meesterproef
curated by Zeynep Kubat
Scenario
In the common space of the social housing, old waffles irons are hung and people take care of them collectively. Once in a while, they are used outside. In their garden, a practical space, a barbecue area covered with tiles looking like waffles. Around the fire lit together, inhabitants gather and heat the irons, fill them with the dough, and bake waffles for the pleasure of all.
Concept
With this project I propose to offer tools, recipes and a space to gather around the fire for the community of the social housing. Wafels Burendag invites to look at waffle making as a transgenerational federating platform for sharing, experimenting, and living together.
First spark
I have been collaborating with the Museum of Veurne in the past, for a project which aimed to warm up their collection of kitchen objects and documents. Borrowing tools and knowledge from their walls and experimenting around firing practices with diverse public, I was interested in refreshing the notion of heritage and transmission.
I have always been mesmerised by their huge collection of waffle irons. Out of the view of the visitors in the storage, they are hung closed, in a fixed and cold position forever. Driven by my excitement to discover their inner square patterns, I therefore wanted to play with the idea of opening the irons, collect and expand the grid of tiny tasty squares out of the museum.
1. How to inscribe cultural property in the present ?
Reading room at Jolimont, a text by Marie-Sophie de Clippele
https://www.jubilee-art.org/news/reading-room-23-how-to-inscribe-cultural-property-in-the-present
In the framework of Emptor we invite you to Jolimont Castle in Boitsfort (Brussels) for a group reading and discussion about the role of the collective in heritage preservation. We gather around excerpts from the text ‘Protéger le patrimoine culturel: à qui incombe la charge?’ by Marie-Sophie de Clippele, specialist in cultural heritage law.
Just as works of art, buildings and sites classified as heritage tend to be governed along criteria of historical interest and conservation logic. Their use value and inscription in the present often remain undiscussed. Even if public authorities already intervene in what is considered an absolute property right, the fundamental right to cultural heritage opens possibilities to re-think cultural property regimes and create space for a third player: the collective.
Marie-Sophie de Clippele, specialist in cultural heritage law, developed a theoretical model for a property of shared interest (‘propriété d’intérêt partagé’).
Taking theory into practice, Clémentine Vaultier opens the door of Jolimont for a reading room. At this castle in transition, on the edge of the Sonian Forest close to Brussels, Vaultier runs the collaborative research Cuire Ensemble Ici. Around the ruin of a ceramic wood kiln, she looks for ways to put the heat into the heritage and orient the pasts towards the future from within the collective.
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Firebacks are cast-iron screens designed to protect the walls of fireplaces. In addition to that function, they also radiate heat back into the room. But despite this technical upgrade, fireplaces have never been truly efficient for heating; they have often been replaced by stoves and turned into useless altars. With our attempt at cooking pancakes on a hot, horizontal fireback, Marion Aeby and I wanted to joyfully resurrect this heavy, rusty object that had lost its past purpose.