Rūta Jusionytė. L’ALCHIMIE DE L’AMOUR

Rūta Jusionytė, une peintre, dessinatrice et sculptrice qui vit et travaille à Paris depuis 2001.Elle est née à Klaipėda, en Lituanie, et a obtenu son diplôme à l'Académie des arts de Vilnius. Elle expose dans des galeries françaises, Suisses et Danoises ainsi qu’en Belgique, en Allemage et en Lituanie. Le projet LOVE ALCHEMY dégage une charge émotionnelle importante où les défis accumulés de sa vie et de sa créativité se sont exprimés à travers des médiums comme le dessin, la peinture, la sculpture et l'aquarelle...

Son style a été influencé par des acteurs clés, appartenant notamment au groupe des expressionnistes français pendant une décennie. Son travail a été influencé par les courants du nouvel expressionisme et du réalisme magique. Ces influences de la culture européenne ont façonné son style très personnel.

La deuxième partie du titre du projet/exposition, "L’ALCHIMIE DE L’AMOUR", fait référence à la tradition alchimique, devenue un fil conducteur dans la pratique artistique de Rūta ces dernières années. Elle considère l'alchimie comme une tradition philosophique visant une vie consciente et la recherche de l'immortalité humaine. La quête de l'harmonie entre la conscience et le corps est au cœur de cette tradition. 

Les œuvres récentes de Rūta témoignent de changements significatifs, marqués par des périodes de mélancolie et de désespoir, ainsi que par des périodes d'optimisme et d'illumination au cours des dernières années. Le projet LOVE ALCHEMY envoie un message puissant sur les liens et les signes des relations humaines.

La métaphore alchimique dans le travail de Rūta évoque un changement de niveau de conscience, visant à percevoir l'ensemble à travers ses parties simultanément. Ses œuvres symbolisent l'optimisme et la quête de l'illumination de la conscience.

Les personnages dans les œuvres de Rūta ne sont pas simplement des héros de contes de fées animés, mais une tentative de transmettre l'émotion de la positivité et l'intention d'harmonie. La nouvelle approche artistique de Rūta se manifeste par des figures flottant diagonalement, émergeant du subconscient, créant un monde ouvert et harmonieux dans des couleurs transparentes.

L'approche de Rūta diffère de la représentation directe du mal et du pessimisme, optant plutôt pour une philosophie de catharsis et d'équilibre intérieur. Les symboles des animaux  dans ses œuvres trouvent leurs origines dans des idées philosophiques, la folklore, les légendes médiévales et les travaux historiques sur les symboles des couleurs et des bêtes dans la culture européenne médiévale.

En conclusion, les récents travaux de Rūta Jusionytė reflètent sa création d'un nouveau monde, invitant les spectateurs à interpréter les images de manière personnelle.  Alchimie d’amour symbolise un voyage de l'obscurité vers la lumière, soulignant l’importance de la connexion entre deux personnes.

Critique d’art

Jolita Mieželaitienė

Rūta Jusionytė. THE ALCHEMY OF LOVE

Rūta Jusionytė, a painter, draftswoman, and sculptor, who has been living and working in Paris since 2001, was born in Klaipėda, Lithuania, graduated from the Vilnius Academy of Arts, and has exhibited in galleries in France, Switzerland, Denmark, Belgium, Germany, and Lithuania. But sometimes it is tempting to hypothetically consider what Rūta’s work would be like if the cards of fate had been dealt differently – if she had stayed in her hometown, and if the city of art and love had only opened up to her through the eyes of a tourist or, at best, an artist in residence. Rūta would not have been awarded the prestigious Diplome de l’Academie des Beaux-Arts (2015), she would not have met so many interesting people, gallerists, and art critics, and experienced so many emotional stories. Rūta Jusionytė’s style has been shaped by a number of key factors – for a decade she belonged to the group of French expressionists, and in parallel, her work has been influenced by the currents of the new objectivity and magical realism. All this rich, inexhaustible European culture fused and polished the artist’s individual style. The project LOVE ALCHEMY is an emotional charge in which the accumulated challenges of life and creativity “spilled out” in a variety of media: drawing, painting, sculpture, watercolor...

Sometimes a biting remark is given to such ponderings – what if...

Rūta Jusionytė’s case is special – she stubbornly, despite being an emigrant, sought to create and be noticed in Paris, which was bursting at the seams with art, exhibitions, and events.

Getting noticed in such an art-saturated megalopolis is a task that requires titanic effort and talent. Has this effort been reflected in her work? Definitely so. And not only there but in the vibrations of her whole life – from creative searches to upsets of the body...

Over the period of twenty years, Rūta Jusionytė’s work has clearly gone through several periods – a period inspired by melancholy or even despair, and a period of optimism and enlightenment in recent years. The project LOVE ALCHEMY sends a new powerful message – one about the bonds and signs of human relationships. The paintings created in recent years testify to a different Rūta Jusionytė. The obvious change in plasticity did not occur for no reason, it is an ellipsis of a stage of life – emotional, symbolic, influencing the semantics of the image. 

The term alchemy creeps into the second part of the project/exhibition’s title not by accident. A long-standing tradition, shrouded in mystery and legend, has in recent years become a connecting thread in the artist’s practice. Historical scholars describe alchemy as a philosophical and practical tradition that aims at conscious living and the search for human immortality. Its axiom is the harmony of consciousness and body, the pursuit of inner balance to golden purity and radiance... How to empower all human endeavors in the struggle against adversity. Only through the evolution of consciousness, according to the artist, can the liberation of the body be achieved. “Let your body do what your consciousness does,” says Rūta Jusionytė. This rebus coming from her lips is easily solved if we follow a certain dreamlike logic and if we use our imagination. Then the artist’s courage and determination to lift the curtain of the subconscious and look into the inner depths of the stage will be revealed. The images created by the artist, based on paradoxes and symbols, are, in their own way, based on the scaffolding of authentic experiences and cultural heritage. So, what is the structure of the creative puzzle, what is the meaning of signs and symbols? In the case of Rūta Jusionytė, it is inner struggles and victories. For eight months, the artist consciously lived the life of a recluse, which fundamentally changed her way of thinking. It was a pause that made her realize the burden she was carrying and what to start anew. To get rid of the pessimism, the suitcases full of fear, and to continue the journey with a light bundle of creative power, courage, and peace. Rūta’s “philosopher’s stone” is a new level of consciousness, perceiving the whole through its parts simultaneously. To look at life with greed, again and again with wonder, as the eyes of the beasts she has painted are able to do. To regain a healthy self-confidence through the character of the works – a young, charming woman, a girl, who is like the princess of all fairy tales (Brothers Grimm, Ch. Perrault, H. Ch. Andersen): there is meaning, the epitome, the essence... To reflect on the happy ending of the fairy tales and turn it into a password – life as in a fairy tale. These are certainly not the animated, consumerist heroes of Disney culture, but an attempt to convey the emotion of positivity, the intention of harmony. Rūta’s work does not have a fairy tale narrative or a direct illustration but is a symbolic expression of optimism, a rejoicing of the soul with a message about the goal of the alchemical journey – the enlightenment of consciousness.

It is not only the characters who broadcast Rūta’s changed inner world but the whole semantics of the image is also subordinated to it. The horizon line, the solidity of the drawing, and the concrete objects that construct the composition disappear from the pictures. The table and the figures sitting at it, the characters of the macabre feast, and the chess puzzle remain in the past. In today’s paintings, the diagonally floating figures, like symbols of goodness emerging from the subconscious, drift freely and unhurriedly on the surface of the paintings. An open, harmonious world opens up in transparent colors, their watercolor translucence lying on the surface of the painting. “I just start with a color mosaic on the canvas, playfully dotting spots and seeing what comes out, improvising and looking for meaning in the random poetics of the images. And I see in those shapes and spots the shapes and silhouettes of people and beasts. Trolls, dogs, a girl’s faces or their shapes come from the top or the side of the canvas...” – Rūta shares her creative process. Obviously, the artist no longer wants to strictly control her creative impulses, she lets the creatures of her imagination go free and observes what emotional spontaneity gives her. It is a kind of meditative process, where the inner energy is inflated like playful bubbles of bubble gum. With existential anxiety raging all around and dark shadows of doubt looming from all corners, many artists have been pushed into the anatomy of evil and the effort to represent it. Rūta, on the contrary, drew on the French humanists, A. Camus and A. Schopenhauer, who, against the backdrop of the Second World War, philosophized about catharsis as a way out of the darkness. Rūta Jusionytė’s muse is harmony and inner balance, which were not easy to achieve. The artist is convinced that this approach is more effective than the direct transmission of evil and pessimism. The symbols of beasts in the artist’s works have broad origins – philosophical ideas of Vydūnas, folklore, medieval legends about dragons and unicorns, and works of historian M. Pastoureau on the symbols of colors and beasts in medieval European culture.

Rūta Jusionytė’s recent works allow us to see and feel the reflections of the new world she is creating... In an interview, the artist said: “In my work, I don’t give answers, I invite discussion.” The new puzzle of the images will be solved by each viewer in his or her own way. One thing is certain – LOVE ALCHEMY is not possible without the connection between two people, it is a long journey from darkness to light...

Art critic

Jolita Mieželaitienė