Frankfurter Kunstverein

Curated by Franziska Nori

In the exhibition Who has Power? Striking Bodies, the Frankfurter Kunstverein has invited two emerging Frankfurt-based artists, Gintarė Sokelytė and Sonja Yakovleva, to present their largest institutional solo shows so far. With powerful new works, they have created self-sufficient pictorial spaces in which the question of power is posed subversively—what power are bodies exposed to, and what power is exercised by bodies in public space?

Gintarė Sokelytė is a sculptor and filmmaker, but also draws and paints. The body, and its inner landscapes, has always formed the core of her research. It is seen as an instrument through which the self experiences the world and its own existence. For the Frankfurter Kunstverein, Sokelytė has created a completely self-contained space that she allows us to enter. She questions the power of unspoken fears and how it can be tamed, exploring a timeless urge with which one resists the uncertain through order and form. Her human figures are the field on which the power of an eternal struggle is played out.

Who has Power? Striking Bodies is an invitation to take a sensual approach to contemporary phenomena through the works of Sonja Yakovleva and Gintarė Sokelytė. The exhibition is embedded in the Frankfurter Kunstverein’s programmatic focus, which is committed to promoting emerging artists from Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region and presenting innovative perspectives on social issues.

Gintarė Sokelytė (*1986, Kėdainiai, LT) lives and works in Frankfurt am Main (DE). In 2023, she completed her studies at the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main (DE). Previously, she studied screen printing at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (LT). She is a member of the artist and architect collective Commune 6×3. In 2013, 2016, and 2023, Sokelytė received the Lithuanian Film Award – the Silver Crane – for the best director in editing. In 2023, she was awarded the Heinz and Gisela Friederichs Foundation Prize. Gintarė Sokelytė has exhibited in institutions such as Palais de Tokyo, Paris (FR), Frankfurter Kunstverein (DE), Montos tattoo art space, Vilnius (LT), Vytautas Kasiulis Art Museum (LT), and Goethe-Institut Ireland (IE), among others.