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A joint Indo-Lithuanian painting exhibition “Sapnų šalis – Dreamland” opened at the Annexe Gallery of the Indian International Centre in New Delhi this Tuesday (August 4).

The exhibition hosted by India’s one of the oldest and most distinguished venues showcases 30 pieces of artwork by a Lithuanian Gintautas Vyšniauskas and an Indian Arijeet Chanda.

A prominent Bollywood film star and currently Member of Parliament Shri Paresh Rawal was present at the light lightning ceremony as Chief Guest.

“After a few months of hard work this exhibition has finally left the walls of the embassy and set on its larger journey. We hope its display at the IIC premises will allow a large number of Delhiites to see and enjoy the fruits of Indo-Lithuanian artistic cooperation,” said the Lithuanian Ambassador Laimonas Talat-Kelpša during the opening event.

He also expressed his believe that the pictures of and from Lithuania will inspire Indians and Bollywood in particular to discover a new “dreamland” at the Baltic Sea shores in Europe. 

“This entire exhibition represents a collection of dreams that came true. Who could have thought a year ago that a Lithuanian architect will paint India and an Indian entrepreneur will portray Lithuania, that their works would be exhibited at the India International Centre, and I will be standing here in the company of a leading Bollywoood actor,” said the Ambassador.

“So take your chance, make your wish to visit Lithuania, and it eventually will come true,” he stressed.

The two artists exhibited at the India International Centre represent two different generations, yet they share a unique talent of capturing and creatively interpreting the routine moments of our daily life situations.

Thus, the collection of Indian portraits and landscapes by a Lithuanian architect Gintautas Vyšniauskas (b. 1958) represents not only his love and affection for the country he visited in 2013, but also a certain dose of irony and self-reflection.

Meanwhile, the works of Arijeet Chanda (b. 1975) include the panoramas of the Old Town of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, as well as Lithuania’s ancient capital, Trakai. But along he also displays a portrait of a book-smuggler, a man who would secretly transport prohibited books into Lithuania during the times of the Russian oppression.

 “I find Lithuania amazingly beautiful, but also I think that the ban of Lithuanian script under the Russian rule, and especially the nation’s peaceful struggle with it, is one of the most inspiring pages of the European history,” says the artist who himself has never visited the faraway European country.

The joint Indo-Lithuanian exhibition “Sapnų šalis – Dreamland” will be displayed at the Annexe Gallery of the India International Centre, New Delhi, until August 11.