‘Backgrounds’ is another response to the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Fights (former KGB headquarters and detention centre) in Vilnius. This work is an attempt to address emotionally charged stories and histories through the language of the abstract.

The cells and corridors have typical institutional walls – divided into two colour sections. When encountered from up close, the area where one colour meets another can look like austere and deserted fields. The palimpsests of earth are preserving the evidence of violence and so are the layers of paint on the walls (repainted about 20 times to cover blood and inscriptions).

The ‘landscapes’ on the walls are co-existing with the actual landscapes which were filmed near Paneriai, Ninth Fort and Glitiškės massacre memorials near Vilnius and Kaunas.