Vsevolod Seva Kovalevskij

Vsevolod Seva Kovalevskij 
Margins & Miracles

By weaving together personal archives, fragmented memories, and popular media imagery, Vsevolod Seva Kovalevskij reveals the gap between the lived experiences of queer people, institutional memory, and mediated truth. Queer existence is inseparable from the city's public spaces - where visibility can mean both community and danger. 

A monumental comic-style drawing takes us through the streets of Vilnius, London, and Oslo. The first Lithuanian 'Baltic Pride' march in 2010, confrontations within the LGBTQIA+ community at London Pride in 2018, and the shooting in Oslo in 2022 - events personally experienced by the artist - are brought together in a graphic narrative about life under conditions of ever-changing insecurity. Within the drawing, proclamatory protest signs, silent politicians, and the artist's 'off-screen' voice restore what usually remains outside the official narrative. 

The aesthetics of the comic book point to traditions of queer self-publishing, alternative archives, and autobiographical storytelling ¬- an accessible medium, subject to less institutional control, that remains important to artists and activists. A significant element of the exhibition is Kovalevskij's gesture - the reclaiming of the pink triangle. Once a symbol of violence and stigma, used in Nazi concentration camps to mark homosexual men, it is here transformed into a platform for queer voices, where being together and resting become acts of resistance. 

'Margins & Miracles' is a non-chronological, face-to-face encounter with fear, trauma, solidarity, and the refusal to remain silent. 

Vsevolod Kovalevskij (also known as Seva) is an artist and curator born in Vilnius living between Lithuania and Norway. His work encompasses moving images, installations, textiles, photography, and performed spaces. He studied at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art, and Goldsmiths, University of London. He also participated in the 'Rupert' educational programme. His work has been exhibited at the National Gallery of Art, the Contemporary Art Centre, the 'Vartai' Gallery, Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo, Tromsø Kunstforening, as well as other art institutions in Lithuania and abroad. Kovalevskij was one of the initiators of the 'Young Poor Artists' collective and directed the project spaces 'Malonioji 6' and 'Sodų 4' of the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists' Association in Vilnius. He also founded the mobile art space 'InTheCloset'.

The artwork contains content that may be unsuitable for children.

The exhibition is organised by Lithuanian National Museum of Art National Gallery of Art
The artistic production is financed by Lithuanian Council for Culture
Sponsor OCA 

Coordinators: Goda Aksamitauskaitė, Giedrius Gulbinas
Graphic Designer Ugnė Balčiūnaitė
Exhibition Design Producer Mindaugas Reklaitis
Copy-editor Emma Stirling
Acknowledgements: William A. F. Bentsen, Anouk De Clercq, Tomas Kirša, Svetlana Kovalevskaja, Erwin De Muer, Greta Vileikytė