
5 min
The Lithuanian Season in France: "The Softest Hard" at Carré d’Art, Nîmes
Lithuanian artist Marija Olšauskaitė explores glass in her new exhibition, The Softest Hard, presented at Carré d’Art in Nîmes from October 25, 2024, to March 23, 2025, as part of the Lithuanian Season in France. Through this event, which highlights the close ties between the two countries, the artist delves into a fresh perspective on architecture, envisioned as an innovative method for rethinking and experiencing human relationships.
An Artist Based in Vilnius
Born in 1989, Marija Olšauskaitė is an artist based in Vilnius. Since the beginning of her career, she has worked with various forms of collaboration to explore themes of relationships, openness, intimacy, and belonging. Her work has been widely exhibited internationally, including numerous solo shows such as Never Act in Haste, Song Sing Soil, and I Want to Stuff My Heart with Moss. She has also participated in notable group exhibitions, including a standout appearance in The Milk of Dreams at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022.
A Singular Affinity with Glass
In The Softest Hard, Marija Olšauskaitė presents several glass artworks in the Project Room on the second floor of Carré d’Art in Nîmes. This space combines the traditions of craftsmanship and ornamentation with the social role of sculpture. The exhibition highlights the artist’s special affinity with glass through creations whose forms remain in a state of transformation, blending conventional materials with more contemporary ones like silicone.
A New Perspective on Architecture
Through these sculptures, Marija Olšauskaitė addresses one of her favorite themes: domestic space and the fragility of relationships. Each of her works seems to evolve distinctly, metamorphosing from a liquid to a solid state, like sculptures from the future. She seeks to explore the sensations evoked in visitors by these creations, which are rooted in family dynamics and interact with one another. Like her peer Aleksandra Kasuba, whose retrospective opened at the same time, Marija Olšauskaitė envisions architecture as a way to rethink and reinvent human relationships.

The Lithuanian Season in France is implemented by the Lithuanian Cultural Institute and the Institut français, in close collaboration with the Lithuanian Embassy in France, the French Embassy in Lithuania, and the Institut français of Lithuania, under the auspices of the French Ministries of Europe and Foreign Affairs and Culture, as well as the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.