After extensive deliberations, discussions, and evaluations, the Lithuanian Photographers Association announces the finalists of the 2026 photography competition RESTART:

Maryna Brodovska (Ukraine), Bogdan Gulyay (Ukraine), Christoph Honig (Germany), L A D (Italy/Germany), Carlo Rusca (Switzerland), Aindreas Scholz (Ireland/UK), Ugnė Šlaičiūnaitė (Lithuania), Javier Talavera (Spain), Marie Wengler (Denmark), Masha Wysocka (Spain/Belgium).

We congratulate the selected artists and look forward to meeting you at the opening of the exhibition at Prospektas Gallery (Vilnius, Lithuania) on July 29, 2026. The exhibition catalogue will also be presented during the opening.

We sincerely thank the esteemed jury – Aurelija Maknytė, Arturas Valiauga, Vilma Samulionytė, and Gytis Skudžinskas – for their dedication and patience in reviewing all submitted works.

The competition received submissions from 148 artists, comprising 2,347 works from 33 countries.

The group exhibition brings together these projects to highlight the fragile relationship between reality, memory, and fiction – both on individual and collective levels. It intertwines historical, political, and personal narratives in which “truth” is constantly shifting, fragmenting, and being rewritten.

At the core of the exhibition lies the question of whether truth is ever truly attainable, or whether it always exists as a product of interpretations, ideologies, and images. From Cold War propaganda and disinformation to the visual documentation of contemporary wars, the works examine how images shape our perception and how easily they can become tools of manipulation. Memory is understood here as an unstable structure, dependent on archives, testimonies, media, and even technological systems that determine what is preserved and what is forgotten.

On a visual level, the works balance between recognizability and abstraction – from documentary photography and archival materials to nearly formless compositions of everyday objects. This tension between clarity and ambiguity reflects the broader theme of the exhibition: a world in which the boundaries between fact and fiction, reality and representation, are increasingly blurred.

Ultimately, the exhibition reflects on the human relationship with environment and technology – from Anthropocene landscapes to the inability of artificial intelligence to authentically replicate human experience. Objects, landscapes, and portraits become not only images but also testimonies – quiet, fragmented, sometimes misleading, yet inevitable attempts to understand a world in which truth often proves stranger than fiction.

The exhibition “Restart” is a continuation of the competition “Debut,” first held in 1976. With the expansion of the conditions and geographical scope of the competition previously organized by the Lithuanian Photographers Association, the exhibition title was also changed, allowing for a more flexible interpretation of the concept of debut. In this context, photographers are given the opportunity to debut a second time, to debut with new works or series, to debut in a new exhibition space, or to debut in an international context. By organizing this competition, the Lithuanian Photographers Association typically aims to discover emerging photographers – those at the beginning of their careers, redefining their working strategies, and rethinking their creative methods.