Birutė Ukrinaitė is a Lithuanian theatre and film artist, participant in the Lviv Quadriennale of Scenography 2025

Birutėt Ukrinaitė. Photo by Algirdas Garbačiauskas

Birutė Ukrinaitė is a well-known theatre and film artist who gained her scenography specialty at Vilnius Academy of Arts (1988-1995). Since the beginning of her independent work, the artist has been close to non-traditional forms of theatre, she is interested in environmental theatre and the design of events.

Her creative biography is rich in the fact that she has participated in the non-traditional art festival “Under the Sky of Theatre Courtyard” (Lith. Po teatro kiemo dangum) in Kaunas (1999) that is distinctive by its visual aspect, the 2nd Lithuanian Eucharistic Congress (2000), the Lithuanian Millennium Song Festival “Multipart Song of Ages” (Lith. Amžių sutartinė) in Vilnius (2009).

Moreover, B. Ukrinaitė actively participates in scenography exhibitions, creates installations; in 1995- 2015, she exhibited her works in group scenography exhibitions at Prague Quadrennial (1995, 2007, 2015). The artist was awarded at the Lithuanian national dramaturgy festival “The Source” (Lith. Versmė) (2006) and was nominated for “Thank You Mask “(Lith. Padėkos kaukė) (2019). Birute was nominated for the Golden Stage Cross award in the category of scenography (2022). Since 1994, the artist has created numerous costumes and scenery for drama and musical theatre performances, collaborated with various directors in Lithuanian and foreign theatres, she is the co-author of performances by the director Bernardas Gytis Padegimas. In cooperation with this director, B. Ukrinaitė has been constantly searching for the truth of theatre originating from creative discussions with the help of argumen- tations.

She firmly believes that the most important thing in theatre is “a strong union with the director. My, as a scenographer’s, task is to create the general atmosphere of the work with the help of images, to create the entirety of the performance.”

The creative partnership between the director and the artist is also reflected in the form of scenography, which is always refined, well thought-out and functional. The artist is loyal to minimalist aesthetics, she strives for a plastic and meaningful impression of the work; while creating scenography she conveys a deeply reconsidered idea of the performance and the goal of “achieving the maximum result with minimal costs”.