SLEEPING. Exhibition of theatre costumes by Dainius Bendikas as part of the Lviv Quadriennale of Scenography 2025

26.09 at 19:00   at the gallery of the Dzyga Art Centre the opening of the exhibition SLEEPING theatrical costumes by Dainius Bendikas will take place as part of Lviv Quadriennala of Scenography 2025

Miegantys (The Sleepers) is a dystopian theatre production directed by Oskaras Korsunovas and written by Marius Ivaškevičius. The set design was created by Gintaras Makarevičius, and the costumes by Dainius Bendikas. Premiere of the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre in 2021.

The play is set in 2109 and depicts a future in which society is divided into cycles of sleep and wakefulness — each citizen spends ten years asleep to control overpopulation and conserve finite resources. When three sisters wake up after ten years of sleep, they are confronted with a totalitarian world shaped by surveillance, loss of identity, and state-controlled time. Combining political allegory, feminist critique, and speculative fiction, The Sleeping explores the fragility of freedom in a world designed for obedience..

 📍 Gallery of the Dzyga Art Centre

 🗓 The exhibition will be open until 9 October.

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Dainius Bendikas (Dainius Bendikas)

Lithuanian multidisciplinary artist, clothing and costume designer, associate professor at the Vilnius Academy of Arts. He holds a bachelor's degree in clothing design and a master's degree in fine arts with a specialisation in contemporary sculpture. Known for his sculptural, technically complex clothing designs, he works at the intersection of conceptual fashion, performative costume, digital innovation and affective design.

During his 15-year career, Bendikas has exhibited and presented his work in Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Denmark and Iceland, and has also held leading design positions at various menswear brands. From 2010 to 2018, he lived and worked in Iceland, teaching at the Iceland Academy of the Arts while developing his own methodology based on "sculptural analysis" and narrative construction.

In 2012, he gained national recognition for his award-winning collection Moon Monk (Mėnulio vienuolis), an experimental menswear project that combined theatrical tailoring and spiritual futurism. For this collection, he received the Young Designer of Lithuania award.

Since 2018, Bendikas has been teaching experimental design and 3D design at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, educating a new generation of designers and curating various educational projects and masterclasses that challenge the traditions of fashion design, structural thinking and experimental approaches to the design process.

Bendikas is currently pursuing a PhD in design, and his research focuses on affective and sensory experiences in contemporary design practice. In his work, Bendikas combines handcrafted techniques with digital tools to explore how clothing can function as meditative and emotionally resonant structures. His interdisciplinary creative approach combines handcrafts — knitting, draping, embroidery — with digital 3D visualisation and engineering.

In both his academic and artistic practice, Bendikas puts design at the forefront as a tool for emotional healing, ecological connection, and speculative storytelling. He positions fashion not only as a functional or aesthetic expression, but also as a means for embodying experience and meditative transformation.

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The exhibition is made possible thanks to the support of the Lithuanian Culture Institute and Tomas Ivanauskas, Cultural Attaché of the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Ukraine.