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"SLEEPING." Exhibition of theatre costumes by Dainius Bendikas

  • Writer: Галерея Сценографії
    Галерея Сценографії
  • Oct 4
  • 5 min read
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📅 Exhibition dates: 26 September – 9 October 2025

📍 Location:  Gallery of the Dzyga Art Centre


26 September   in the gallery of the Dzyga Art Centre the opening of the exhibition SLEEPING theatrical costumes by Dainius Bendikas as part of the Lviv Quadrennial 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.



About costume design

This costume exhibition presents a selection of designs by Dainius Bendikas, tracing the psychological, political and emotional evolution of the play's characters in a future shaped by technological domination and collective exhaustion.

The exhibition begins with the moment of awakening. Three sisters wake up after ten years of suspended animation, their bodies weakened and unfamiliar. Their pyjamas are made of natural latex and decorated with fluorescent symbols, similar to tattoos, that distinguish each character. Pale, neutral tones and sculptural folds evoke a sense of vulnerability and transition. These designs reflect not only physical fragility, but also an intermediate state between sleep and reality.

Throughout the exhibition, gender power is explored. Female bodies are simultaneously exposed and protected, presented as objects of desire, vulnerability and resistance. Latex, transparent plastic, silicone and industrial mesh are combined to create clothing that blurs the boundaries between ritual, costume and surveillance. These works embody the tension between objectification and autonomy in a society where even the body is politicised.

Combining analogue crafts — draping, embroidery and hand ageing — with digital design and 3D moulding, Bendikas creates a speculative costume language that combines sculpture, narrative and critical design, infusing it with a layer of satire within the hyper-digital circus of pop culture.

Returning to a society governed by a strict technocratic order, the characters encounter a world characterised by uniformity and control. The costumes in this phase are modular and rigid, reminiscent of an autocratic past, made of synthetic materials and speculative elements such as NeuroPort visors. Once connected, these visors project the characters' consciousness to a remote location — either a synthetic environment or a real physical space equipped with receivers (drones, android bodies, or sensory hubs).

For the sisters who have recently awakened — Nastya, Maya, and Maria (later known as the Children of Maria) — orthopaedic belts serve as essential tools for bodily regeneration, providing structural support and stabilising their weakened bodies after decades of hibernation. These garments are not purely aesthetic; they are designed with efficiency and biomechanical functionality in mind. They control and promote muscle recovery, acting as a second skeleton that strengthens fragile joints and supports posture. In this way, wearable technology is combined with human rehabilitation in a speculative, futuristic context.

Another significant group of elements are sculptural objects of speculative design — Neuralinks. These silicone interfaces are imagined as intimate extensions of the human body that respond to external interaction. Created at the intersection of flesh and technology, Neuralinks function as sensory organs: connected to the body, they register and transmit internal influences, transforming them into tangible sensory experiences. Unlike conventional wearable devices, they do not simply track biometric data.

— they invite new ways of embodiment. Thanks to Neuralinks, a person can experience sexual pleasure from signals that usually go unnoticed, or tune into the subtle rhythms of internal processes such as hormonal changes, intestinal activity, or emotional surges. By combining soft, organic forms with neural feedback, Neuralinks blur the lines between medical prosthetics, erotic devices, and aesthetic objects. They speculate on a future in which sensory technologies expand not only our consciousness, but also our capacity for intimacy, vulnerability, and play with our inner states.In the story "The Dream," they raise the question: what happens when internal affects become signals that can be shared? Where does pleasure lie — in the body, the device, or the relationship between them? Neuralinks aligns with the exploration of autonomy in history, as human experience is tested by a digital virus that projects its own political agenda.

Within an authoritarian regime that prioritises utility over individuality, these speculative objects serve a paradoxical purpose: they function not only as instruments of control, but also as channels for emotional and sensory experience, hinting at a world beyond the cycles of sleep and subjugation. The costume becomes an archive that tracks the emotional imprint of bodies shaped by control but capable of imagining renewal. Each item functions as a wearable artefact and a means of storytelling, embodying the central contradictions of The Sleepers: control and freedom, presence and erasure, dystopia and dream, ultimately revealing the fragile resilience of the human body and spirit.

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.

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



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