To inhabit a space and time in a ritualistic manner behind a porous shield of tangible fantasy – while in the midst of a continuous collapse. Level up, a thousand points, check your health, better gear, keep it up, ultra combo, skill issue, another try. The lore goes deep, we are only scratching the surface, inscribing it into earthly materials, into our minds and muscle memory. One click, a mighty stroke of the sword – what stands against me, I stand against. Outside, time passes, here it accumulates, its weight becoming the proof of a fictitious hero. This experience is finite, but the game is infinite and the goal of it is play itself.

In this exhibition the artist invites the viewer to step into a materialised space of the magic circle, a concept borrowed and used in game theory and experience. Describing the place where play happens, it refers to the mental space and the lusory attitude where one shifts to experience a different realm of sorts, with a set of its own rules, skills and landscape. While seemingly detached, reality seeps through the cracks, still carried in the body and shaped by the conditions of the times we live in.

Dzelde Mierkalne’s practice unfolds between doom and delight, reflecting existential fears through a post-ironic sensibility shaped by growing up amid overlapping crises. Mixing drawing, prints, sculpture, and objects, she constructs playful yet unsettling environments where pop culture, ecological anxiety, and mass psychology collide. Humor becomes a survival strategy rather than escapism, a fragile counterforce to numbness and catastrophe.

Central is her use of scagliola—a historical imitation marble technique whose unpredictable patterns evoke faux interiors where fantasy compensates for loss. Cartoony figures carry exaggerated emotions, masking deep unease about extinction and impermanence. Mierkalne proposes a tragicomic affirmation of life, where joy, dread, beauty, and decay coexist.

Dzelde Mierkalne (b. in 1997, Latvia, based in Riga) is a graduate of Graphic Art BA and POST MA program at the Art Academy of Latvia. Her latest solo exhibitions include ‘’Doom Doom Delight’’ at TUR and ’’The Big Deal’’ at Gallery 427 in Riga, both in 2024. Mierkalne has also participated in international exhibitions and forums, including the group exhibition ‘’Gen Z. All at Once’’ in Mo Museum, Vilnius, Tallinn Art Hall, The Distillery Gallery in Boston, Lethaby Gallery in London, Garage Gallery in Prague and others.

Curator: Raivis Alksnis

Graphic Design: Eglė Kirlytė

The project is partially funded by the Vilnius City Municipality.

Opening: 21 May 2026 at 18:00. Exhibition opening hours: Thu–Sat 16:00–19:00, Sun 14:00–17:00. Exhibition runs until 31 May 2026.