- Residency period: Winter 2026
- VAA Residency
During her residency at Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts, Justė Tarvydė embraced a period of silence to dive deep into her doctoral research, “Fashion Erosion – Between Text and Texture”. A key focus is her label project, where she repurposes textile labels from fast-fashion garments into haiku-like micro-narratives that reveal hidden cultural scripts. In Neringa, she synthesised her practice into writing and prepared for an upcoming solo exhibition. For Justė, fashion is a powerful non-verbal language that speaks even when we are silent. Her practice acts as a counter action against the ecological crisis and consumerism, seeking a contemplative and critical space for fashion within the realm of contemporary art.
Justė Tarvydė is a PhD candidate and associate professor at Vilnius Academy of Arts with two decades of experience as a fashion editor and stylist. Her work explores the conceptual shifting of garments from consumer products to artistic media, a process she calls ‘fashion erosion’. Having navigated the fast-paced industry of fashion magazines, she now investigates the disembodiment of clothing, stripping it of its commercial function to examine its role as a vessel for human identity and a second skin for self-expression.
