On 5 November, at 6pm, the exhibition Mid eye, nose top by Philip Ullman will open at Editorial (Latako 3, Vilnius). In his first exhibition in Lithuania, the Swedish artist invites viewers into a dreamlike world, where animated and painted non-human characters experience deeply human dramas of identity search and transformation, as well as anxiety, the fear of death, and paralysis. The distinctive computer animations, drawings and installations by the Amsterdam-based artist Philip Ullman incorporate the movements and voices of real people, adapting them to fictional characters. Through these chimeric characters, Ullman explores how norms, systems and categories shape the formation of identities, and how the categories themselves change over time.
In Preoperational Model, presented in the exhibition, the anthropomorphic princess Sophie and her maid Jessica prepare for a new day at the royal court. Sophie’s struggle to play her role propels the two protagonists backwards and forwards in time, through worlds and identities, to find a way to live together.
The film’s title is taken from the term ‘preoperational stage’, a stage in cognitive development when children think at a symbolic level, but are not yet using logic. The boundaries between what something is and what it is not, as well as personal individualisation, have not fully formed at this stage, and the child often plays a role in order to understand their surroundings.
Cinematic tropes such as the period piece, the coming-of-age film and the road movie are mixed together and enacted through collaged non-human characters in a world where categorisation and being are in constant flux. The collaging of signifiers is used to talk about what it means to be something, and the structures that these categorisations uphold.
Alongside the film, the exhibition features the artist’s paintings on paper, created using gouache technique. The paintings in the exhibition are made together with Josefina Anjou, and function as conceptual art for a forthcoming animated short film called The Pigsty. In the film, an emotionally detached young farm girl, with a bedridden mother, meets her monstrous shadow-self, who helps her reconnect to herself and the world.
Philip Ullman (b. 1992) is a Swedish artist and filmmaker based in Amsterdam. He earned his Master’s degree from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts (where he studied under professors Agnieszka Polska and Jane Jin Kaisen) and his Bachelor’s degree from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. His work has been presented at festivals such as the Berlinale, the Rotterdam Film Festival and the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, as well as in exhibitions at the Kunsthal Charlottenborg art centre in Copenhagen, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, and the Goswell Road art space in Paris.
The exhibition will run until 19 December 2026, and is financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and funded by Mondriaan Fund (NL).
Admission is free. Visitors are welcome to bring their pets, especially guide or service dogs.
Editorial is open from Wednesday to Friday, 3pm to 7pm, and Saturdays, 12pm to 4pm.
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