This September, as AUDRA pulls Kaunas into the currents of music and culture, the festival will bring together not only some of the biggest names in music but also artists working across different disciplines. Among them is Gia Ram, already familiar to festival audiences after leaving her first artistic mark at the very first edition of AUDRA. This year, the painter and designer returns with festival-inspired merchandise and new artistic statements.
Who is Gia Ram today? What is your creative territory, the space where you feel most at home? Do you primarily see yourself as a painter, artist, creator, designer – or have those boundaries stopped mattering to you?
I don’t think those boundaries ever really existed. They only appear when we label ourselves according to definitions created by society. But in creativity, I don’t think there can be any boundaries – otherwise it stops being creative.
I don’t consider myself a designer, and even the word “artist” feels a little too grand for me. I simply create from the heart – whether it’s a painting, a piece of clothing or a cup. They are all works of art, just on different scales.
Gia Ram has always been my own little magical world, built from colour, love and a desire to inspire others.
How has your approach to creativity, the themes you want to explore and your visual language changed over time?
I would say only the form changes – whether it is canvas, fabric or a sheet of paper. These are simply tools that allow me to communicate and share something tangible with people. The message, the manifesto I believe in, has always remained the same.
Just like ten years ago, I still believe this today: don’t be afraid to dream, pursue your goals, believe in yourself, love yourself and allow yourself to receive love. Live!
When someone sees Gia Ram, I want to make them smile, inspire them and perhaps help them find something they have been searching for – hope. I want to remind people who they were before the world told them who they were supposed to be. Symbolically, I want to bring them back to childhood and remind them of their true selves – what they really wanted and what once brought them joy.
Painting and fashion meet in your work. Do you see them as two different mediums, or as continuations of the same creative language?
A canvas is static – it hangs there and waits for someone to come to it. A painting in general is a more specific, less visible and less accessible object. The feeling it creates often becomes nothing more than a memory the moment you leave the gallery. That can be intimate and personal, but also quite limiting.
Clothing, on the other hand, carries the same emotion and message further. It allows art to become accessible to everyone. More than that, it gives you the possibility of feeling that emotion continuously, carrying it with you wherever you go. It stops being a memory and becomes a living part of everyday life.
To me, these are not separate fields or separate entities – they are different parts of one large painting.
Today, an artist’s path is often inseparable from visibility – you have to not only create but also talk about your work and exist in the public space. How do you feel about that visibility? Have you learned to enjoy it, or do you sometimes want to hide?
Social media feels like a gift to me. I don’t enjoy being in the spotlight, and I’m not good at speaking in front of people at events – I always feel uncomfortable in those situations. But when I create Gia Ram from my safe space, whether at home or in the studio, I have this invaluable tool that allows me to share my work and its message.
Whenever I create something, my goal is always for it to be seen and felt. From the very beginning, the work is meant for others, not for me. The creator becomes a kind of intermediary – another tool between the idea and the person who will receive it.
That is why the possibility of sharing is inseparable from the creative process. Art that no one sees loses its meaning.
Have there been moments in your journey when you wanted to step away from the art world? Do you often doubt what you are doing?
Of course. Doubt is a natural part of the process. If you never questioned what you were doing, how you were doing it, how a painting looked or which colour to choose, you would stop growing.
As long as doubt does not stop us, it helps us search, question things and keep moving forward. The most important thing is not to let it prevent us from pursuing our dreams. And to realise that the doubt is also part of you – which means everything is still in your own hands: you can change, move and act.
Stepping away is something completely different. I have never had that thought, because creativity is part of me. What I do is who I am. For me, stopping would be like stopping breathing – impossible to imagine.
Your creative journey has been connected with different cities – Kaunas, Milan, Paris. What has each of them given you? What have they left in your work, your thinking and your understanding of the world?
For me, it is not really about specific cities. I think of myself simply as a person living on Earth. Travel, cultures, people and experiences all shape you, both as a creator and as a human being.
Being able to see the same things from different perspectives, through different cultures and different forms, expands your vision, trains your eye and develops your taste. That does not come from one particular city – it comes from life itself.
What do you remember most vividly from AUDRA in 2022, and what thoughts are you bringing into the festival this year?
AUDRA 2022 was very special to me. While I was creating the exhibition, I found out that I was pregnant. So continuing the ideas I started with the festival back then, now through merchandise and souvenirs, feels very sentimental to me.
My daughter and the experience of waiting for her brought so much colour into my life, so perhaps the objects I am presenting at AUDRA this year will be just as playful, bringing together both my personal and artistic experience with that of the festival.
I can reveal that some of the T-shirts will carry the word “Artist”. I believe many people will connect with that – after all, each of us is the creator of our own life and circumstances.
AUDRA will also feature disposable cameras for capturing real moments without any editing, as well as tote bags big enough to carry everything you need for the festival. We are still in the process, but I believe AUDRA visitors will experience even more of Gia Ram – because in the end, it is all about feeling.