№ 87
Before Restoration

The Second Empty Niche, on the Other Wall

The same hall already seen in exhibits No. 85–86 — the same heavy-beamed ceiling structure overhead — only now the view turns to the opposite wall. Here, between two windows, a symmetrically placed niche of exactly the same arched shape is set into the wall, only its base is rounded, like a small apse. The inside is plastered smooth, with no trace of a statue or any other object.

This niche is the exact counterpart of the one described in exhibit No. 86, on the other side of the hall: both once held a statue, and both now stand empty. According to information provided by the estate's owners, restoring this and similar details relies precisely on photographs from the Tiškevičius era — the very same ones seen in many of this exhibition's exhibits. In this way, the exhibition itself takes on a practical purpose: the old postcards and portraits are not merely a memory here, but an actual source used to decide what the restored details should look like.

As in the other exhibits in this series, the animation only shifts the camera barely perceptibly — the frame is already real and in colour.

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