Karolis Jankus is a film performance artist and founder of the Vrai Cinema movement. His practice treats the act of filmmaking as a radical form of performance art, situating the moving image within the expanded field of contemporary art.

Jankus began his artistic practice in 1990 with durational performances in Vilnius galleries, working with body, presence and endurance as primary materials. He studied sculpture at the Vilnius Academy of Arts (BA, 1998) and later completed an MA in Media Art at the same institution (2014). In 1997, following the Main Award at the French–Baltic Video Art Festival in Riga, he received a scholarship from the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and made his first experimental films in Paris. His feature film Jesus from Lithuania (2006) achieved cult status after being withdrawn from circulation by authorities. The Silent Lithuanian Revolution (2013), a six-hour epic documentary, was screened across 20 Lithuanian cities. Biological Loneliness (2021) won awards at festivals in Tokyo, Barcelona, Calcutta and Madrid.

His current practice is defined by the Vrai Cinema manifesto — a filmmaking methodology that abandons fixed scripts and dissolves hierarchies between director, performer and cinematographer. Works are generated in real time as living performative events. Vrai Cinema films in progress: Vrai Cinema Film No.00 Chagrin (2025), Vrai Cinema Film No.1 Le Ventre de Paris (2026, inspired by Zola) and Vrai Cinema Film No.2 La Chute (2026, inspired by Camus), all created in France.

Websites: karolisjankus.com · letmekoo.lt/en/artists/jankus-karolis