In Artūras Raila's project 'The Power of the Earth' one finds a map, wherein the familiar cartography of Vilnius is covered by a network of contrasting points that define the area in an unusual way. Upon the artist's invitation, the map was compiled by specialists who measured the earth's energy fields through spiritual dowsing practices. The collision entertained here between traditional and alternative thinking - their intertwining and conflict ­- is generally the most prominent feature of Lithuania's post-Soviet art scene of the 1990s.

Artistic experiments in the late Soviet period went in numerous directions, such as: new expressions of the local avant-garde inspired by the revival of the state and society; gradual exposure to international contemporary art (from the Fluxus movement associated with the compatriot artist Jurgis Mačiūnas to the broader artistic practices that had developed in the end of the 20th century); as well as the national trend of modern art, which had been developing in the closed environment of Soviet art (at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s). Each of these trajectories, in their own way, was subjected to a whirlwind of influences. Local and exile artists, the generations of the old and new, as well as institutional forces, had their share of influence. Each of these forces represented different values: the Lithuanian Artists' Union was a stronghold of traditional art; newly established artistic groups that sought to participate independently in the art scene; the first private art galleries, and those promoting the way of contemporary art - Contemporary Art Centre, the Soros Centre for Contemporary Art and the artist-run space Jutempus.

In turn, artistic practices and public discourses were dominated by heated discussions about old and new art, the values of modernism and postmodernism, the coordinates of locality and globalism and the question of priorities for the conceptual or aesthetic domains. Experiments of late modernism, the search for novelty in the language of fine art and photography, and critical trends of contemporary art that questioned and dethroned the modernist canon developed in parallel in Lithuanian visual art. As these discussions evolved it became obvious that two camps were forming, regarding questions of: private and public spaces, the actual and intended changes in these spaces, as well as the hierarchy of traditional and new art forms (painting, sculpture, graphic art, photography, objects, installations, video art) and the ability of these forms to raise urgent questions for contemporary society.

Against positions oriented towards subjective observations on the environment (Vytautas Balčytis, Audrius Puipa, Remigijus Pačėsa and others) came those who took an increasingly critical stance (Mindaugas Navakas, Arturas Valiauga, Gintaras Zinkevičius and others). Further, those that stood behind painting and sculpture in their pure form (Ričardas Povilas Vaitiekūnas, Eugenijus Antanas Cukermanas, Rimvidas Jankauskas-Kampas, Vytautas Šerys, Mindaugas Šnipas and others) were assaulted by postmodern conceptual works (Mikalojus Šalkauskas, Jonas Gasiūnas, Žilvinas Kempinas, Darius Žiūra, Deimantas Narkevičius, Gediminas Urbonas and others). The subject of identity and representation of a woman was actively developed by a new generation of artists: Eglė Rakauskaitė, Jurga Barilaitė, Karla Gruodis and others (along with Violeta Bubelytė who first addressed it back in the 1980s). This new generation initiated a feminist discussion. Finally, the understanding of tradition, as a symbolic value ensuring the continuity of culture (Arvydas Každailis), was confronted by the paradoxes of its expression in contemporary global life (Artūras Raila, Donatas Jankauskas, Žilvinas Landzbergas, Mindaugas Navakas and others).