Jonas Palekas
+37064386880 / jonas.palekas@gmail.com
Seringenstraat 25, 6214 VG Maastricht, Netherlands
Jonas Palekas is a chef and food thinker specializing in performative dinners, experimental food system designs, and research on ecological relations and gastronomic phenomenons. Currently, Jonas is a resident at Jan Van Eyck Academie in Maastricht, The Netherlands. In 2023 he received the Young Chef of the Year award from the prestigious Oxford Food Symposium. Jonas Palekas is a co-founder of the restaurant Delta Mityba (opened in 2016), which for 6 years has played a major role in Vilnius’s contemporary art scene. Besides that, Jonas participates in artistic projects and events across Europe, including Biennale di Venezia 2017 and 2018, Volcano Extravaganza 2019 in Italy, Kunstverein Amsterdam 2019, and others. With interests in social, cultural, and ecological contexts of nowadays world and with his education in culinary arts, Jonas works across the boundaries of human nutritional habits and raises questions related to food in our uncertain times.
Participation in the events of the art field:
* Participation and organization, Taste of Virus Picnic as a part of: Artist Guide to Culinary, Limestone Books, Maastricht 2023
• Open-Fire Cooking workshop with SAVVY Contemporary & DAI Week in Nida Art Colony, 2022
• Concrete poetry talk & pickle eating with Alex Balgiu. Kunstverein Amsterdam, 2022
• Banquet for a Collective Performance, Antichamber, Ledreborg Castle, Denmark, 2021
• Performance ‘’Digestive System of Humanity: Mouth’’ Centre Tour a Plomb, Brussels 2020
• Performance “Somnambulistai’’, International Theater Festival ‘’SIRENOS’’ 2020
• „Five-course dinner for a reading-eating group“, together with Goda Palekaite, Doppelganger, Editorial gallery, Vilnius, 2019
• Performative lunch and dinner, Volcano Extravaganza ‘’Death’’, Stromboli, Italy, 2019
• “Dinners by Delta Mityba” Kunstverein Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 2019
• Syrup infusion, Cabaret “The Guest”, KIM? Contemporary Art Center, Riga, 2017
• Dinners in the exposition, Lithuanian Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia, 2017
• Participation in artist’s daycare center ‘’Autarkia’’ activities since 2016
• Performative dinner, Baltic Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia, 2016
• Installation “Kaunas House” together with Rūtenė Merkliopaitė, Tap Water, Vilnius, Lithuania, 2015
Art residencies:
* Kordon AIR 2023-2024
• Jan Van Eyck Academie 2022 - 2023
• Nida Art Colony, November 2021
Prizes & Grants:
* Oxford Food Symposium - Young chef of the year 2023
* Neringa Municipality Stipend Prize 2021
Experience in Hospitality and Agro-Ecology:
• Founder, Co-owner, and Brand Developer, Lynx Cannabis, Utena County since 2020
• Founder, Co-owner, and Head Chef, Delta Mityba since 2016