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Ornela Ramašauskaitė / photo by E. Šenderovienė

LRT.lt

"There was a phase in my life when I was working almost around the clock, and I became overly rational and logical. My personal growth stopped completely, even though I had formally achieved great results. For several years, I have been working hard to regain my intuition, and now I am cultivating it. It requires serious listening to oneself, honesty and courage," says Ornela Ramašauskaitė, head of ArtXchange Global, an art market and marketing expert, HAI alumna. We talk to her about how intuitiveness manifests itself in her fields of activity, what competences are most important in them and, finally, what is her approach to one of her freshest interests - NFT.

- Ornela, you end your LinkedIn profile with the sentence "I dream big". What drives you the most towards your dreams and how important do you think it is to have them at all, to be specific about them?

- Development, in my opinion, is the essence of life. Including the journey itself and the flexibility to change directions. Dreams are a very important part of that for me, but it's not necessary for everyone.
I greatly admire people who know how to enjoy the present moment, who live according to a clear routine, or just live simply, without big goals; I consciously borrow and use these elements in my life. But my mind still works in such a way that I need aesthetics, real knowledge, breadth, size or depth. Often silence.

I used to be very afraid of mediocrity; I hope I have grown up. And I haven't yet grown to simplicity. It would be a stark contrast to my present, but I would not be surprised at all if in a few years' time I was living in a country house without the internet.

I'm still hungry for living knowledge, which is what leads me to my dreams. Mine are very contextual - they have scenarios, even smells and colours, they are about well-being, the people around you, the ability to control time and place. In other words, it's about wanting to be as authentic and free as possible. My dreams are not about things, journeys or results.

I don't think it's important for everyone to have or pursue dreams. I think it's important for everyone to live the life they want.

- Your CV will be full of impressive projects, ambitions and positions in the worlds of marketing and the art market. Which do you see more of now in your daily life, how do they complement or compete with each other?

- I am full of contrasts and they complement each other. I don't know what more. For me it's about grounding - that's what working in a multinational corporation gives you: structure, processes, complex business decisions, a wide range of different types of people. I'm completely detached from the domestic life, so working as a marketing manager helps me to stay in touch with reality, in a way it teaches me how to live in society. I really like the structure and the logical consistency. And my creativity has given me the gift of being able to work with my team on some really impressive projects.
Meanwhile, art is what I breathe: it helps me to see the world and myself, to think or admire. I have a degree in art, have worked in art auction houses, and have been interested in art investment and collecting for several years. My education and my marketing expertise are what allow me to combine the different areas necessary to dive into the art market, where there are almost as many numbers as paintings.

So it's all very integral, and the fact that I have a clear background in the corporation allows me to choose my art market projects by listening to my heart, without appealing to a mass audience or a square personality.

- What do you think are the most important competences in your activities? How do the so-called "hard" and "soft" competences correlate and how important is it to combine them?

- I think that authenticity is the most important thing in my work, as it is in most. This is what makes the projects or the people you work with more special than the standard.
I was brought up to believe that perfect (as far as it is possible) knowledge of your field is a basic necessity.

"Soft" competences are essential for survival, for finding "allies" for your project. But no empathetic and diplomatic expert in his/her field is going to make a breakthrough. It requires passion and certainty - to know oneself, to make the most of knowledge, to appeal to the masses (or to the team, partners, customers). Then things will happen on their own, because neither the hours nor the combination of "hard" and "soft" competences count.

- You are actively interested in the phenomenon of digital art with NFT codes, which is the subject of much debate. From the fact that the art market is only becoming more open, more universal, to the fact that NFTs are completely distorting it, demoralising it and so on. What is your view?

- The NFT will change the world as much as the internet has. We are still in the first stage of evolution. NFTs, even in a specific art market, can be applied very differently. It is necessary to distinguish between NFT projects with impressive numbers (e.g. PFP) and NFT applications - for clarity of comparison, I will mention the knife: it can kill as well as bread.

The scandalous projects are for cryptocurrency enthusiasts to solve certain challenges that are relevant to them - there is little to do with art, even if pictures are used. Some spectacular sums are paid for special deals that are publicly available for the first time in history (the Beeple case, although it was not really the first such sale).

The fact that a work of digital art can finally have a clear 'certificate' of authorship and ownership is indeed a novelty in the art industry. At the same time, the NFT will help to clarify the art market by serving as a certificate for physical works, with the side-effect of digitisation (in favour of archiving). Thanks to blockchain technology, all transactions will be recorded - the history of the owners will be known. The resale of artworks will ensure that a fair percentage is paid to the artist each time, while at the same time forcing a rethinking of the function of galleries - the role of the intermediary will have to change.

The art market is becoming more democratic - the NFT allows the purchase of a work of art in instalments without having to spend a large sum of money up front. The NFT opens up a lot of opportunities for the state - citizens can collectively buy a work of art for, say, the National Museum, and the Cultural Councils or other national foundations supporting artists can integrate the NFT into their policies and in the future receive a return on the renowned artists they have supported, and so on.

Accordingly, the NFT offers a wealth of opportunities for many different industries (maybe even all of them). And while fraud happens everywhere, it is not directly related to the NFT.

- In Lithuania, this boom probably needs to be explained in more detail - is the Lithuanian art market willingly embracing this trend? Do you believe in its longevity?

- I think that Lithuania, because of its small size and relative youth of the country, could very well adopt NFT, especially at the national level (I am most concerned, of course, with the cultural and artistic field). This would bring order to our still immature market, and could create interesting practices that would have a global impact (like the Finnish or Singaporean examples in education).

There are certainly individual initiatives in the Lithuanian art market, but it is difficult to say how many and how successful they have been - we lack a time perspective. And I can hardly imagine that even one of them is purely Lithuanian. But even if a large-scale transaction happens, it does not change the fact that strategic decisions could be taken at the ministerial level that are favourable to the state in terms of content and image. These are very different things.

It is important to note that while the art market can theoretically be local (even at the city level) - I strongly prefer to think in global terms. I think that our country has grown up enough to understand ourselves and our processes in a global context, even if the decision we make is local or national. In that case, we would also be able to take advantage of the advantages of the NFT more quickly and more widely.

- I want to turn from the NFT to intuition, which is what we talk about most in Intuitive Life. So what is the intuitive life for you? What teaches you the most about being intuitive?

- Intuitiveness is one of the conditions for living authentically and evolving. There was a phase in my life when I was working almost around the clock and became overly rational and logical. My personal growth came to a complete standstill, even though I had formally achieved great results. For several years I have been working hard to regain my intuition, and now I am cultivating it. This requires serious listening to oneself, honesty and courage.

Intuitiveness naturally guides you through life and draws your attention to what is most beneficial for a particular person. It organically attracts special people and situations. You find yourself where synergy happens, where the concept of time disappears.
Intuition is sharpened when you listen to yourself and when you follow it - a prerequisite, because in the long run, if you don't live authentically, it becomes weaker. Art, meditation and various body practices help, and for me personally, dance. For a long time I thought that intuitiveness would come from "figuring out" yourself, but that was the biggest mistake. Now I see that it is important to just live according to oneself and respond to body language or inner knowing.

- What do you notice about the importance of intuitiveness in marketing and the art market, and how is this skill or quality received in these spheres?

- That's what I like about the art market and marketing, that it's a meeting point between feeling, intuitiveness and numbers, trends. It's a perfect reflection of myself. I think that both in these areas and in the personality, you need a balance of everything.

Nowadays, top managers, thinkers, even neuroscientists often talk about the importance of intuition; it is no longer seen as impulsive, unreasonable behaviour. However, in the professional world, knowledge of one's own field is essential, and only then can one use one's hunches. What we are talking about is acquired in a very subtle way (or is innate and unnamable), so it may not be obvious to everyone and is therefore rejected.

There is definitely more thinking in art than in marketing, so this is where it is important to cultivate intuitiveness and give the work a decisive quality bar. Marketing is more psychological; in business decision-making, when there is no one right answer, it is the intuition of the experienced person that can lead to the best result. In all cases, it is important to feel the context and to navigate, to be in balance.

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