Climbing Invisible Structures. Ritualized Disciplinary Practices in Social Life. Part 3: Žeimiai at Residency Centre YO YO / Jonava district, Lithuania

Climbing
Invisible Structures.
Ritualized
Disciplinary Practices in Social Life
. Part 3: Žeimiai
Curators: Eglė Mikalajūnė and Samir M’kadmi

Artists: Eglė Budvytytė, Victoria Durnak, Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir, Berglind Jona Hlynsdóttir, Saulius Leonavičius & Vida Strasevičiūtė, Robertas Narkus, Augustas Serapinas, Kristin Tårnesvik
Organised by:  Nida Art Colony of Vilnius
Academy
of Arts

http://nidacolony.lt/

Residency
Centre YO YO, Žeimiai Manor Estate, „Aikas Žado“ laboratory (Draugystės
St 28, Jonava district, Lithuania)

http://residencyoyo.zeimiudvaras.lt/
Date: 30th
July – 28th August 2016
Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir, Five Drawings, performance, 2016

 Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir, Five Drawings, 2016

Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir, Five Drawings, 2016

Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir, Five Drawings, 2016
Robertas Narkus, Atlantic Biennale, 2016
Robertas Narkus, Atlantic BiennaleDecks, 2016

Robertas Narkus, Atlantic BiennaleEurostar, 2016
Saulius Leonavičius & Vida Strasevičiūtė, Fuck Language, 2016 
Saulius Leonavičius & Vida Strasevičiūtė, Fuck Language, 2016 

Augustas Serapinas, Climbing Structures, 2016
Augustas Serapinas, Climbing Structures, 2016

Berglind Jona Hlynsdóttir, BalustradePart 2: Bake It, 2016
Berglind Jona Hlynsdóttir, BalustradePart 2: Bake It, 2016
Victoria Durnak, Ex-Boyfriend Jewellery, 2016
and
Eglė Ambrasaitė, Lankesa. Part of “Aikas Žado” laboratory, 2014-now
Victoria Durnak, Ex-Boyfriend Jewellery, 2016
and
Eglė Ambrasaitė, Lankesa. Part of “Aikas Žado” laboratory, 2014-now
Kristin Tårnesvik, Popular hours of death. Memories kept in various liquid solutions, Stones sometimes fall from sky and Maker and material, 2016

Kristin Tårnesvik, Popular hours of death. Stones sometimes fall from sky, 2016
Kristin Tårnesvik, Popular hours of death. Memories kept in various liquid solutions, 2016

Kristin Tårnesvik, Popular hours of death. Circle of abyss, 2016

Berglind Jona Hlynsdóttir in collaboration with the band Dora (Gatis Zakis and Jānis Šipkēvics), Stitching and Mending, 2016
Berglind Jona Hlynsdóttir in collaboration with the band Dora (Gatis Zakis and Jānis Šipkēvics), Stitching and Mending, 2016

Berglind Jona Hlynsdóttir in collaboration with the band Dora (Gatis Zakis and Jānis Šipkēvics), Stitching and Mending, 2016

Berglind Jona Hlynsdóttir in collaboration with the band Dora (Gatis Zakis and Jānis Šipkēvics), Stitching and Mending

Eglė Budvytytė




Photography: Andrej Vasilenko




The
idea of “climbing invisible structures” invokes not only something hidden, but
also something vertiginous and inaccessible. It invites “us” (artists and
audiences as participants) to engage and reflect on the complex and
multi-layered relationships between the references and meanings that pervade
most of our disciplinary practices and social life. Although reflection is
itself an intimate hidden process that involves careful thinking and
consideration, it is, as the Latin root of the word reflex suggests, the thought “bent back” on itself.
This
image corresponds with the common analogy between thought and light. It conveys
the notion that we absorb and reflect thoughts and ideas similar to the way
materials and celestial bodies absorb and reflect light. However, reflection
implies both action and reaction, and it should not be interpreted only as a
mental process. Exposition to other people’s thoughts, to others’ lights and
rituals, is an all-embracing experience, intellectually, emotionally and physically.
In this sense, engaging with works of art means engaging with past and present
disciplines and rituals.         
The exhibition is being held in Žeimiai manor
estate which was built in the 18th century and has been rebuilt
several times since then. The manor is home to ŽemAt art collective and the YO
YO Artists‘ Residency Centre. The correlation between the exhibition and the
venue compels us to interrogate more closely the rituals inherent in the art
world: in Žeimiai, contrary to the common logic of exposition, the exhibition
finds itself within a gigantic art work – Aikas Žado Living Museum
ant its Aikas Žado laboratory 2016 which are set up in the manor.
The conservation and restoration of the Žeimiai
manor is conducted via a strategy unique within the Lithuanian context,
according to which all of the estate’s historical layers, from the earliest to
the most contemporary, are given equal value. Aikas Žado Living Museum
was established in the manor in line with this strategy. The Museum is
a continuous art work encompassing not only the whole area of the estate
but also its visitors and tourists. Thus, having been presented in the white
cube of VAA Nida Art Colony, the exhibition “Climbing Invisible Structures” now
finds itself in a totally different space – a location in which each and every
detail pulsates with complex history and creative activity, and requires
special attention.
Some works
presented in this exhibition were created while the artists were in residency
at YO YO Centre and were inspired by the manor’s present and history. Some of
the artists engaged in a dialogue with the space and re-interpreted works
created for the earlier exhibitions of the project. Other artworks, meanwhile,
revealed themselves in new ways simply by placing them in relevant spots within
this multilayered environment. Installed within this gigantic art work, the
exhibition itself has acquired a new complexion. Its structure has inevitably
merged with the structure of the Living
Museum
, with the result
that the two have become indistinguishably entwined into a single whole for a
month.
Open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays
from 12 PM to 6
PM. Exhibition may also be visited by appointment: +370 628 14808 (Eglė),
+370 610 02855 (Domas). For more info, please, write to
 
This exhibition is part of a two-year-long residency and exhibition
project involving six institutions in three different countries: Iceland, Lithuania and Norway. Ten
artists have been invited to create works for four exhibitions in Vilnius,
Nida, Žeimiai (Lithuania)
and Lillestrøm (Norway).
This exhibition presents eight artists. It is the third exhibition of the
project and the last to be held in Lithuania.
This Vilnius Academy of Arts‘
project “Discipline Today. Residency Exchange and Exhibition” project
EEE-LT07-KM-01-K-01-035 is supported by a grant through the EEA Financial
Mechanism and Lithuanian State Programme LT07 “Promotion of Diversity in
Culture and Arts within European Cultural Heritage”, project is also supported
by Lithuanian Council for Culture.