Photo reportage from the exhibition ‘(Per)forming Scapes’ at Nida Art Colony

As Nida has once again turned into a summer resort for body and mind, Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts on 20^th of July has opened its doors with the summer exhibition in which newly created works at the residency are going to invite visitors to experience and (per)form the landscape and dynamics of Curonian Spit (Lithuania) until the end of summer.

According to the exhibition curator Vytautas Michelkevičius, “The landscape of Curonian Spit is (per)formed, phytocracy is established in Neringa, the exhibition halls become gyms, it is discovered that the local mentality is formed by constant work in a specific landscape, and traditional singing turns into an animalistic snarl and rumble.”

Exhibition architects Ona Lozuraitytė and Petras Išora had turned the exhibition hall of Nida Art Colony to an industrialized landscape of Curonian Spit that allows to experience the cartographical geodynamic landscapes, including dunes and woods. Furthermore, in this exhibition they participate as researchers, unveiling the layers and geographical surfaces of National Park that now can not only be seen, but touched as well.

It is not only an art exhibition, but a visual, audial, performative and interactive narration about the Curonian Spit, where contemporary art serves as a platform for artists and researchers of various areas to meet and present their points of view. The exhibition is based on the principle of generalized symmetry: all of its participants – landscapes, plants, instruments, gears, architectural elements, works and people are of equal agency.

As from May, VAA Nida Art Colony and entire area of the Curonian Spit has turned into a testing ground and a research laboratory where exhibition participants were discussing the relationship between human and nature on various scales: from vast geological landscape to symbiosis with smallest plants, from park and other regulations to psychophysical provisions. Therefore, here meets landscape architecture, geography, biology, sculpture, work ethics, choreography, new media, and performative practices.

The artists participating in this exhibition work and are renowned on an international level in various contexts: theatre, music and performance, architecture, visual arts. For example, opera-performance Sun and Sea, the second collective work by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė, will be presented by Nida Art Colony in Venice in 2019. Architects Ona Lozuraityte and Petras Išora have done an exhibition Shaping the Landscape at the National Gallery of Arts in Vilnius and now are working on a bridge project in Seul (South Korea).

Exhibition is open everyday except Mondays from 12 PM to 8PM, at VAA Nida Art Colony (E. A. Jonušo st. 3, Nida, Lithuania)

Further information about the exhibition and its guide for download is available here: http://nidacolony.lt/en/exhibitions/per-forming-scapes-2018 ^[1]

Exhibition is supported by: Lithuanian Council for Culture, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, Goethe-Institut in Lithuania, The Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture (KKNORD)

Graphics & Layout by: Laura Grigaliūnaitė

Team: Rasa Antanavičiūtė, Skaistė Marčienė, Kęstutis Minderis, Julija Navarskaitė,
Linas Ramanauskas, Karolina Sadlauskaitė

Special thanks to: Irena Daujotaitė, Vasilijus Safronovas, Jonas Volungevičius, Nikita Dobrotin, Lina Dikšaitė, Monika Kalinauskaitė, Tadas Karpavičius, Glabis Niktorius, Aleksandra Fominaitė, Andreas Rodenbeck,  National Park of Curonian Spit, Lithuanian Sea Museum, Neringa Municipality

Photography: Laurynas Skeisgiela