In March students at Vilnius Academy of Arts (VDA) Greta Balčiūnaitė and Milda Paukštė will collaborate with Dr. Marija Griniuk and Sámi artist Marit Bringedal Anti to develop a performance exploring ecopoetics and respect for nature and the environment. This collaborative performance will be presented at the Supermarket Art Fair in Stockholm and is a part of Griniuk’s postdoctoral research. The performance is set in the Supermarket Art Fair program for Thursday, April 3rd at 18:00 and Friday, April 4th at 14:30.
SUPERMARKET – Stockholm Independent Art Fair is an international art fair showcasing artist-run initiatives. It is dedicated to presenting artist-run spaces, collectives, nomadic projects, and independent artistic initiatives from across the globe. The fair’s primary goal is to highlight unique artistic projects, foster new local and international networks, and share the strengths of the independent art scene with a broad audience. Alongside the exhibition, SUPERMARKET features a dynamic Talks and Performance programme, inviting performance artists and speakers from Sweden and beyond to engage the public in discussions and live artistic expressions. Students from Vilnius Academy of Arts will not only develop and show performance artwork but will actively contribute to the Meetings program and networking with participating in the art fair artists and galleries.
Greta Balčiūnaitė and Marit Bringedal Anti at Performance Studies in Sapmi festival in Karasjok, Norway. Photo by Marit Bringedal Anti
For Griniuk in her research position at Vilnius Academy of Arts collaboration with the students is in focus. Griniuk, during her postdoctoral research at the Department of Textile Art and Design at Vilnius Academy of Arts, works with students specifically focused on performance art. Since 2024, she has actively involved these students in projects such as:
- Performance Studies in Sápmi Festival: Students collaborated with young Sámi performance artists to create a performance within three weeks in a virtual setting, which they later presented live at the festival in Karasjok, Norway. These performances were video documented and shown at ArtVilnius Art Fair in 2024.
- Agueli Museum Performance: Following the festival, VDA undergraduate student Greta Balčiūnaitė participated in another project where, collaborating with performance art experts Dr. Rait Rosin and Kaspar Aus from Estonia, she co-developed and presented a choreographic performance within a single day at Agueli Museum (orig. Aguelimuseet) in Sala, Sweden.
While working with students, Griniuk places a strong emphasis on the quality of artists’ working conditions. Students engage in open dialogue about project funding, grants, artist fees, and other practical aspects crucial for a professional career in the arts.
Why collaboration is at heart of Griniuk’s work with students
Collaborative practice is becoming increasingly relevant for artists. Today, it is difficult to imagine projects—especially in the field of performance art—where an artist works alone, behind closed studio doors, in a single location or even in a single country. Contemporary art practice increasingly values collective creative processes, where the artist functions not only as an individual creator but also as a facilitator, collaborating across various interdisciplinary contexts. This includes partnerships with musicians, opera singers, designers, photographers, curators, and journalists. A recent example of such collaboration is Marija Griniuk’s performance “Liminal Opera,” which took place in Kirkenes, Norway, in February 2025.
Milda Paukštė at Performance Studies in Sapmi festival in Karasjok, Norway. Photo by Albinas Liutkus
An artist traveling from one location to another for a performance must quickly prepare, collaborate with other artists and professionals, integrate into a new environment, and engage in a meaningful dialogue—both with the place and with other creators. As Kwon (2002) argues, contemporary artists do not work in isolation; their creative practice is intertwined with the specificity of locations and the work of other artists. Additionally, Wilkie (2012) emphasizes that site-specific performance results from interactions between the performer and the audience. In this dynamic process, mobility becomes an essential dimension of artistic creation, requiring the ability to rapidly grasp the history and meaning of a space, as well as to engage with the specifics of collaborating artists and audiences in a new environment (Barry et al., 2022). This remains true even when artists have only a few days to prepare before a performance premiere.
Performance Art as a Dynamic and Mobile Field
Performance art is a highly dynamic discipline, where mobility, collaboration with new people, and the ability to integrate into a space and process upon arrival are key elements for success. Consequently, Griniuk’s approach to teaching prioritizes exposing students to real working conditions by involving them in galleries, art fairs, and festivals across the Baltic and Nordic countries. She ensures that students experience the reality of working in performance art, where developing communication, audience engagement, and intercultural collaboration skills is essential.
The intensive creative process, driven by mobility and the necessity to work in an international environment, reveals not only the artist’s ability to create but also their capacity to listen—to the space and to the people within it.
Griniuk’s postdoctoral research at Vilnius Academy of Arts and her collaborations with the students and with performance art events are funded by the Research Council of Lithuania.
Text by Marija Griniuk
References:
Barry, K., et al. An Agenda for Creative Practice in the New Mobilities Paradigm. Mobilities, vol. 18, no. 3, 2022, pp. 349–373. Taylor & Francis, https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2022.2136996.
Haraway, Donna J. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene. Duke UP, 2016.
Kwon, Miwon. One Place After Another: Site-Specific Art and Locational Identity. MIT Press, 2002.
Wilkie, Fiona. Site-Specific Performance and the Mobility Turn. Contemporary Theatre Review, vol. 22, no. 2, 2012, pp. 203–12. Taylor & Francis, https://doi.org/10.1080/10486801.2012.666738.
