Zeimiai Manor House, 2015. Photo by Andrej Vasilenko
“Climbing Invisible Structures: Ritualised Disciplinary Practices in Social Life. Part 3: Žeimiai” is the is the third part of an exhibition project comprising four venues, and the last one in Lithuania. It presents works of eight artists. The event will encourage the visitors to reverse the habitual logical stuctures – although the exhibition will present works in the usual way, at the same time it will be integrated in a giant artwork in its own right – the Aikas Žado living museum, located in the Žeimiai manor (Jonava district).
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[1] [1] 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.
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-in-residency have been invited to create works for four exhibitions, in Vilnius, Nida, Žeimiai (Lithuania) and Lillestrøm (Norway).
Opening of the exhibition on the 30 July 2016, 5PM, at Žeimiai Manor Estate, Draugystės g. 28, Žeimiai, Jonava district with a performances “Five Drawings” by Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir (5.30PM) and “Skateboard Prayer, or Head Below the Heart” by Eglė Budvytytė (6PM).
Open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from 12 PM to 6 PM. Exhibition may also be visited by appointment: +370 628 14808, +370 610 02855, info@nidacolony.lt [2], residencyoyo@zeimiudvaras.lt [3]
Artists: Eglė Budvytytė, Victoria Durnak, Gunnhildur Hauksdóttir, Berglind Jona Hlynsdóttir, Saulius Leonavičius & Vida Strasevičiūtė, Robertas Narkus, Augustas Serapinas, Kristin Tårnesvik
Curators: Eglė Mikalajūnė, Samir M’kadmi
This Vilnius Academy of Arts‘ project “Discipline Today. Residency Exchange and Exhibition” project No. 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.
[1] [4] Aikas Žado is the laboratory where Aikas Žado works. Aikas Žado is a post-resident. Within the laboratory of Aikas Žado, the Žeimiai Manor is in the continuous process of being organized as a town of post-residents, where possible survivors are the prodigies of observation. The main aim of the participants living in this town is to decode the same hyper:header in different time zones (psychological and real). Header is in the constant pursuit of the aggregate. However, this is no longer a living museum where the objects of cultural heritage that have lasting value are decoratively or formally historical reconstructions put into practice to serve the increase of surplus value. It is just a space, wherein each time the treatment of life itself is restructured and the heritage scenario of the terrestrial globe is recreated. Neither faster nor slower the Earth is girdled with the skin of the aggregate. Furthermore, the technology of the metabolism is continually being tested in the laboratory. Participate and acquaint yourself with why in the year 2016 this small city reminds us of an everlasting Halloween. Meanwhile, Aikas Žado is living back in 1826 and assisting Jacob Berzelius to form the first manual of organic chemistry.