The Spinners is inviting creators from all fields to an art residency in the village of Kabeliai, Varėna district, Lithuania from March to May 2023.
The aim of this programme is to create a space for the work of future art residents.
The call is addressed to those who, regardless of their field of creation (professional or amateur), have gained DIY experience and/or dream of using traditional local artisan practices. The space and object of creation is the future studio of the art residents, a small log house, now abandoned. There will be an opportunity to dip your hands in clay plaster, to learn how to plaster interior walls, restore windows, doors and furniture using only natural materials – wood, clay, oil paint. We will invite you to find sustainable solutions to heal every wound of old age in the hut, while creating a new design that is comfortable for future art residents to create and live in. We plan to create three spaces in the hut: a bedroom, a reading room and a workshop.
This programme aims to promote the DIY idea and also to bring back the practices of helping and community action. Today we live in a service provider-consumer society rather than an exchange society, where people do not know how to share and are lumped together in the capitalist world into drawers of narrow specialisation. Therefore, we will rebuild our community by organising workshops and visiting some traditional buildings that have been restored by local people with their own hands.
Scholarship and expenses
Each participant is to receive a grant of EUR 500/month and free accomodation.
Duration of the residencies
1 -2,5 months in the period from 15 March to 30 May 2023.
Working and living conditions
Participants are to reside in an old log cabin in the village of Kabeliai. It is a small, simply furnished house, which will have to be shared by two artists living together. It has two small rooms, a kitchen and a bathroom. There is tap cold and hot water. The artists will have to take care of heating of the house themselves by using wood-burning stove regularly. Bicycles will be available.
The residential building is just next to working place – another small log house. Please bring your favorite and specific tools and clothes. We will provide materials and supplies.
If you have any questions regarding the conditions, please contact residency@verpejos.lt
Presentation to the public
During the residency, artists will be asked to run a workshop together with The Spinners team.
Application form
We are inviting you to fill in the application form [1] before 20 February 2023.
Selection
The Spinners team will select artists through an open call based on the following criteria:
– Ability to collaborate creatively in a two-person household;
– Ability to create in the community, involving participants of all ages and capabilities in the creative process;
– Manual craft skills and desire to learn new things;
– Sustainable, eco-friendly and waste-free approach to the creative process and lifestyle;
– Interdisciplinarity, encompassing different artistic fields;
Verpėjos (The Spinners) is an independent art initiative founded in 2017 by artist Laura Garbštienė in the Marcinkonys municipality, Varėna district of South Lithuania. Verpėjos aims to explore and rethink the themes of traditional rural lifestyle and nature conservation, to empower discourse on processes and changes both locally and globally. Since 2019, Verpėjos has been curating the Marcinkonys Railway station gallery, with an international art residency program starting in 2020.