For the past six months, nine participants of the 9th edition of Rupert’s Alternative Education Programme learned, shared and worked together. Under a joint effort to explore the enticing theme of ‘Magic and Rituals’, participants created their own ways of navigating the space of alternative learning. By admitting the impossibility of capturing all works and processes under a singular conceptual framework, the exhibition offers a short but abundant peek into the outcomes of these processes.
During the programme, magic and rituals appeared as a network of historical references and alterations of various contemporary practices. The theme connected different temporalities, ways of thinking, feeling and being in the world. It became a way of easing the demands to do things ‘in the right way’ or to ‘be in the correct discourse’. It gravitated in and out of the rigour of theory or the playfulness of experimentation. Institutional seriousness was met with an equal amount of spontaneity and unexpected encounters.
Heavy Centre, the name of the final exhibition, was born during one of the self-organised critical review sessions and captures the atmosphere of the programme. Not the essence but rather a feeling, a temporal sensation of being in the moment. Uttered in a different context, the tongue-in-cheek elevation of this simple phrase to a noble position of the exhibition’s title defies linguistic hierarchies with frisky fluidity. Challenging hierarchies with wit and curiosity became an integral part of alternative education.
The exhibition also functions as a magical crystal ball that will allow visitors to see the past and the future. The works by Emma Bang (Denmark), Linas Gabrielaitis (Lithuania), Valerie Tee Lee (South Korea/Belgium), Austėja Masliukaitė (Lithuania), Julie Marie Mønsted (Denmark), George Finlay Ramsay (Scotland), Virginia Russolo (Italy/Greece), Aistė Marija Stankevičiūtė (Lithuania) and Bea Xu (United Kingdom/China) are outcomes of the learning process. Some of the works found their final form, while others are still in the process of becoming. Each of the works is a multilayered amalgamation capable of revealing layers of their processual past. And like a true crystal ball, Heavy Centre will also reveal the future. After five days of the presentation in Vilnius, these works and the Alternative education programme’s participants are traveling to Oslo for the second part of the exhibition at Podium. In this way, visiting the exhibition in Oslo offers a glimpse into the entangled event in Vilnius. But like any entangled experience, it is a hazy endeavour. Between two cities, works will change their spatial position and, in some cases, even their shape.
Curator: Tautvydas Urbelis
Assistant curator: Þórhildur Tinna Sigurðardóttir
Coordinator: Gabrielė Marija Vasiliauskaitė
Architecture: Linas Lapinskas
Graphic design: Nerijus Keblys & Mantas Rimkus (Taktika Studio)
Opening: 25 November 2021, 19:00
Address: Tech Arts Gallery, Vaidilutės st. 79, Vilnius
Exhibition dates: 26-29 November, 2021
Special thanks: Milda Batakytė, Ula Žiobakaitė, Violetta Pilecka, Nidos meno kolonija, Agency Agency, Monica Mays, Alice Bucknell, Lily Tonge, Adomas Narkevičius, Dylan Spencer-Davidson, Žeimiai Manor (Domas Noreika, Eglė Ambrasaitė), Monika Kalinauskaitė, Karolina Rybačiauskaitė, Ittah Yoda, Laura Wilson, Marija Nemčenko, Sophie Seita, Diana Policarpo, Kira Nova, Miki Ambrozy, Viktoras Bachmetjevas, Darius Žakaitis
Rupert’s activities are supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture
Supported by: Vilnius City Municipality, Tech Zity, Danish Arts Foundation
Partners: Podium, Gluk Media
Photography: Ugnius Gelguda
Valerie Tee Lee
Orally Jubilee: Unfolding Recipes for Decolonial Love, 2021
Mixed media
Dimensions variable
Bea Xu
Plastic Lattice, 2021,
Chanterelle mushrooms, PET bottles, foraged moss, vinyl tubing, plastic tubing connectors, scavenged metal chair, polyester, wool, cotton thread, menstrual blood, water
Installation: 93 x 73 x 28 cm
Performance: 15 min
Virginia Russolo
Axis Mundi 1 – 2, 2021
Propolis, beeswax, wool grease, pigments, paper, cotton
(1) 90 x 113 cm
(2) 60 x 40 cm
Axis Mundi 3 – 4, 2021
Propolis, beeswax, amber dust, wool grease, pigments, paper, cotton
(3) 20.5 x 29.5 cm
(4) 40 x 60 cm
Axis Mundi 7, 2021
Pigments, second-hand animal fur and leather, cotton
32 x 32 x 33 cm
ulie Marie Mønsted
Ilte, 2021
Four colour prints, video
Prints: 42 x 59.4 cm (each)
Colour video with sound
11 min
Linas Kristupas Gabrielaitis
What is it like to be, and not participate?, 2021
VR video with sound
1:58 min
Austėja Masliukaitė
The Alchemy of Letting Go, 2021
Colour video with sound
8:30 min
Aistė Marija Stankevičiūtė
Muscle Stone, 2021
Colour video with sound
3:03 min
George Finlay Ramsay
Family Fugue (Part I: The White Snake), 2021
Digital video transferred from 16mm film
15 min
Emma Bang
Sleep Spells: Every Entrance is an Exit, 2021
Silk, chamomile, lavender, cotton and sound
Installation: dimensions variable
Sound: 12 min
Exhibition view
