Following the success of the inaugural Vilnius Biennial of Performance Art in 2023, the Biennial organisers are pleased to announce an open call for artists wishing to participate in the second edition. The only performance art festival in the Lithuanian capital will take place in public and semi-public spaces in Vilnius during the spring of 2025.
The second Vilnius Biennial of Performance Art will introduce residents and guests to performances by both established and emerging Lithuanian and international artists. The main Biennial programme will take place between May and June 2025 and is organised by Vilnius City Gallery Meno niša and directed by Diana Stomienė, with Neringa Bumblienė as Artistic Director.
Theme of VB25
The theme of the upcoming Biennial is ‘Ruins’. As Bumblienė elaborates: ‘This time, I’m contemplating ruins – a state we’ve all been immersed in for some time now. We are beyond the initial shock waves; what we see now is what remains after the blasts and dust clouds have settled. A chill permeates every crevice, slowly engulfing the city and us, until nothing is left but the wide and all-encompassing horizon of its impact. The ruins, overt and still, invite us to dive deep much like large animals in the vast ocean. Within them also lies a promise. I think it is important to consciously stay there, to seek out and learn from what we find, and to change before moving forward.’
VB23 Curated Programme. Kris Lemsalu. Performance ‘Lust Fest’. Photo by Marius Žičius | VB archives
Open Call
As with the previous edition, the event programme will consist of two parts: one curated by the Biennial’s Artistic Director Neringa Bumblienė, and another dedicated to the presentation of works selected by an international jury from submissions received during the open call.
The competition programme of the second Vilnius Biennial of Performance Art is open to all artists, with no restrictions on age, country, or other criteria. Both new and existing performances that align with the theme of the Biennial, ‘Ruins,’ are welcome.
Artists are invited to submit proposals by the deadline of 15 September 2024. Selected participants will be announced in mid-December. For more information about the submission process, please visit vilniusbiennial.com/en/open-call/.
The festival team will offer curatorial and production support for creating and presenting works. In collaboration with each selected artist or collective of artists, the team will identify the necessary human and financial resources to realise these works. A total of five works will be selected for presentation in the Biennial 2025 programme.
The Jury
Submissions for the Biennial programme will be evaluated by an international jury consisting of Charles Aubin, Co-Director of the Centre Pompidou x Jersey City (US), previously Senior Curator of Performa Biennial in New York; João Laia, Artistic Director of the Department of Contemporary Art in Porto, formerly Chief Curator of Exhibitions at the Finnish National Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma in Helsinki; and Neringa Bumblienė, Artistic Director of the Vilnius Biennial and Curator of the Lithuanian National Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale and theContemporary Art Centre in Vilnius.
VB23 Curated Programme. Liam Gillick ir Anton Vidokle. Performance ‘A Guiding Light Part 2’. Photo by Andrej Vasilenko | VB archives
About the Vilnius Biennial
The Vilnius Biennial of Performance Art is an ongoing international event, which took place for the first time in 2023 as part of the programme of the 700th anniversary of Vilnius. The first Bienninal’s open call received 286 entries from 58 countries.
The two-week VB23 programme featured 38 artists and a total of 31 performances across 17 locations in Vilnius. These venues included cultural spaces like the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre, the National Gallery of Art, and the National Drama Theatre, as well as unconventional sites typically closed to the public and not usually used for displays of art, such as the outdoor area of the Train Repair Depot of the Lithuanian Railways and the Liepkalnis Water Storage facility.
The events attracted over 20,000 visitors, including a large number of foreign guests and journalists. British journalist Kirsty Lang, writing in the prestigious journal The Art Newspaper, remarked ‘Lithuania may be a small country, but it has big ambitions when it comes to the art world.’.
‘The first Biennial received significant international recognition, and we are delighted to continue this performance art festival. We have built a fantastic team of performance art enthusiasts, brought together numerous renowned artists, attracted loyal sponsors, partners, and media representatives, and are eagerly anticipating next year’s event,’ says the Biennial’s Director, Diana Stomienė. VB25 is financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Vilnius City Municipality.
VB23 Open call programa. Teo Ala-Ruona. Performance ‘Enter Exude’. Photo by Andrej Vasilenko | VB archives. JPG
