The artists group Dalia Mikonytė and Adomas Žudys (LT) works together and separately. Dalia Mikonyte is an artist, photographer and researcher, member of artists group Coolturistes and The Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association (LeTMeKoo). Adomas Žudys mostly works with big street art projects, stencils, video mapping, 3D graphics and design. Together Dalia and Adomas work with photography, video, 3D and text medias. Artists focuses on old and well known art forms mixed together with new science and technology. They are interested in intimate space and time, personal experiences, identity and its representation, signs and reality. Their interests and inspirations balance between history and contemporary art, among theory and sentiment.

Dalia Mikonyte and Adomas Žudys have recieved the annual Neringa Municipality Grant this year. During the residency the artists will work on a surreal video “Studies of the Cites: Neringa and Curonian Spit” as a compliment to Neringa city and Curonian Spit. By juxtaposing buildings of the town at various angles and scales, a new way of looking at the town is experienced. The video takes the viewer through the virtual tour of Neringa and Curonian Spit, where various notions of new, old, modern and traditional are intertwined.

Julia Rautenhaus (DE) (b. 1982) lives and works in Düsseldorf (Germany). Julia isworking with installations, stage and costume design, objects, performance, and photography. She graduated from the Düsseldorf Art Academy in 2009. She collaborates with several artists and scientists in theater projects and as well as creating installations and performance in open space.  In her work, she grapples with space or the location which she discovers in a context of its history and using wide variations of materials for it. Her interests are to find out, how art could change a place or a room in time and what it means when it is transience.

During the residency, Julia will continue her work started in Vilnius, where she engaged with the history and architecture of Piliakalnis (hillforts) in Lithuania. Julia Rautenhaus is taking part in excahnge program of Vilnius city municipality Culture department, Vilnius Academy of Arts and Düsseldorf municilapity Culture Department.

Marie Raffn & Signe Boe (DK) is a Danish speaking artist collaboration, working together since 2016. Raffn holds a MFA from Malmö Art Academy from 2016. Boe graduated at The Royal Danish Academy of Arts ‒ Schools of Visual Arts 2017.

Within the media of film, sculpture and text, Raffn and Boe are interested in linguistic and cultural misunderstandings, translations and exchanges. During the residency in Nida Art Colony the artists will be working with collected material on historical connections between Denmark and Lithuania ‒ particularly with focus on the trade of Danish concrete for Lithuanian horses in the 1930’s under the work title “the concrete horses”.

Marija Nemčenko (LT/UK) is an artist and an educator living and working in Glasgow, Scotland. She received her MFA from Glasgow School of Art in 2016 and BA(Hons) in Sculpture from Camberwell College of Arts in 2013. In 2018 she will be part of an alternative education program “School for Civic Imagination” at CCA in Glasgow, Scotland. This school will explore the implications that creative alternative structures could have on the civic society. Despite Glasgow being her base, Marija’s working environment often fluctuates between UK, Lithuania and Morocco, where she exhibits and devises various creative learning activities. In 2018 her solo show “BRUT” will be part of Glasgow International Biennial. Marija’s inter-disciplinary practice explores contemporary myths and their dissemination through popular media. She is especially interested in stereotypes, which, in our current, times often become instruments for reasoning with the world. In order to challenge our perception of reality through myth and legend, the Marija creates satirical and fictional scenarios that explore the themes of cultural identity, migration and orientalism.

During the residency, Marija will work on a research that aims to expose the blurry line between fact and fiction, which becomes manipulated in the hands of modern “truth tellers”. She will be working to produce material for her docu-fiction film “Swan Bake” that is based on an article about Lithuanian migrants printed in “The Sun” newspaper in 2003. 

Tanja Lažetić (SI) is based in Ljubljana, Slovenia. She graduated with a degree in architecture from the University of Ljubljana. Her work is concerned with intimate stories, lost illusions and the transformation of women’s roles in society. She is working with photography, video, sound, installations and performances. In last ten years she published more then twenty artist’s books. One is included in The Photobook: A History, Volume III published by Phaidon. In 2015 she won the third prize at the International Ceramic Triennial in Ljubljana and the bronze prize at the Nanjing Festival in China for her photography work. This year she won Rihard Jakopič Recognition in Slovenia, the most important national award.

During the residency Tanja will be focusing on research about the position of women in society. She will be looking for an inspiration in the ancient legend of Lilith, a female demon of the night.