In January, practitioners from Lithuania and Latvia will continue their work in Nida as part of the Neringa Forest Architecture residency programme. Despite the many restrictions on gathering and spending time together that usually make the atmosphere at NAC residencies, we manage to invent safe ways of sharing and exchange. The remote location of Nida and NAC is especially cherished in the current difficult times of Lithuania, as focused work is still possible in the studios and the workshop. In some ways, NAC feels like a refuge. The environment surrounding NAC helps, as the forest and the dunes have brought up their full color palette, presenting lichens and mosses in a variety of subtle pastel browns, greens, and greys. 

In January, Riga-based Signe Pelne, a researcher in architecture and the socio-economic foundations of built environments, joins the group of the Neringa Forest Architecture residency participants. Designer and artist Monika Janulevičiūtė continues her work on a new commission for NAC at the weaving studio, and artist Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė is about to finish her work on illustrations for the upcoming children's book on lichens. Denisas Kolomyckis, Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė and Dovydas Korba will stay in Nida in January, as well as the artist Antanas Gerlikas who will continue his work in Nida inventing new types of pragmatic structures for NAC.

Signe Pelne is an architectural designer and researcher within the field of architecture, living and working in Riga and London. Pelne is an alumnus of the University of Westminster and is currently completing her MA in Architecture from the Royal College of Art. She has also studied in Copenhagen and Beijing as well as experienced multiple architectural workshops in Canada, Germany, India, Latvia, and Estonia. Pelne’s work is a mix of research and architectural practice.  It revolves around multidisciplinary work that is founded in socio-economic research. Mainly focusing on analysing the historical, architectural, and ecological contexts of the site, her projects focus on producing sustainable and socially positive environments. In Nida, she wishes to examine the socio-historical importance of forests in the Baltics and the future importance of this resource ecologically and economically.

Denisas Kolomyckis is an actor and creator of interdisciplinary art based in Vilnius. Kolomyckis studied ballet at the M. K. Čiurlionis National School of Arts, continued his studies at the London Dance and Drama Conservatory, and is currently studying at the Sculpture Department of Vilnius Academy of Arts. His works have been exhibited at the Contemporary Art Center (Vilnius), Serpentine gallery (London), Microscope gallery (New York), and elsewhere. The works of the project Ona, Ona Raise the Skirt have been presented at The Guardian among other cultural media channels. In Nida, Kolomyckis will develop and finalize series of works that reflect on body, queer identity, gender, and sexuality within transgression.

Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė explores the tensions between objective and imaginary realities in her art works, asking relevant ąuestions about humanity and humans as a species. Barzdžiukaitė's work is characterized as a specific harmony between humor and serenity, simplicity and intellectuality, and he documentary manner of recording phenomena is combined with a well-thought-out structure of works. In 2019 Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė together with Vaiva Grainyte and Lina Lapelyte represented Lithuania at the Venice Biennale with the opera-performance Sun and Sea (Marina), which was awarded the Golden Lion. Her film Acid Forest, created together with Dovydas Korba, about tourists watched by cormorants on the Curonian Spit, has been awarded at the Locarno Film Festival and other film festivals. Rugilė is currently developing a work with the working title Beauty is a Winner, Winner is a Queen.

Dovydas Korba works with film, installation and visual arts. He graduated with master's studies of Photography and Media Arts at Vilnius Academy of Arts, and he also studied at Transarts  Interdisciplinary Arts Program at Die Angewandte Academy in Vienna. In his work, Korba pays special attention to his relationship with language and to the study of language overcoming and re-creation, and different expressions of media as translation strategies. Korba also has a degree in film production from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, and together with Rugile Barzdžiukaitė, has founded the public institution Neon Realism. He is currently developing a creative project called Black Boxes.

Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė is an experimental architect and artist living and working in Kaunas. During her master's studies at the Vienna Academy of Arts, Ambrazevičiūtė discovered her strengths in the experimental and interdisciplinary fields of architecture. Her projects focus on creating links between the natural and human-made environment, applying technology in practice, and synthesizing the arts in architecture. In 2019, she founded the 3D digital art studio Plantasia Lab, which aims to foster a variety of shapes and materials. During the residency, Ambrazevičiūtė plans to work on the ongoing project Forest Tectonics. By observing the forest surfaces of the Neringa, Aistė investigates bark cracks and niche environments as landmarks of complexity and diversity.

Monika Janulevičiūtė is a graphic designer and artist based in Vilnius. By examining historical and archeological knowledge, methods, and work traditions passed intergenerationally, she is looking at the technological processes accumulated over a broad timeline overarching thousands of years. The particular shifts, redundancies, and innovations that are investigated happen in multi-stage processes including fiber preparation, weaving, basketry and carpentry, practices of dyeing, staining, block printing, weathering, and tool making. This process goes tightly together with writing, drafting, and the prototyping of objects. Her main projects are The Lair (2020), the solo exhibition Water Striders at Editorial space in Vilnius (2019), and the performance GIRLISONFIRE in Amsterdam, Madrid, London, Vilnius (2018). In Nida, Janulevičiūtė analyzes the archetype of a bench. By applying locally available materials and leftover resources, she makes and looks at it as a tool, of quotidian necessity and commonality.

Antanas Gerlikas lives and works in Vilnius. His solo exhibitions have taken place at Plunge culture centre (1999), NY Art Centre Art in General (2013), Antwerpen Art Centre Objectif Exhibitions (2013), CAC in Vilnius (2016), P////AKT in Amsterdam with Laura Kaminskaite (2018), and Design Fair Grassimesse in Leipzig (2020). His upcoming solo exhibition will take place at the project space Editorial in Vilnius (2021). 

NAC Residencies are co-funded by Lithuanian Council for Culture.

Neringa Forest Architecture residencies are co-funded by NERINGA Lithuanian Capital of Culture 2021, Lithuanian Council for Culture and Nordic Culture Point.