What do the residents of October 2013 do in Nida Art Colony?

Published on Wednesday, 23 October 2013 09:57

There are six residents in Nida Art Colony at the moment and for the first time in NAC’s history all of them are male. Besides, they are travelling so much (in Lithuania and Europe) that their studios are often left to lean silently in autumnal wind.

Three residents – Martin Neumaier (DE), Žilvinas Landzbergas (LT) and Dominique Blais (FR) – arrived to NAC for production residency with exhibition with grants from French Culture Institute, Goethe Institute Vilnius and Vilnius Academy of Arts on the occasion of 50th Anniversary of the Elysée Treaty. While staying in NAC the artists are creating works for the exhibition “Between Time and History”, curated by Julija Čistiakova. The exhibition will open in November  in Vilnius Academy of Arts gallery “Titanikas”.

Martin Neumaier has been residing in the Colony since the middle of September. All his creative work is focused on the topics of imperialism, German colonialism, what does it mean to be a German in those lands, to have this colonial past. After the research trip to Papua New Guinea in 2011, Martin arrives to Nida, another land that used to belong to Germans. However, this is more of a coincidence than a conscious intention. According to Martin, he had no intent to come here and arrived to Nida only because the curator Julija Čistiakova invited him. During his residency Martin is planning to make approximately 25 collages: he is cutting portraits out of old books (from 18-19th centuries) and constructing new portraits or landscapes. Together with collages Martin wants to exhibit a collection of Prussian tin soldiers which were collected by his grandfather as well as make an installation of desk lamps bought in “Maxima” supermarket.

While on residency in NAC, Paris-based French artist Dominique Blais tried to experience the time and the landscape of this amazing remote place in Lithuania. He decided to work on a project about passing of time and repeat the same process everyday the first weeks of his journey. The artist has chosen two places — one near the sundial in Nida, from where the sunrise is visible on the east side, and the other one near the Baltic sea where the sun comes down.  His idea is to catch an extremely slow passage of the day determined with two marks – the sunrise and the sunset. D.Blais is going to materialise this idea by alternately exposing different pictures in two light boxes. Moreover, he is working on a video about the lighthouse in Nida, exploring its hypnotic effects and transposing it as a clock deprived of any time information.

Žilvinas Landzbergas, as well as Dominique, is going to finish his residency in the end of October. This artist is best known for his installations where fast moving images and objects define the contemporary life. There is a cosy chaos in his studio – Ž. Landzbergas is going to make a sculptural installation “Throne” for the exhibition in “Titanikas” which would reflect the present context of Lithuania Minor.

Sculptor Tomas Martišauskis (LT) has started his residency in the middle of October and he is the fifth Techno Ecologies grant recipient in NAC. As Tomas states, his works deal with the problems associated with the shifting field of visual strategies in conjuncture with the mechanical or digital era. His project for the residency is a multi media installation titled “Above the level” which would consider such themes as the sea level, changing coast, migrating landscape, the site /time specific situation.

In the beginning of October two more residents arrived – this time for individual residencies. Yann Vanderme (FR) was quite surprised that Nida is such a remote and natural place, therefore it took some time for him to get used to this environment. The artist is interested in the way we build our judgement and how it affects our existence. He is planning to work on an interactive installations which would deal with basic experiences like seeing or touching. Yann is also seriously thinking about puppetry and would like to explore the topics mentioned above in relation to puppet show.

Meanwhile Austrian Hannes Gruber (AT, DE), who arrived for an individual residency through the Artist Exchange programme “Vorarlberg goes Nida”, recently has been travelling a lot and so far has spent very little time in the Colony. Hannes is interested in boredom, absence, unconsciousness and loss of memory, thus he is thinking to reflect on these topics in a mixed media project which would consist of some drawings, a video, a piece of sound and maybe an object – all of them would be presented in a performance.

Autumn has reached the middle and there are more and more signs of upcoming dark and rainy November, so the colonists wear warmer clothes, spend longer time in the kitchen or mediatheque, more often seek a company… However, creative needs and possibility to see a moose allure them to go outside once in a while.