Review of 2015 and Wishes for 2016
- Published on Wednesday, 06 January 2016 15:33
| Wishing a creative and sustainable new year full of organic changes, Nida Art Colony pours a pinch of the most notable and significant events in its life over the past year and invites you to recall where the idea sands from Lithuania and Nida were blown farthest, and what left the most vivid imprints in 2015. |
| The Lithuanian Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale was the largest and most important project piled abroad by the team of Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts this last year. The Museum project by the artist Dainius Liškevičius, presented at the most important contemporary art event, was visited by over 15 thousand viewers and attracted the attention of the international art press. The unique, self-ironic perspective on the role of the artist and the gone political regime in the work naturally flowed into the stream of themes explored in the central curated exhibition and other pavilions. |
| The Climbing Invisible Structures project gave ten artists an opportunity to exchange the Lithuanian landscape for Icelandic volcanoes or Norwegian fjords, and invited foreign artists to switch from the latter ones to Nida's dunes or the Žeimiai manor ensemble. The new NAC visual arts residency exchange project concluded in the last days of 2015, as the last artists came back from Norwegian and Icelandic partner institutions. The works created during residencies, dedicated to discipline and new rituals, will be presented in exhibitions scheduled for 2016 and 2017. |
| In August, sand was flowing in sandclocks, counting the time of Interformat Symposium's talks and performances, equal to coffee breaks. The 2015 symposium's curators Dr. Vytautas Michelkevičius and artist/curator Andrew Gryf Paterson (SCO/FIN/FR) invited the participants to reflect on the symposium as a non-typical knowledge exchange space and consider the fluidity of time and its limits. The fifth Interformat event brought together 40 artists, curators, researchers, philosophers, practitioners and time managers. A total of about 200 people have taken part in all symposiums over 5 years. |
| Autumn 2015 saw the launch of a new academic branch, Nida Doctoral School. The alternative, convention-bending, flexible and shape-shifting school tackled the entaglement of art and science in its first week-long session. The school intense course titled Smoke and Mirrors – Staged Arguments and the Legitimation of Artistic Research attracted over a dozen art and science PhD students and lecturers to Nida. Curated by Julijonas Urbonas and Justė Kostikovaitė, this year's NDS session will take place in August and will invite doctoral students to reflect on artist placements and their activities in society. |
| The biggest and most unique creative activity at Nida Art Colony is maintained by over a hundred art and culture professionals staying in residency here every year. In 2015, 53 residents from 20 countries brought and shared diverse cultural and creative experiences. |
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The second building of Nida Art Colony was being constructed, and opened in November. It was by far the most prominent change in 2015. Twice larger from now on and ready to provide artists and researchers with new living and working spaces as well as expanded technical facilities, the Colony welcomes to take advantage of them even those who had previously come to Nida as seaside resort only for the vocations. |
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In 2016, we invite you to visit at least once, and bring back with you at least a pinch of Nida's sand in your shoes and much more of Nida Art Colony in your heart and your mind. Yours Nida Art Colony Team |