A group of anonymous artists Coolturistės (LT) was founded in 2005 in Vilnius. The main principle of their actions is mis(s)appropriation. It’s a deconstruction of dominating power systems appropriating and crossing cultural contexts. All the builders’ covered buildings, swallows of sculpture by Mikėnas, “National men award”, EU anthem, chimney of “Tate Modern”, Vilnius street in Warsaw, Marriage hall and movie theatre “Lithuania” were “appropriated” during that time.

“The group during the last decade consolidated as a stable, constantly lurking, being everywhere and nowhere, still, but as an inexorable power, which you should take into account or lean on to it going to a battle. Although the group acting locally, is seen internationally. It organized exhibitions and performances at the important art spaces and biennials as following Prague, Tallinn, London, Warsaw, Thessaloniki, Brussels, Istanbul, Gdansk, Bolzano, Bremen, Rauma, Minsk, Berlin. Their art catalogue was published; they were presented by “Mousse” magazine and „re.act.feminism publication #2 – a performing archive“ (Agne Narusyte).

Coolturistes will prepare for the upcoming exhibition „When the sea looks back”, curated by Emma Haugh and Suza Husse. The exhibition opens in July at Nida Art Colony. 

Katarina Poliacikova (SK) is a visual artist working across media. In 2013 she completed her PhD at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, Slovakia.In her artwork, she employs photography, video and installation to tell stories about time, memory and human connection. A keen observation of reality underlies her creative process and she often uses found material, such as photographs, books or fragments of narratives. In 2016, she started a blog called Eggtuition - a platform where she combines her writing with a distinctive visual vocabulary.

Since 2010, Katarina has explored many places while taking part in art residency programs across Europe and in New York. During her stay at Nida, she’ll work on a series of short films, searching for analogies between processes of human memory and the changing landscape of sand dunes and the Baltic sea.

Katarina’s residency stay at VVA Nida Art Colony is supported by the Slovak Arts Council. 

Indrė Ercmonaitė (LT) thinks about painting quite peculiarly. Above all, the main theme is more imaginative than just the visual. It all started with worshipping the equipment and materials of painting in a magical circle. Then the oil paint became a main character in a plot of a painting itself  and so continued the research of a painting as a substantive object. Painting is quite a vast media for expression, not only a flat rectangle. How a painter influences painting and how a painting influences the painter? The eternal correlation between the author and its creation. The painting as a process and the meaning of it could be compared to a ghost or a phantom. It contains obscurity, pain, darkness and light. „I believe in the process of painting. My artworks live an active life within me and on their own, they are animate. I'm pretty confused where „I“ end and where the „Painting“ starts. My visual thoughts become apart of theirs, the paintings‘ identities. Therefore, to a certain degree these thoughts belong to both parties. The painting is an individual,“ ‒ says Indrė Ercmonaitė is a winner of the 16th Vilnius Painting Triennial competition.

Indre will explore landscape of Nida and study local colours of forest and sea; and paint an plein air during the residency. 

Yael Vishnizki Levi (PL) (b. 1988) lives and works in Warsaw, Poland. In her work, she explores ideas of different surroundings using actual and virtual spaces, creating a visual model or a theme that functions as a microcosm of a larger surrounding. She continuously searches for imagery which can juggle many of the dilemmas of constantly changing historical and social perspectives. Through using different objects and images in her installations, she attempts to create different relationships to reality and an illusion of time and space. When the performative intervention is not presented or revealed, the objects themselves become a form of documentation. 

Yael will work on two projects in the course of her residency in Nida. The first will be a series of drawings of both real and invented objects used by spies from the Cold War period in both sides of the iron curtain. These objects were often especially built or constructed in the way that will allow to either deliver information or attack human targets. The second project will focus on the cultural and political history of Nida. First, as an Artists Colony in the late 19th century, mostly occupied by German Expressionists and later a part of a controlled-entry holiday area for the communist party officials.