Nightlife Residency 2020 in Nida, Lithuania
- Published on Thursday, 27 February 2020 10:40
Developed by the Beijing based I: Project Space and The Neighborhood, Nightlife Residency was first launched in 2018 to give artists working on fusion of visual art and nightclub culture time and space to focus on their productions as well as connect to the ever-growing and increasingly idiosyncratic nightclub and electronic music communities in Beijing and China. Bringing this residency format to Nida and the Baltic Region, we want to open up the NAC Residencies to a broad scope of practitioners, rhythms, sounds, and visuals and contribute to twisting and broadening definitions of visual culture.
An open call was launched in March 2020 for DJs, producers, artists, and performers to work in Nida during a two-month residency in summer 2020. Funded with 2500€ stipend, the residency is aimed for practitioners to focus on individual productions and connect to the vivid and urban summer community of the Neringa region, including its open-air beach and forest clubs, bars and hangouts. Nida is a remote village on the Curonian Spit and the Baltic Sea in Lithuania, secluded during most parts of the year, but becoming a broad meeting point in the summer months.
Applications were assessed and interviews conducted by the teams of NAC, I: Project Space and The Neighborhood in April 2020. Among 64 applications received DJ, producer, researcher, and writer Noëmie Vermoesen (Gigsta) was selected to participate to Nightlife Residency 2020 in Nida.
Gigsta. Photo by Mailie Viney.Gigsta (lives and works in Berlin) gets as much joy dancing to music as she does reflecting on it – as an academic researcher, DJ, producer, promoter, radio host, and zine maker. Her show on Berlin’s Cashmere Radio, Fictions, gives you a feel for the breadth of her enthusiasm (recent themed shows have covered Bandcamp edits, laughter, the cosmos, and Anne Garreta’s experimental novel Sphinx). Gigsta recently curated a zine with and about women writing on dance music. But it’s in the club where Gigsta’s DJing really shines. She might throw together playful disco with obscure bass-heavy grooves, deftly switch tempo multiple times in a set, bleed in the odd cut-out sample hinting at an oblique theme, or incorporate her own edits. Gigsta is a resident at Berlin-based queer femme and non-binary forward collective Room4Resistance, promotes her own parties called Fictions, and has been invited to perform in many clubs and festivals across Europe. However, her gig schedule is organised at train pace: in 2019, Gigsta decided to stop flying completely.
Gigsta currently writes her PhD thesis Techno taken at its word: electronic dance music criticism in Germany, France and the United Kingdom 1986–1999 at Université Rennes 2 in Comparative Literature.
Resident Advisor: https://www.residentadvisor.net/dj/gigsta-de
Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/gigstab
Nightlife Residency 2020 in Nida is embedded within the framework of a series of night events organized by NAC to take place throughout the summer at local Nida bars and clubs. NAC has invited other art collectives, residencies and institutions from mainland Lithuania: Autarkia, DAR, CAC, Kaunas Artists House, Lokomotif, and Rupert to each organize one event, and to collaborate, exchange, gather, and be part of Nida nightlife. Dates and participants will be announced soon.
The project is co-funded by Lithuanian Council for Culture, Goethe Institut, and the Thomas Mann Cultural Centre.