Shepherd's Residency
- Published on Thursday, 23 September 2021 12:41
Picture by Nendrė Žilinskaitė.
| The Shepherd's Residency lasted from June to October 2021, it was implemented as part of the ongoing Neringa Forest Architecture (NFA) programme, developed within the framework of NERINGA - Lithuanian Capital of Culture 2021.
In cooperation with the Curonian Spit National Park and Verpėjos, the artist-run residency and project space in the Dzūkija, NAC brought a flock of 30 Skudde sheep, owned by artist Laura Garbštiene (Verpėjos), from Dzūkija to Nida.
The idea to hold a residency for shepherds was initiated by Garbštiene as part of her participation in the Neringa Forest Architecture residency in autumn 2020. NFA follows the material cycle of the Curonian Spit forests and analyses this cultural landscape as a case study in the context of Baltic and Scandinavian forests: as a space where ecological, recreational, representational, and industrial narratives intertwine.
Through NFA, NAC aims to develop tools and initiate processes to explore and give insight into society's relationship and cooperation with this unique landscape that has been shaped by human activity over the past 200 years. Following the current regulations of upkeeping a diversity of natural habitats in the Curonian Spit National Park, the meadows of Tylos valley and Grobštas Nature reserve in Nida are to be protected from overgrowth and are a particularly valuable habitat for meadow plants. The flock of Skudde breed sheep that grazed there is particularly suitable for landscape-shaping.
This collaborative project combines the objectives of several different institutions. Developed by using the sheep for the Curonian Spit National Park for nature conservation purposes, the shepherds’ residency is based on exploring the concept of artists working in the forest with sheep as a form of coexistence. Working with sheep in this landscape gives an opportunity for the artists to delve deeper into reflecting on the ongoing processes of how landscape, space, and nature are shaped and designed. The sheep graze in the meadows that will not be reforested, thus inhabiting the landscape, grazing, and becoming new co-inhabitants in this protected structure of recreation, forestry, and cultural practices.
In order to cooperate with the local municipal agencies and the Curonian Spit National Park in initiating cultural projects that emphasise the need to create a new relationship with the environment, NAC launched an open call for the shepherds’ residency in spring 2020. Three individual participants and one collective of two have been selected to take part in this programme. All of the participants are experienced shepherds and artists with backgrounds covering a broad spectrum of artistic practices. The selection was made by the NFA curatorial team, the artist Laura Garbštiene, and the artist and agroecologist Fernando Garcia-Dory who runs a shepherding school in Spain.
Throughout the residency period, the shepherds-in-residency, Laura Garbštiene, and the NFA curatorial team organised public events like the Exercises in Landscape Reading event programme, the wool felting workshop with Kathryn Wood and the Shepherd;s Residency edition of the Neringa Forest Architecture Tours: Shepherding / Landscape / Art / Environment / Territory / Intertwined. The events enable the broader public to join the process of questioning this landscape with the support of the flock of sheep.
Shepherds in residence:
Milda Laužikaitė lives and works between Vilnius and Margionys village, Varėna district (LT). Laužikaitė has previously worked on farms and a wolf reservoir, and is familiar with animal life and needs, both domestic and wild. In performances and installations, as well as in musical creation, live improvisation is essential to Laužikaitė, as if the plan were a terrifying wall, stopping the spontaneous creative processes. This is why Laužikaitė's works always appear in collaboration with people, animals, plants, or rivers - those who are always in motion. During the residency Milda Laužikaitė will focus on interbeing with sheep, looking for ways she could integrate her creative processes into a daily shepherding routine.
Kathryn Wood lives and works in the Peak District National Park (UK). She grew up on a hill farm and studied Fine Art at The Glasgow School of Art. Her family's farm works with native sheep and poultry, so ever since her childhood she has had hands-on experience shepherding her mother’s flock of sheep. Wood’s work focuses on an understanding of the rural as a place of cultural production. She explores traditional making methods using agricultural by-products from working farms. Wood applied to the residency as an opportunity to engage in the critical dialogue of shepherding within the unique backdrop of Neringa forests, which offer a chance to slow down and document the guardianship between animal and human within this landscape.
Dovile Lapinskaitė studied Art History at Goldsmiths, University of London and now lives and works between the Western Isles of Scotland, Newcastle, and Lithuania. For the past two years, she has been involved in looking after a herd of 25 sheep that belong to artist and crofter Sallie Tyszo on the remote Isle of Lewis. In her work, Lapinskaitė focuses on LGBTQ+ archives, Queer diaspora, sexuality, and desire. She has also been rewarded as a slam poet at a Kaunas Artist House organised event in partnership with The Wicked Projects (Berlin, Germany). The NAC residency is an exciting opportunity to explore her own connection with shepherding intertwined together with the experiences of her family and the nomadic lifestyle of the Outer Hebrides.
colectivo amasijo started in 2019 in Mexico City, by a group of women from different professions and different territories: Veracruz, Oaxaca, State of Mexico and Mexico City. Their experience as shepherdesses began in Capulín (MX), doing research on communal lands and autonomy. The collective listens to the narratives that emerge from these actions as a mechanism to make visible the systems that perpetuate life. Tamayo Museum, Kamias Trienal, and Casa Wabi are some of the cultural institutions with which they have collaborated. Currently colectivo amasijo is part of a research team for MoMA.
 Laura Garbštienė and Milda Laužikaitė during the Exercises in Landscape Reading Programme. Photo by Nendrė Žilinskaitė.
 Letitia Paz (colectivo amasijo) with the sheep. Photo by Pranas Gudaitis.
 Martina Manterola (colectivo amasijo) with the sheep. Photo by Pranas Gudaitis.
 Dovilė Lapinskaitė holding the baby lamb. Photo by Nendrė Žilinskaitė.
 Dear symbionts. Photo by Milda Laužikaitė.
 Birds-eye view of the sheep. Photo by Nendrė Žilinskaitė.
 Get well soon patch for the wounded sheep. Photo by colectivo amasijo.
 Cleaning the wound of the wounded sheep. Photo by Kathryn Wood.
 Veterinarian Ira Shramkova visits her patient. Photo by Vasily Shramkov.
The project is co-funded by NERINGA - Lithuanian Capital of Culture 2021.
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