Neringa Forest Architecture Tours. Shepherding / Landscape / Art / Environment / Territory / Intertwined

NFA fb oct 15 V3 en
Design by Nerijus Rimkus
 
NERINGA FOREST ARCHITECTURE TOURS
SHEPHERDING / LANDSCAPE / ART / ENVIRONMENT / TERRITORY / INTERTWINED
16, 23, 30 October 2021 at 12h
 
Meeting point: 
Nida Art Colony of the Vilnius Academy of Arts
E. A. Jonušo str. 3
Nida LT-93127
 
 
As part of the ongoing Shepherds’ Residency, the first three tours puts focus on discussions around the shepherding and grazing in the Curonian Spit. We invite everyone to meet the shepherds-in-residency colectivo amasijo, Milda Laužikaitė, and Dovile Lapinskaitė, and participate in the sharing of their experiences working in and with the Neringa landscape. During the meetings shepherds, who all have artistic practices, focus on specific aspects of their works related to questions around agriculture and economy, territory, art, mindful practices in working with domestic animals, and wildlife, fermentation of wild plants of the Neringa forests and dunes and many more. Some meetings are organised as picnics, some as walks or musical encounters. 
 
 
General context: 
 
In the beginning of June a flock of 30 Skudde sheep, owned by artist Laura Garbštiene (Verpėjos), were brought from Dzūkija to Nida. Since then the sheep have been grazing in designated areas in the Grobštas Nature reserve. The flock has been guarded by artists and shepherds Milda Laužikaitė, Kathryn Wood, Dovile Lapinskaitė, and colectivo amasijo.
 
This collaborative project between Verpėjos, the artist-run residency and project space in Dzūkija, NAC and the Curonian Spit National Park combines the objectives of several different institutions. Following the current regulations of upkeeping a diversity of natural habitats in the Curonian Spit National Park, the meadows of Grobštas Nature reserve in Nida are to be protected from overgrowth and are a particularly valuable habitat for meadow plants. 
 
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 will 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.
 
The Shepherds’ Residency ends by the end of October 2021. Initiated by Laura Garbštiene, the programme is implemented as part of the ongoing Neringa Forest Architecture (NFA) project at NAC, developed within the framework of NERINGA - Lithuanian Capital of Culture 2021.
 
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.
 
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 awarded 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.
 
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.
 
Saturday, 30 October, 12pm
 
This Neringa Forest Architecture Tour concluding the Shepherd’s Residency. Aušra Feser, director of the Curonian Spit National Park, lead us to Grobštas reserve, where the Skudde sheep flock spent their summer and where the valuable grey and moving dune areas are located.
 
The directorate of the Curonian Spit National Park aims to revive grazing in order to preserve and restore open habitats. That becomes possible with various initiatives and efforts. The Curonian Spit meadows are expected to regain their gaudy bloom again. Meadows that are blooming and diverse in plants are also home to a variety of insects like butterflies and moths. If we do not take care of the fields, they would soon be overgrown by trees. Grazing is the oldest and most natural way to help restore meadows and forest fields.
 
Saturday, 23 October, 12 pm 
 
Silent walk with Dovilė Lapinskaitė followed by singing and poetry in the afternoon.
 
Dovilė Lapinskaitė:
 
“I would like to invite you for a little wander in the forest to have a moment for daydreaming. It is up to you to decide if you want to be led or be leading. Is it a collective experience or individual journey? What is your role in this forest ecosystem? Are you a tourist? Observer? Shepherd? Symbiont? Let’s get lost in the woods of our own thoughts and reflect on the ongoing processes of how landscape, space, and nature are shaped and designed through our own involvement, which most of the time feels like a subconscious act.
 
After a walk we would like you to join us for an afternoon of music and spoken word. Let’s create our own subtle ecosystem, where communal storytelling and sharing of our personal reflections, experiences and discoveries from the walk (or evoked by it) can happen. We are not only the symbionts, we are the storytellers, archivists of memories and visionaries of the better future. Let’s daydream together.”
 
Saturday, 16 October, 12 pm 
 
Picnic with colectivo amasijo focusing on the food and herbs the local environment can provide.
 
colectivo amasijo:
 
“The forest, the sheep and their relationship taught us how to interweave with the territory in a relation of exchange and horizontality. We learnt that where clearings are, herbs that heal us are born easily. Where there is humidity, we can collect fresh leaves or where bushes are, there is fruit to pick up.
 
We want to create a celebration, in a picnic display, to share these encounters with you. Reveal how our walks, guided by non-human agents, is a way of knowing the territory we travel. Also to make visible what the food-herbs, fruits, leaves, animals, and microorganisms- tell us about this “sand carpet between lagoon and sea”.”

 

29Photo by Giedrius Globys

Walk with the Curonian Spit National Park directory landscape specialist Aušra Feser. Photo by Giedrius Globys.
24Photo by Giedrius Globys
Walk with the Curonian Spit National Park directory landscape specialist Aušra Feser. Photo by Giedrius Globys.

NFA Tour 2021.10.23 by Luka Jefremovaite 2

Silent walk with Dovilė Lapinskaitė. Photo by Liuka Jefremovaitė.

NFA Tour 2021.10.23 by Luka Jefremovaite 13

Silent walk with Dovilė Lapinskaitė. Photo by Liuka Jefremovaitė.

NFA Tour 2021.10.23 by Luka Jefremovaite 7

Silent walk with Dovilė Lapinskaitė. Photo by Liuka Jefremovaitė.

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Forest walk and picnic with colectivo amasijo. Photo by Milda Laužikaitė.

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Forest walk and picnic with colectivo amasijo. Photo by Milda Laužikaitė.

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Forest walk and picnic with colectivo amasijo. Photo by Milda Laužikaitė.