On 8 August 2024 at 6 pm, on the last day of the Roots & Wires exhibition, the closing event will take place across the spaces of the Atletika gallery and the cultural centre SODAS 2123, which will feature the presentation of the Ūmėdė.lt festival camp results.
The exhibition Roots & Wires invites the viewers to explore the world where roots and wires intertwine, where intelligence emerges from the interplay between biological and technological systems. Rather than seeking to exploit technology for productivity, the works in the exhibition bridge the gap between the human and plant worlds, revealing a hidden dimension. What if we could decipher the secret conversations between plants and fungi? What happens when plants communicate over distance, connected via the internet? What if we could create machines, the sole purpose of which was to play with plants?
It is no coincidence that this exhibition is organised in cooperation with the ūmėdė.lt festival, which takes place in the format of the DIY camp in early August this year. The camp will be rooted and off-grid, disconnected both from electricity and social networks. Curators, researchers and artists will come together for four days in a geomorphological reserve to test different ways of creating and sharing media art without the main element that powers it – electricity. Using old media forms: water, fire, kinaesthetics, language, etc., the camp participants will re-create scenarios in the event of a potential crisis, or simply out of eco-consciousness, and at the same time, they will root themselves in the geomorphological landscape. On the closing night of the Roots & Wires exhibition, the results of the camp as well as the performances of the participants will be presented.
Performative evening programme, 8 August 2024:
18.00–18.30 Guided tour of the exhibition with the artists Mindaugas Gapševičius and Lerin/Hystad and curator Katažyna Jankovska.
18.30–19.00 Presentation of the ūmėdė.lt camp with a magic drink and curators Vytautas Michelkevičius, Gailė Griciūtė, Ignas Pavliukevičius and guest Johanna Zanon.
19.00–19.45 Improvised sound performance Electronic Flora together with plants, sensors and synthesizers by Lerin/Hystad.
20.00–20.45 Cinema performance Within Flow Basin Bells by Nazare Soares and Filippos Raskovic.
With the work Electronic Flora, the duo Lerin/Hystad engages with plants firmly rooted in their environment. Although plants are sessile beings, they continuously explore their surroundings, interconnected through various internal and external networks. Lerin/Hystad records electrical data from these plants, which, through sonification, is transformed into sound. The plants themselves dictate the tones, melodies, and rhythms in the music.
Lerin/Hystad is a Swedish/Norwegian art and music duo which consists of Simon Torssell Lerin and Bettina Hvidevold Hystad. Since 2010, they have been working at the intersection of visual art and experimental music. Lerin/Hystad are both educated at Konstfack and the Royal Konsthögskolan in Stockholm, as well as at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bergen, Norway. The duo has participated in a number of individual and group exhibitions internationally. Lerin/Hystad are also active as musicians and have toured in Europe, China and Japan.
Within Flow Basin Bells – the cinema performance which steams from Nazaré Soares’ last year’s research into Water as liquid intelligence, linking bodies of water to the pollen path in Lithuania. The work will be performed in collaboration with Filippos Raskovic, nurturing a profound connection with water, plants, weaving, sound and memory.
Set in endorheic basins, where water flows inward, balancing ecosystems through evaporation—a fluid cycle of birth and rebirth. Water endorheic basins, beyond human-made borders, reflect stars and mist merges at dawn, bridging the ceased and the just born.
Nazaré Soares’ work is rooted in hydrofeminisms and deep ecologies. It interweaves relational practices, psychoacoustic and cinematic spaces, performance art and hydrotherapies, producing spaces for ritual and incubation. Soares facilitates incubations in water and Phyto-thermal bathing, which gently influence the thermal properties of cell clusters. She founded the art platform Invisibledrum based in Norway. Her work has been exhibited at the Art & Science Museum of Singapore, Palais des Congrès of Montréal, Metamorf Art & Technology Biennale, Museum of Contemporary Art of Ethiopia, Brighton Museum, Fabrica in Brighton, Indian Habitat Centre, Trondheim Kunstmuseum, Centro Botín, Sonar Music & Technology Festival, Kunsthall Trondheim & Varanger Museum among others. She participated in SODAS 2123 and ūmėdė.lt curatorial residency in 2023.
Filippos Raskovic is a composer and improviser from Athens based in Vilnius. In 2021 he completed the performative installation Echo Chambers in collaboration with the sculptor D. Tampakis, which was developed in the FUGA residency in Spain, and together with the collective Un.Processed Realities they created POST EUROPEAN RAGEROOM TM, a performance and exhibition shown at Centrum Berlin. As an improviser, he self-released his first album ‘gentle presence’’ in 2020 and has performed at Fylkingen, State51 Studios, Flatterschafft in Basel, and Studium P amongst others. He is also a founding member of ‘illucid trio’ with K. Jušinskas and G. Stepanavičius. In 2019 he co-founded the KRAMA collective and festival, an independent initiative aiming to present a new outlook within the art scene of Athens.
Exhibiting artists – Merle Bergers, Maria Castellanos, Mindaugas Gapševičius, Lerin/Hystad, Špela Petrič
Exhibition curator – Katažyna Jankovska
Design – Ringailė Demšytė
Technical manager – Merkys Žebrauskas
Performative evening of the exhibition Roots & Wires and Ūmėdė.lt festival – 08/08/2024, from 6 pm. Event language – English.
Exhibition dates & times: 28/06/2024 – 08/08/2024, Wednesdays to Fridays 4 – 8 pm.
Address: Atletika gallery, Vitebsko 21, Vilnius. Free entry to all events and exhibition, no registration needed.
The exhibition is organised by the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association (LIAA). LIAA activities are supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Vilnius City Municipality.
The exhibition is partly sponsored by the Swedish Arts Grants Committee.
Ūmėdė.lt festival and camp organiser – VšĮ Mene.