VIDEOGRAMS’23: WAYS TO REMEMBER

An archive is not merely a repository of official records; it is an expansive realm of images, sounds, documents and other tangible remnants that shape the collective memory. By delving into its layers, the contemporary art scene has evolved into an active space of continuous ‘excavation’, adapting its form and searching for ways to redefine itself. Artists and curators who consider archival material as their primary source of creativity, are the architects of this space, aiming to expand the archive beyond the confines of document repositories, transforming it into a dynamic instrument that generates alternative knowledge and new ways of remembrance. This approach entails more than just the attempt to undertake archival work that serves the functions of a repository, searches for narratives and fills gaps. It also strives to challenge the illusion of completes in official archives, and question and destabilise their authority. By distancing the archive from the conventional perception of a document repository and incorporating various forms of cultural production, hundreds of artists and curators have endeavoured to create an alternative memory, using the archive as raw material, deconstructing, reworking and manipulating it to create something new and enable fresh perspectives. Ultimately, the artists are not only ‘unearthing’ material, but are themselves creating different ways of preserving memory, assembling personal archives that document the present, especially that which falls outside the purview of official institutions and the media.

This year, the artist film and moving image festival VIDEOGRAMS invites you to reflect on archival art practices in Lithuania and abroad. The festival’s curators propose that we direct our focus toward the phenomenon of the archive as something that operates in relation to contemporary realities, explore the dynamics of power and authority that are at work in archives, and take a closer look at how the archive is defined in contemporary art. VIDEOGRAMS will serve as a platform for a variety of formats, including lectures, talks, work-in-progress presentations, film screenings, and an exhibition. By bringing together seasoned curators, artists, and scholars, the event aspires to not only reflect on recent or emerging moving image projects, but also to foster the development of future artistic practices.

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Calendar

Exhibition “Gestures of Longing”

2023 November 21 19:00
December 02
“Meno avilys” Cinematheque, A. Goštauto g. 2

Opening. Film programme “The Sun Has No Shadow”

2023 November 21 19:00
SODAS 2123, Vitebsko g. 23

Work-in-progress “The Poor Cry Too” with Viktorija Mickutė and Ieva Balsiūnaitė

2023 November 22 19:00
“Meno avilys” Cinematheque, A. Goštauto g. 2

Discussion: “(Non)secret archives”

2023 November 22 20:00
“Meno avilys” Cinematheque, A. Goštauto g. 2

Presentation by Inesa Brašiškė: “Archive Work”

2023 November 23 19:00
“Meno avilys” Cinematheque, A. Goštauto g. 2

Film “Home Invasion” + Q&A

2023 November 23 20:30
“Meno avilys” Cinematheque, A. Goštauto g. 2

Film programme “The Many Faces of Resistance Propped by Our Screens”

2023 November 24 19:00
“Meno avilys” Cinematheque, A. Goštauto g. 2

Film “Foragers”

2023 November 25 18:30
Skalvija Cinema Centre, A. Goštauto g. 2

“New Pessimism” studio film programme

2023 November 25 20:30
Skalvija Cinema Centre, A. Goštauto g. 2

Work-in-progress “Woman, girls and more. What’s next?” with Agnė Jokšė

2023 November 26 17:00
“Meno avilys” Cinematheque, A. Goštauto g. 2

Film “Monisme”

2023 November 26 20:30
Skalvija Cinema Centre, A. Goštauto g. 2

Archive

2022

Videograms’22: Looking at the Eastern Europe Through the Eyes of Others

In 2022, VIDEOGRAMS, a festival of artists’ films and moving images, travels back and forth across the heterogeneous, controversial, and highly diverse region of Eastern Europe and its definitions of identity. As Russia launched an open and brutal military invasion of Ukraine on 24th February, ideas about the sovereignty of our region and its authenticity that stress the need to evaluate, analyze and delve into the historical past and develop critical thinking have complemented to the original anxiety and concern. As it turns out, the nuanced reality of the region remains unknown not only to people who do not live here but also to ourselves. Freedom of thought becomes inconceivable without access to various historical sources and uninhibited documentation of the present, the ability to gather in groups, enjoy and share not only high culture but also the very streets that act as a medium for self-expression and non-conformism.

VIDEOGRAMS offers a poetic and critical look focusing on the cracks and amnesias of collective memory. It raises issues related to becoming a part of collective memory, the individual’s participation, their significance in these processes, and the resulting potential for creativity. This year’s festival program invites a critical discussion about the region’s socialist past and its many-sided heritage. It also looks for ways to advocate for the complexity of phenomena in these antagonistic times and seeks mutual understanding with the help of moving images. Most of the films in this year’s festival examine the Eastern European region as seen from its borderlands, fringes, by its close and far neighbours, or through  the cultural influences of the so-called former West.. At the same time, we invite the audience to perceive Eastern Europe as an integral part of global, all-encompassing economic and sociopolitical systems.

In the festival’s program, the Eastern European region is perceived not only as a local narrative or something that thrives in the socialist past but also as a participant in the global financial capitalism and patriarchy—abstract and surreal economic and social systems that enable each other. This theme is further developed in the exhibition “Sleeplessness” curated by Gerda Paliušytė and set up in an uninhabited apartment.

In the exhibition, visitors will see works by artists Tom Kobialka, Peter Wächtler, and Sallamari Rantala, which focus on archaic consumerism and the visual expression of economic systems and how it becomes part of a personal archive. This nighttime story brings together a vampire who spends his days in a castle tower and dreams about a warm blanket, heroes created by the largest Australian bank, which taught children about entrepreneurship, 3D reliefs made of sand, and American marshmallows roasted over a fire. The mood of the “Sleeplessness” show was crafted together with the artist Gediminas G. Akstinas while thinking about an evening at the camping site when the night shadows and the fear they cause become oddly charming and even cozy in a familiar and safe environment.

The VIDEOGRAMS screening program, this year open to the public free of charge, will be held at the Meno Avilys Cinematheque. The programme opens with the documentary by Ukrainian and German directors Tatyana Kononenko and Matilda Mester, “The Building (Budinok / Das Haus)” created at the end of 2019. It gently observes “Derzhprom,” the colossal State Industry Chamber in Kharkiv, Eastern Ukraine, built in the style of Soviet constructivism between 1925 and 1928. In the context of today’s war, when Kharkiv is one of the most devastated cities in Ukraine, the insights of director Tatyana Kononenko, who will be present at the film’s presentation, will be especially valuable. The premiere of the film took place during the pandemic, so it will be the first and special screening of the director together with the audience.

A familiar history of socialism, yet one with absolutely different outcomes than in Lithuania, is analyzed in Marta Popivoda’s film “Yugoslavia: How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body.” The director examines Yugoslavia’s rich archive of moving images that document the evolution of the relationship between ideology and the human body in public space. Yael Bartana’s trilogy “And Europe Will Be Stunned” also seeks to understand the historical genesis of current contradictions, such as the spread of nationalist sentiments in post-socialist democracies. In these two screenings, the coexistence of historical irresolvable traumas and equally contradictory trajectories of utopian expectations suggests that the analysis of these contradictions needs to be undertaken by looking for ways to dive into the shared historical unconscious. According to the historian Timothy Snyder, who studies Eastern Europe pan-regionally rather than on a national basis, “without history, the memories become private, which today means national […] With all of its complexity, history is what we all have, and can all share.”

The program will also address Russian colonialism by invoking the histories of Russia’s indigenous peoples and neighboring countries. A selection of films reveal the complexity of specific areas and the cultivation of customs, lifestyle, and traditions while opposing the ideology introduced by the Soviets, as well as the search for identity and its cultivation after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Liesbeth De Ceulaer’s film “Holgut,” which talks about climate change but has taken on other meanings in today’s context, tells the story of three Yakuts. Two brothers and a scientist venture into the vast wilderness of the Republic of Sakha with two tasks. Roman and Kyym hunt for a rare reindeer while Semyon searches for a viable mammoth cell that he needs for cloning. The film undoubtedly raises questions about Russian-colonized northern tribal territories. We continue our journey through the steppes with the film “On a Clear Day You Can See the Revolution from Here,” which uncovers various layers of Kazakh mythology, geology, and technology to show the changing relationship between government, people, and their land. The film focuses on the modern processes of nation-building and myth-making and depicts the continuous process of national identity creation. Finally, the poetic “5 Dreamers and a Horse” tells the story of a complex and contrasting Armenia where a generation of young people dreaming of a revolution coexists with archaic traditions and the Soviet legacy.

This year, at VIDEOGRAMS, we also invite you to meet director Simona Žemaitytė at a very special work-in-progress presentation of her new film. In May 2022, Žemaitytė started filming a many-time national weightlifting champion from Ukraine, who temporarily left his country with his family for Lithuania when the bombing of the Irpin city began. Simona Žemaitytė raises questions about alternative forms of resistance, internal and external struggles, discipline, and masculinity. Today, the hero of the upcoming film has returned to Ukraine, where he continues to train Ukrainian children in a city badly affected by the war and prepares himself for future sports events.

One screening of VIDEOGRAMS will be dedicated to short skateboarding films that are of historical value and/or stand out in terms of their cinematography, domestic and international, such as Spike Jonze’s cult “Video Days,” 1991.  We treat this event as a tribute to non-conventional cinema, subcultures, and communities that transcend geopolitical boundaries. Instead of the local expression of skateboarding and the accompanying culture, this screening focuses on the styles and forms of expression that unite different eras and continents, which have already become part of the international industry today. Besides, it is an absolute joy to see the beauty of skating and cinema in one showing.

In 2022, the VIDEOGRAMS festival is co-organized together with Meno Avilys, an independent non-governmental organization founded in Vilnius by like-minded people in 2005 with a focus on cinema and audiovisual media. The synergy between these two independent initiatives allows to pursue common goals in supporting contemporary artists, disseminating their works, and moving image practices that often appear outside the common film market, including more diverse groups of society in the contemporary art processes, and encouraging a more open and comprehensive conversation about the contemporary moment.

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Group exhibition “Sleeplessness”

2022 November 24 19:00
December 11
Goštauto g. 2

Film “Budinok / Das Haus”

Film “On A Clear Day You Can See the Revolution From Here”

Work-in-progress presentation with Simona Žemaitytė

Film “Yugoslavia: How Ideology Moved Our Collective Body”

Film “5 Dreamers and a Horse”

Riedlenčių filmų programa

Film “Holgut”

Film programme “And Europe Will Be Stunned. Trilogy”

Programme of skaters’ videos

2021

“Porosity”

This year’s festival theme Porosity and the film programmes invites us to explore how we define ourselves and the creation of inner and outer worlds, and discusses the boundaries between them. Videograms 2021 moves from Kaunas to Vilnius, with programming events scattered across November, December and January, different cities and virtual spaces. The first event is the exhibition “Porosity” (curated by Monika Lipšic and Viktorija Šiaulytė) at the cultural venue Sodas2123, open to the public from 18 November to 4 December. The exhibition focuses on the relationship between the living environment/architecture and the inner world of a human/inhabitant.

Later, during thematic screenings at the Skalvija Cinema Center on 8-12 December, the programme What We Left Unfinished (curated by Karolis Žukas) will present archival films by Courtney Stephens, Tomasz Wolski, Mariam Ghani and others, exploring private and public memories. On 15-19 December, a three-part video programme (curated by Gerda Paliušytė) presented in the same cinema space will commemorate the philosophy, work and trajectories of thought of Lauren Berlant (1957-2021). In this programme, the gaze turns to the ability to feel, observe, learn, love, fantasise and desire in a complex world of overlapping artificial realities and regimes – a world that not only limits or disappoints, but also empowers. The programme will showcase a wide range of work by artists and filmmakers representing various generations and a broad geographical spectrum. Featured artists include Myanmar artist Moe Satt, British artist Josiane M.H. Pozi, Indian documentary filmmaker Malati Rao and others. The viewers of the Coming of Age screening will also have the possibility to join the presentation of a new film by artist Daiva Tubutytė, with the participation of the artist herself.

 

The festival’s theme Porosity unfolds through the whole of this year’s programme. During the lockdown period, film consumption became a very individualised practice, while personal interior spaces act as the birthplace of a special relationship between moving images and the viewer. The exhibition “Porosity” features a joint project by Vladas Suncovas, Marek Voida, Monika Lipšic and Viktorija Šiaulytė – a bedding textile set that follows a “videogrammic” logic. It is both an artist edition and a functional design object conceived as a cover for an individualised consumption of films. At the same time, the print of diagrams on its surface may work like a map of the genealogy of ideas and innovations that represent the desire to be teleported to cinematic, virtual or imaginary worlds.

Artist Ieva Lygnugarytė will also present an artwork-installation in the context of: her object will come to life in the nocturnal cities of New York and Vilnius. Moreover, new Videograms Festival website www.videograms.online presents its Online room, which will feature moving image projects by contemporary artists on a monthly basis. The first Online room artist Anastasia Sosunova presents her work When all this is over, let’s meet up! on the website on 13 November.

 

Festival team:

Curators: Viktorija Šiaulytė, Monika Lipšic, Karolis Žukas, Gerda Paliušytė
Communication and public relations: Indraja Vaitkūnaitė
Graphic design: Marek Voida
Editing and translation: Alexandra Bondarev
Photography: Gedvilė Tamošiūnaitė, Andrej Vasilenko
Architecture of the exhibition “Porosity”: Vladas Suncovas
Website programming: Mindaugas Ūba

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Film programme “Coming of age”

2021 December 17 19:40
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius

Film programme “Studying-relearning”

2021 December 18 16:15
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius

Film programme “Desire-Love”

2021 December 18 18:00
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius

Film programme “Coming of age”

2021 December 19 16:00
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius

Exhibition “Porosity“

2021 November 18 19:00
December 04

Film programme “What We Left Unfinished”

2021 December 08 17:30
December 12
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius

Film “What We Left Unfinished”

2021 December 08 17:30
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius

Film programme “What We Left Unfinished” – An Ordinary Country

2021 December 08 19:10
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius

Film programme “What We Left Unfinished” – Before the Dying of the Light

2021 December 09 17:00
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius

Film programme “What We Left Unfinished” – Terra Femme + All Other Things Equal

2021 December 09 18:40
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius

Film programme “What We Left Unfinished” – An Ordinary Country

2021 December 10 19:50
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius

Film programme “What We Left Unfinished” – War and Peace

2021 December 10 21:00
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius

Film programme “What We Left Unfinished” – Before the Dying of the Light

2021 December 11 17:00
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius

Film “What We Left Unfinished”

2021 December 11 19:00
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius

Film programme “What We Left Unfinished” – Terra Femme + All Other Things Equal

2021 December 12 16:10
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius

Film programme “Studying-relearning”

2021 December 15 19:10
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius

Film programme “Desire-Love”

2021 December 16 19:00
Skalvija, A. Goštauto g. 2, Vilnius
2020

Videograms. Kaunas International Film Festival

𝘝𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘴 is the title of this year’s International Kaunas Film Festival, a curated programme of films, contemporary video art and artists’ films that explore the impact of images and media as active makers of history. The title was inspired by Harun Farocki’s (1944-2014) 𝘝𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘰𝘨𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘢 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 (1992), a documentary film on the role of media in the unfolding Romanian Revolution, during which the execution of the leader of the country was broadcasted live. One of the themes of the festival is how contemporary video cultures become an extension of our visual thinking and what place this reciprocal process takes in our imagination. How the so-called videoimagination, created through moving image and technology, thrives in the world? Can our dreams be called videos too? The programme aims to present specifically artistic videos, artists’ productions, often made outside the film production market and the politics of affiliation behind it.

The programme also pays attention to the various forms of moving image production as collective undertaking, as activism and as research. This year’s curated selection of feature fiction and documentary films profoundly engage with understandings of health and wellbeing and the complex relation between individual and societal ‘health’ whether embodied, economic or environmental and across the political spectrum. Who defines the boundary and the liminal state of health and sickness? In the selection of artists’ films, we see how individual health and illness are affected by social structures. The films show how we might deconstruct these structures and also how we can revisit and question the histories and futures of what it means to be healthy or unwell. The curated selection asks –– what and who holds us together and keeps us apart? What makes societies fragile and resilient?

The festival’s films will be screened at the ‘Romuva’ cinema and Kaunas Cultural Centre. The curated video programmes, discussions programme ––‘Videogram Days’ –– and the exhibition ‘Videograms’ will be presented at the Kaunas Artists’ House. Another video installation will be presented at the Vytautas Magnus University’s gallery, ‘101’. The festival’s last screening in physical space will be on September 27th. After the festival’s event program a selection of films and video programmes will be available online September 28 – October 11.

Curatorial team: Viktorija Šiaulytė and Monika Lipšic, co-curator Milda Januševičiūtė Design: Marek Voida
Coordinator: Karolis Žukas
Communication: Eglė Trimailovaitė
Partners: Kauno kultūros centras, Kino centras “Romuva”, Kauno menininkų namai, VDU galerija “101”, Kaunas pilnas kultūros
Supported by: Lietuvos kino centras, Lietuvos kultūros taryba, Nordic Culture Fund
Media sponsors: LRT, Kauno diena, 370, Clear Channel

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Tomorrow Is Always Too Long – Opening

2020 September 17 19:00
Kauno kultūros centras

The Building

2020 September 18 20:30
Kauno kultūros centras

Ocean of Love

2020 September 18 18:30
Kauno kultūros centras

Zero

2020 September 18 20:30
Kino teatras „Romuva”

Videograms Day

2020 September 19 15:00 - 20:00
Kauno menininkų namai

Island of Souls

2020 September 20 16:00
Kino teatras „Romuva”

Film programme “Mothership”

2020 September 20 14:00
Kino teatras „Romuva”

Ouvertures

2020 September 20 18:00
Kino teatras „Romuva”

Film programme “Videoimagination”

2020 September 21 19:00
Kauno kultūros centras

Flesh! Flesh! Delicious flesh! The films of Marianna Simnett

2020 September 22 18:30
Kino teatras „Romuva”

Film programme “Healthcare Systems”

2020 September 22 20:30
Kino teatras „Romuva”

Film programme “Data and Dirt. Matter as a Historical Body”

2020 September 23 18:00
Kino teatras “Romuva”

Expedition Content

2020 September 23 20:15
Kino teatras “Romuva”

Films by Morgan Quaintance

2020 September 24 18:30
Kino teatras “Romuva”

In Deep Sleep

2020 September 24 20:30
Kino teatras “Romuva”

Film programme “Data and Dirt. Technoecologies”

2020 September 24 20:00
Kauno menininkų namai

Film programme “Social body”

2020 September 25 18:00
Kauno kultūros centras

Feedback

2020 September 25 20:30
Kauno kultūros centras

Videograms Day

2020 September 26 15:00 - 20:00
Kauno menininkų namai

Eurasia (Questions on Happiness)

2020 September 27 17:00
Kauno kultūros centras

Video room “Videograms”

2020 September 15 Atidarymas 16:00 - 20:00
October 11
Kauno menininkų namai

Iris Smeds exhibition “The Average”

2020 September 17
October 10
VDU menų galerija 101
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