Aikas Žado Laboratory

Aikas Žado Laboratory is a contemporary art device, constructed in Žeimiai Manor House. Aikas Žado Laboratory is organized as an individually collaborative artwork by the artists Domas Noreika and Eglė Ambrasaitė, as well as a communal artwork. Part of its programs are administered, coordinated and developed by the Aikas Žado Association. The main activities of the Laboratory are practical experiments related to the management of cultural heritage objects and the combination of discoveries, methods, techniques and knowledge in the fields of contemporary art, science and culture. The main principles of the Laboratory’s activities are illustrated by the application of conservation, prevention and restoration systems in the Žeimiai Manor House. At the Laboratory, the team collects and tests historical materials, organizes scientific research and exhibitions, and presents cognitive expeditions that showcase specific solutions and methods of turning the Manor House into a contemporary artwork itself.

Domas Noreika is an interdisciplinary artist and the creator of unparalleled parts of Aikas Žado Laboratory. Domas Noreika collaborates with scientists, artists and other cultural figures and works with crip methodologies in areas such as restoration, geology, biochemistry and microbiology. He conducts experiments with 18th-century materials and technologies, as well as working with the idea of the Invisible Man in calcium carbonate media/abiotic crip environments.

Processed with Lensa with Magic Correction

Eglė Ambrasaitė can be located in a spot reserved for interdisciplinary art: she is both an artist, a curator and a scholar. Her interdisciplinary studies – Bachelor in Film, Video and Interactive Arts (Middlesex University, London), Masters in Political Sciences (Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas) and her ongoing PhD research in Comparative Gender Studies (Central European University, Budapest/Vienna) – have transformed her artistic work into a contemporary and critical medium that crystallizes in the language of both visual arts (video/sculpture/installation), various forms of written materials and her curatorial practice for Aikas Žado Laboratory’s (Žeimiai Manor House’s) programmes. At the moment, her main artistic and curatorial practices circulate around the themes of love, toxicity, bodies/embodiments and healing. Her theoretic interests encapsulate gender, affect theories, critical disability studies and dark ecology.