Hello friends,

Let us start with the weather. If you are still reading after sentence one, then probably you have an interest in weather beyond its polite use as a conversation filler; have English inclinations toward it when feeling awkward; have endured the winter here in Vilnius; or you like the work of anthropologist Tim Ingold. In our case, it is all of them. Having returned from a team trip to New York where we enjoyed the positively balmy temperature of 6°C while working with legendary Jonas Mekas, doing studio visits, and attending exhibitions and art fairs, we’re back in Vilnius with an inspiring group of residents, an exciting programme ahead and the promise (*currently not upheld*) of spring in the offing.  

Keeping us company from spring to winter are our new residents –  brilliant artists and curators from around the world: Cooper Jacoby (USA), core.pan (Sybil Montet & Simon Kounovsky) (FR/DE), Daniel Rossi (IT/DE), Eleni Papazoglou (GR/UK), Eli Cortiñas (ES/DE), Holly Childs (NL/ AU), Jaakko Pallasvuo (FI) & Anni Puolakka (FI/NL), Philomene Pirecki (UK), Rebecca Ackroyd (UK), Renee Mboya (KE), Sarah Chow (USA).  

Rupert has also begun the 6th installment of the Alternative Education Programme with our newly selected participants: Monika Janulevičiūtė and Antanas Lučiūnas, Milda Januševičiūtė, Ona Juciūtė, Marjolein van der Loo, Vytautas Stakutis, Rytis Urbanskas, Naglis Kristijonas Zakaras. These promising artists and curators will develop their proposals and practices with the programme’s invited speakers, who include Joanna Warsza, Orit Gat, Jörg Heiser, Martha Kirszenbaum, Myriam Ben Salah, Owen Griffiths, Laurynas Adomaitis and other local and international tutors (to be announced). We begin the programme on Wednesday 28th March, 6pm with a public talk, ‘Curating Beyond Exhibition Making’, by Fatoş Üstek, the newly appointed director of DRAF. This is an unmissable opportunity to hear the acclaimed curator discuss curatorial practices both with and beyond institutions.

Leading us into this busy year ahead are also the activities of our current residents, Zuzanna Czebatul, Isabel Legate and Megan Plunkett, who are working on an exciting set of projects.  This includes a new permanent public installation ‘Untitled (Beach Towel)’ in Rupert’s grounds by Zuzanna Czebatul.

Finally, we are greeting the spring with closing performances by Lina Lapelytė at our exhibition, Undersong, at Kim? on the 30th of March, at 18:00. Lapelytė will perform live her work, The Trouble with Time, and young ballerinas from a local dance school will participate in her performance, Mickey Tail.  If you were fortunate enough to see Lina’s performance on the opening night or at Rupert, you will know that this closing event is a must.  

The sun has just come out so we’ll leave it here.

Rupert

In Residence

Zuzanna Czebatul

Zuzanna Czebatul (b. 1986,  PL) lives and works in Berlin. She graduated from the Staedelschule Frankfurt in 2013, and later attended the MFA Program at Hunter College, New York as Fulbright Fellow. Later this year, her works will be presented in a solo exhibition at Piktogram Warsaw and CCA Futura Prague, and group exhibitions at Horse and Pony Berlin, BWA Lublin and Galerie Martinetz Cologne, amongst others. Her research at Rupert will continue to investigate architectural forms that would represent the cultural paradoxes of before-and-after the political changes of 1989-91 in Eastern Europe.

In Residence

Megan Plunkett

Megan Plunkett (b. 1985, USA) is an artist and publisher based in Los Angeles, California who has exhibited at Bad Reputation, Emalin, Redling Fine Art, Mitchell-Iness & Nash and 356 Mission, among others. She is the co-founder and co-publisher of The Kingsboro Press, a non-thematic independent press dedicated to raw art and literature that publishes books, periodicals and collaborative works.In addition to her practice as an artist, she moonlights as a private detective.During her residency at Rupert, she will work towards the completion of her first artist’s book.