Dearest friends and colleagues,
I trust you are having a pleasant winter break so far and stomachs’ sufficiently full for until next year. If you were me, you would have ended Christmas Eve with poppyseed “milk”, something we Lithuanians drink to help us sleep when – in pagan fashion – Nature decides to rejuvenate itself at midnight on Christmas Eve and amongst other magical weirdness like animals talking to us.

We would like to use this opportunity to thank all the wonderful artists, performers, curators, writers, researchers and our board members we had the pleasure to work with this year in various Rupert programmes: Pauwke Berkers, Rūta Bilkštytė, Josh Bitelli, Ragna Bley, Jasmine Picot-Chapman, Lorraine Chateaux, Jenni Crain, Barbara Cueto, Maurin Dietrich & Kate Brown, Merike Estna, Nicolas Fleming, Nina Fránková, Dorota Gaweda & Eglė Kulbokaitė, Marije Gertenbach, Byzantia Harlow, Lolita Jablonskienė, Hanna Järvenpää, Hanna Laura Kaljo, Martin Kohout, Jussi Koitela, Johanna Kotlaris, Žygimantas Kudirka, Kristina Marija Kulinič, Nina Kuttler, Inga Lāce, James Samuel Lewis, Suhail Malik, Jenine Marsh, Rachael Melanson, Daria Melnikova, Beatričė Mockevičiūtė & Gintautė Skvernytė, Simon Dybbroe Møller, Kęstutis Montvidas, Robertas Narkus, Zane Onckule, Charlemagne Palestine, Anna-Bella Papp, Andrej Polukord, Deividas Rafanavičius, Eglė Razumaitė, Borbála Soós, Marco Strappato, Claire Tolan, Cara Tolmie, Julijonas Urbonas, Luca Vanello, Demelza Watts, Elvia Wilk, Jolanta Zabarskaitė, Andrea Zucchini, Darius Žakaitis, Jonas Žakaitis, Gediminas Žygus & Holly Childs.

This is also a good time to take a step back and take a look at some of the highlights from this year at Rupert in photos, Lina Lapelytė’s first solo exhibition ‘Pirouette’ at Rupert with a very special guest Charlemagne Palestine on closing night, final showcase of 5th Alternative Education Program ‘Doesn’t Have To Be As Ever’, Rupert at 1857, Rupert at Art Vilnius’17. You can also revisit all of the Rupert activities on Facebook and Instagram at any time. Rupert Open Calls for Residencies and Alternative Education are due to be announced early next month! Always keen to end the year on a high, we have got ‘Soaked in repetition, only to retreat in minutes’, a showcase of new works by current Rupert resident Luca Vanello, 29 December, from 6 pm at Sodų 4, Vilnius.

I can only sum 2017 with a quote from ‘What’s Love Got to Do with it?’: ‘Thank you from the bottom of our war-hungover hearts. It’s been another hideous year; let’s never do that again. But when we inevitably do, let’s do it together.’
See you in 2018,
Rupert

In Residence

Jenni Crain

Jenni Crain (b. 1991, New York) is an artist and curator living and working in Brooklyn, NY Crain is the co-founder and co-director of Topless, a seasonal gallery based in Rockaway Beach, NY, which has renovated and inhabited vacant storefronts along the Rockaway peninsula since summer 2014. While at Rupert Crain will work towards establishing an upcoming series of publications consisting of artist interviews and books to be released later in 2018.

In Residence

Barbara Cueto

Barbara Cueto (b. 1986 ES/DE) is a Spanish curator based in Berlin. Her projects strive to depict a moment when we are walking towards a post-human world defined by the constant interaction between living and non-living. She uses an expanded curatorial approach, focusing on the social, political and ecological implications of technologies in contemporary society. At Rupert, she will be developing her project ‘Atlas for uncertain Futures’, a toolkit for creative rebellion.