Will winters disappear or will they last even longer? We can only speculate, try to find answers in the shapes of clouds, imagine alternate anatomies or weave a web of tales and signs with weary fingers… In Lithuania, spring is coming a little later this year but as blooming begins and leaves eventually unfold, we know it’s just around the corner. Relaxed restrictions give us hope that soon we’ll be able to welcome residents, alternative education programme’s participants, guests and audiences.

Speaking of the future, we’re very excited to announce Rupert’s residency programme’s open call for 2022. Rupert will invite local and international practitioners and thinkers in the cultural field who are willing to live and work in Vilnius for 1 to 3 months and develop individual or collaborative projects, reflections and research while immersing themselves in the region’s contemporary art field. Our residents will be able to interact with and reach out to audiences through different communication channels such as our Open Studio podcast series or Rupert’s Journal. Should you be interested, please write down the deadline: June 16, 2021.

This year, Rupert’s alternative education programme will develop a dialogue between magic, rituals and artistic practices while continuously exploring the creative potential of self-organisation and care. We’re excited to receive a great number of applications for Rupert’s alternative education programme (triple compared to last year) and delighted to know that there’s such a great interest and need for alternative modes of education! On that note, we’re happy to introduce the tutors for the 9th edition of the alternative education programme: Agency Agency (Roel van Herpt and Victoria Meniakina), Arts of Working Class, Diana Policarpo, Dylan Spencer-Davidson, Karolina Rybačiauskaitė, Laura Wilson, Marija Nemčenko, New Scenario (Paul Barsch and Tilman Hornig), Sophie Seita, Aikas Žado Laboratory (Eglė Ambrasaitė and Domas Noreika). Furthermore, the selected participants of this year’s alternative education programme will have the opportunity to propose tutors for the second part of the programme.

The new year’s season also brought some changes within our team; join us in welcoming our new members! Romuald Demidenko has been recently appointed as Rupert’s residency programme curator. Before joining us, Romuald worked with several art institutions, most recently the Xawery Dunikowski Museum of Sculpture, National Museum in Warsaw. Milda Batakytė is joining Rupert as a project manager and from June 2021, will lead Rupert as its acting director. She’s also the assistant curator of the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia that will present Julijonas Urbonas’ project Planet of People.

‘Instead of sending humans to colonise other planets, what if we catapult them into space to form a new planet — a planet made of people?’, proposes the Lithuanian Space Agency (LSA). Founded by artist Juljonas Urbonas, the LSA is an organisation that researches space architecture and gravitational aesthetics. The agency takes a radical approach towards space and invites us to rethink what we know and imagine. Opening on Saturday, May 22, the project is curated by Jan Boelen and produced by Rupert.

Over the last few months, several artists, researchers, scientists, philosophers, critics, hackers and other practitioners responded to ideas and visions of the future after the pandemic. ‘The pandemic proved to be an uncanny testing ground for the human condition and the perception of time itself’, writes Tautvydas Urbelis, editor of the most recent issue of Rupert’s Journal on Post-pandemic Futures.