8 October 2026 | 7 PM

On 8 October at 7 PM, join us for a lecture by British artist Tris Vonna-Michell about the archival and collaborative practice of his late father, E. E. Vonna-Michell, focusing on his work with sound poet Henri Chopin. The lecture will be accompanied by a screening of To Ray the Rays (1985).

Tris Vonna-Michell’s practice brings together storytelling, memory, archival images, and personal histories. A year ago, at a lecture at the Estonian Academy of Arts in Tallinn, the artist spoke about inheriting numerous boxes filled with various creative materials following his father’s death. Through this, he discovered that his father had previously been an artist, producing publications and text-based works. Although Tris Vonna-Michell had known nothing about this part of his father’s life and they had never discussed it, certain aesthetic parallels can be traced between their practices, and perhaps more significantly, between their ways of thinking.

Whether true or possibly partly invented by the artist himself, this story prompted questions about how ways of thinking can be passed from one generation to another: through family relationships, but also through artistic practices. At the same time, close creative relationships that emerge between artists can also have a significant influence on individual artistic practices. The artists participating in the Giminystė | Lineage programme are therefore invited to consider how and through what processes they themselves have been shaped as artists, and how their artistic lineages have developed.

About the film

To Ray the Rays is an experimental 16 mm film that emerged from a collaboration between British artist E. E. Vonna-Michell and French sound poet and artist Henri Chopin. The film brings together visual compositions created by Vonna-Michell and Chopin’s experimental sound poetry.

The film was discovered in 2020, following E. E. Vonna-Michell’s death, among hundreds of boxes stored in his studio. The discovery of the film reel alongside a sound recording, correspondence, a graphic score, and other materials made it possible to reconstruct the history of the work and the circumstances of the collaboration. To Ray the Rays became one of many unresolved creative archival fragments left behind by Vonna-Michell, whose meanings emerge through the connections between the materials.

The work explores the relationship between light, sound, image, and memory. Its structure is based on shifts between positive and negative imagery, abstract visual forms, and layers of sound. Discovered in 2020, the film is presented today as a restored, yet ultimately unfinished version of the work.

Film information

To Ray the Rays, 1985
16 mm, 8 min 20 sec
Artists: Tris Vonna-Michell, E. E. Vonna-Michell, and Henri Chopin
Distributor: Filmform

Lineage

The programme, running from 24 September 2026 to March 2027, presents works in a range of formats, including installations in the Rupert window, conversations, performances, and video screenings.

The programme features Tris Vonna-Michell, Barbora Šulniūtė, Naubertas Jasinskas, Marge Monko, and Mila Panić.

Programme calendar:

8 October
Tris Vonna-Michell, and screening of To Ray the Rays (1985).

20 October
Naubertas Jasinskas, durational performance Something Happened to Me Yesterday (Vakar man kai kas nutiko).

November 6
Raimundas Malašauskas’ Solo

15 December
Marge Monko, photographic installation in the Rupert window, and Mila Panić, stand-up performance.

Programme curator: Monika Lipšic
Coordinator: Gabrielė Golubovičiūtė
Communications: Kornelija Žvinklytė
Designers: Augustinas Milkus and Jana Sofie Liebe
Special thanks: Viktorija Šiaulytė, JL Murtaugh (Liam)

The project is supported by Vilnius City Municipality, Nordic Culture Point, and the Lithuanian Council for Culture.
Rupert’s partner: INVL Family Office.