Nomadic Radical Academy 2020: The Good, The Bad, and The Art

About

Nomadic Radical Academy 2020: The Good, The Bad, and The Art

Nomadic Radical Academy 2020: The Good, The Bad and The Art is a participatory art project by the artist Marija Griniuk at the Meno Parkas Gallery. Children are the young participants of an art camp. The project unites art and science with the help of guest artists, experts, and scholars who work in art education, participatory art, and performance throughout the Baltic region and Poland.

The project lasts nine days, during which time the children will be involved in performance-based activities, which will be open for observation to regular gallery visitors. Thematically, Nomadic Radical Academy 2020 aims to employ performative methods to explore the ecology of human relations and transcorporeal bodies with children. This involves the sociomateriality of participation, technology, and nature.

Nomadic Radical Academy 2020 is comprised of three gallery spaces and the art camp. The ground floor and the second floor of the gallery contains reflexive documentation from the 2019 Nomadic Radical Academy. Visitors will be able to witness the transformation of the project over two years. The artist’s paintings and video allow her to subjectively go through the editing processes in order to carefully select the images that best explain the past performance.

All the activities will be documented in photo and video. Through their involvement in the project, all participants consent to the documentation. 

Marija Griniuk has a background as a painting conservator (MA ’08, Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania) and performance artist (MFA ’17, Jutland Academy of Arts, Denmark). In 2020, she graduated from Konstfack in Sweden with an MFA in painting. She is currently enrolled in a PhD program at the Faculty of Art and Design in the University of Lapland, Finland.

PROGRAM

During the Nomadic Radical Academy project, Marija Griniuk will perform along with the participating children between August 5–14, 8:30-17:00 at the Meno Parkas Gallery. Highlights and details on the invited artists and scholars for the Nomadic Radical Academy include:

August 6: 1:00–4:00 p.m., Meno Parkas Gallery

Evelina Šimkutė (LT)

Title: Humans, nature, and the city

Short description: The artist will involve children in a performative contemplation on the connections among humans, nature, and the city.

August 7: 3:00 p.m., Meno Parkas Gallery

Julia Kurek (PL)

Title: In the deep of plastic

Short description: Julia Kurek is a scholar and artist. In her performance, she will address the question of ocean pollution and the mindless leaving of waste from humans’ activities in the sea.

August 7: 5:00–6:00 p.m., Meno Parkas Gallery

For art professionals and art educators. Children and families are welcome to participate. In English.

Title: The participatory performance. Entertainment?

Short description: This discussion will be facilitated by Marija Griniuk and Tue Brisson Mosich and aimed at addressing the challenges associated with working with participatory performances and the threshold between the idea, the concept, and the expectations for an artwork, as created via the media of participatory performance.

August 7–9: 1:00–5:00 p.m., Rotuse sq., near the Meno Parkas Gallery

Rait Rosin (EST)

Title: Street action: "Swerve with good tasting food!"

Short description: Rait Rosin is a scholar and artist. During the performance of ‘Street action: ‘Swerve with the good tasting food!’” he will build a large, four-wheeled banana and then carry it into Kaunas town, near the Meno Parkas Gallery. Rait invites people in Kaunas to check out these activities. He says, “My idea with the swerving project is to make a unique wheeled object in each town and to carry it into the town center. On one hand, this is a discovery of the locations, while on the other, it will prompt an active finding of the relatedness to the town in which I am new and, therefore, have a ‘fresh eye’ in that moment.”

August 10: 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m., Meno Parkas Gallery

Tue Brisson Mosich (DK / LT) & Julija Rukanskaitė (LT/SE)

Title: Sounding objects

Short description: Tue Brisson Mosich and Julija Rukanskaitė have backgrounds in interaction and performance design. They will invite children to build interactive objects, which at a later phase will be included as props in the Nomadic Radical Academy performance.

August 11: 3:00–4:00 p.m., Meno Parkas Gallery

Gabrielė Labanauskaitė (LT)

Title: Creative Writing Workshop

Short description: Gabrielė Labanauskaitė is a scholar who, among other topics, specializes in creative writing. She will invite children to hone their creativity through the practices of writing and narrative creation.

August 11: 4:00–6:00 p.m., Meno Parkas Gallery

For art professionals and art educators. Children and families are welcome to participate. In English.

Linda Teikmane (LV)

Title: Introduction to the movements of Latvian emerging artists’ performance art.

Short description: Linda Teikmane is a scholar, art historian, and curator. In her presentation, she will introduce the young Latvian art scene, with a focus on contemporary performance art practices.

August 11-13: 10:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m., Meno Parkas Gallery

Kaspar Aus (EST)

Title: Multidimensional dance: “the blacksmith Mozart”

Short description: Kaspar Aus is an artist who works mainly with performance and choreography. During the three days together with the children, Kaspar will embody a notion of creative movement and dance in the space of the gallery. They will also co-create traces of these embodiments in different kinds of emerging forms by using paper, coal, or any other method that emerges.

This event is a part of Meno Parkas Gallery project "Taste of the Heaven". The project is supported by the Kaunas City Municipality and the Lithuanian Council for Culture.