On Saturday, 2 September, 5 p.m. Cultural Complex SODAS 2123 (Vitebsko g. 23, Vilnius) invites you to “Art, Pickles and Politics”, a performative lecture by Vytenis Burokas.
The forecast on the future of humanity looks rather grim. In the face of war and ecological crisis a need becomes apparent to not just cultivate and manufacture, but to also store and protect, to rework supply chains, change our relationship to nourishment and the lived environment. How will we work it out in the future – perhaps we will start consuming people? Or embark to carefully nourish bacteria, to reclaim the public canteens? Or rather get down to collectively shelling peas in our expanded families, preparing each other for the long winter?
With this lecture SODAS 2123 begins a series of events dedicated to the “shadow” side of culinary culture – the core tenets of its organization and presentation, which cross the boundaries of taste and texture. In these events, artistic tools are used in search of a non-consumerist notion of nourishment, seeking to understand what the materials entering our bodies and communities give to us. In freeform lectures the visitors are invited to step into SODAS 2123 as a habitat for shaping the future, for learning to survive under the strangest conditions experienced so far.
In the first lecture of the series artist Vytenis Burokas raises a monumental question – how and when did culture and society turn its attention towards processes of fermentation? Intestinal wellbeing is not just a matter of personal health. By feeding our microscopic inhabitants we may also influence history – such as if our confused microflora leaves its trace on a voting ballot. In a performative lecture the artist surveys the intersections of cultural, natural and political forces, in which paradoxes sour alongside pickles.
Vytenis Burokas (b. 1990) is an artist and curator currently living in Vilnius, Lithuania. Burokas merges different disciplines and genres in search of splintered traces of cultural influences, examines metabolism and the fermentation of knowledge, drawing attention to relationships between microorganisms and people. These explorations and findings are presented in the form of performances, publications, installations, sculptures and drawings. Burokas has completed Contemporary Sculpture MA and art pedagogy studies at Vilnius Academy of Arts in which he currently teaches. Between 2013 and 2014, he took part in Rupert Alternative Education Programme. The artist’s works have been displayed in group and personal exhibitions at Radvila Palace Museum of Art, Vilnius; Contemporary Art Centre and Editorial project space Vilnius; Zuzeum, Riga; Futura, Prague; MOCAK, Krakow and others.
The event series is curated by Monika Kalinauskaitė
Graphic design by Monika Janulevičiūtė
The event series is supported by Vilnius City Municipality
The event is free of charge. The lecture will be performed in Lithuanian.