LT
On July 18, from 6 to 10 PM, SODAS 2123 resident Kristy Kross will host a Midsommerblot ceremony.
Since 2020, Kross has been reimagining the blot celebrations of Old Norse culture in which a temporary community comes together to construct and performatively ‘sacrifice’ a conceptual horse. The blots were key rituals in the belief systems of Ancient Scandinavia and were selective, bloody gatherings occurring over thousands of years in which the ceremonial sacrifice, often of a horse, served to thank the gods and wish for good fortune. Kross’ blot gatherings are an experiment in marking these seasonal rhythms away from links to far-right extremism, nationalism, Viking re-enactments and of course, actual killing. In contrast, the reimagined blots play with improvisation, imagination and synchronicity, experimenting with how collective needs for spirituality, hope and togetherness can be expressed during this era of multi-crises.
About the artist:
Kirsty Kross is an eco-feminist artist based in Oslo, Norway, originally hailing from Brisbane, Australia, whose practice centres mostly on performance while also incorporating happenings, music, drawing, sculpture and installation. She is currently in Vilnius on a three-month residency at SODAS 2123 as part of the Festivity Residency. Her work is inspired by the trickster archetype, often using alter egos or speculative interventions to discuss the anxieties, contradictions and uncomfortable problematics of the climate crisis and its subsequent chain of multi-crises effects. Kross’ alter egos include the Coral Trout—a fish from the endangered Great Barrier Reef that also relates to the pre-Christian belief systems of the Eastern Mediterranean—and Kari Max, an abundantly affluent Pepsi Max addict from Norway. She specialises in engaging audiences and the attention economy through darkly absurd and often open-ended interventions that disrupt, reconfigure and re-energise social, public and/or institutional frameworks.
Kross holds a master’s from the Berlin University of the Arts and a bachelor’s in art history from The University of Queensland. In Norway, she has exhibited/ performed at the National Museum of Norway, Tegnertriennalen, Bergen Assembly, Høstutstillingen, KUBE, Tenthaus and PINK CUBE. In Berlin, she has performed at Clockwork Gallery, Parkhaus Projects and Galerie Crystal Ball, and in Stockholm, at the Supermarket Art Fair and the Swedish Artist’s Association. From 2000 to 2010, Kross was a founding member of the electropunk performance band, Team Plastique, which played throughout Europe and Australia at events such as Glastonbury Festival in 2008, the closing party of the Berlin Biennale in 2006 and Australia’s biggest music festival, The Big Day Out in 2004 and 2005.
The event is part of the OPEN SODAS: FESTIVITY programme.
This event is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture.
Kirsty Kross’ residency is organised by the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association. Residency curators—Aušra Vismantaitė-Silva, Monika Kalinauskaitė and Edvinas Grinkevičius. The activities of the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association are funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.
SODAS 2123 activities are supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Vilnius city municipality.
