On the occasion of the "Lithuanian Season in France 2024", Gallery Meno Parkas in collaboration with its partner "Cadavres exquis" developed the project "Flux Sensibles" in the Ardèche region of France, which is dedicated to the theme of ecology and the search for a more sustainable existence.
During the residency, which will take place from 14-21 September in St Julien et St Alban, Agnė Jonkutė, Daina Pupkevičiūtė, Alain Boulerot, Judith Lesur will create a dialogue in the form of photograms, texts, sounds, narratives, installations and videos.
Flux sensibles is, more than anything else, a dialogue between French and Lithuanian artists that approach, question and reflect on the subjects of damage, repair and resilience in the broader context of breakdowns of relationships, which, among other things, translate as global climate disaster and sixth mass extinction. With rather different approaches, techniques and politics, the artists involved in the project will meet for a 2-week residency in Ardèche region to reflect on the textures of the invisible matters connecting all things and the ruptures within these connections. How fragile, invisible, underground matter can become visible, how underground flows and slow violence can take tangible shapes, how listening can reconnect human bodies to non-human lives that make the world habitable are among the questions that will be addressed through this residency and production period. Given a variety of disciplinary fields the artists participating in this project come from, the engagements will take shapes of photograms, texts, sounds, storytelling, installation and video.
The Ardeche landscape lends itself well to the questions that these artists are raising: in March 2023, a couple of weeks before the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published the most recent report, and with it introduced an extremely bleak future for humanity, this department announced the drought alert. Although it might seem early, Ardeche is among those departments in France that has had an extremely low rainfall over the winter of 2022/2023, and experienced prolonged droughts over the last years.
“Resilience is a term that has gained buzzword status over the last twenty years, leaving the territory of disaster and hazard research, economy- and policy-making and entering the fields of climate grief and climate justice. The term here will serve to build a discursive terrain for a discussion if it is resilience we should aim for or, rather resistance, given that human aim to conceptualise world(s) instead of living lives and western pursuit to instrumentalise the non-human is leading towards our certain death.” (Daina Pupkevičiūtė)
Project events:
On 14 September, a trip to the Monts d'Ardèche Natural Regional Park and a meeting with its art project manager Eléonore Jacquiau-Chamska.
On 21 September at 14:00 In St Julien and St Alban towns Robert's Chapel, artists Agnė Jonkutė and Daina Pupkvevičiūtė will hold a workshop "Cyanotype - Listening to the Landscape", open to all audiences.
16:00 - Conference "Art as a connection to nature?" moderated by Mireille Cluzet, together with Eléonore Jacquiau-Chamska of the Monts d'Ardèche Nature Regional Park, botanist Luc Garraud and the participants in the residency.
On 22 September, from 11 am to 5 pm, St. On the occasion of the European Heritage Days, a presentation of the works created during the residency and a meeting with the artists will take place in St. Robert's Chapel.
On 4 October, the exhibition "The Invisible Land" by Agnė Jonkutė will be presented at the café "Si Les Vaches Avaient Des Ailes" in Rompon. The exhibition will be open until October 31.
