From 3 to 6 September, Berlin-based curatorial collective MOLT will transform the Pergalė factory into a route filled with artworks, performances, signs and clues. As part of AUDRA’s art programme, works by Lithuanian and international artists will spread across the floors, corridors and rooms of the former Kaunas metal factory, leaving visitors to discover them for themselves.
The group exhibition will feature not only Lina Lapelytė, currently one of the most visible Lithuanian artists on the international art scene, but also other artists from Lithuania and abroad. Its live programme will be joined by Paulius Janušonis, Adam Russell-Jones and Deva Schubert, who will present three performances at the Pergalė factory.
Following an intensive programme dedicated to the 150th anniversary of Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis, this year AUDRA has entrusted its curation to the Berlin-based curatorial collective MOLT. Bringing together five members, the collective focuses on creating artistic events and exploring spaces that normally serve entirely different functions.
When choosing this year’s curators, the festival placed particular importance on their adaptability and ability to work with different kinds of spaces. The aim was to find curators capable of working and thinking beyond the conventional boundaries of contemporary art.
“It is precisely the curators’ courage and drive that determine the impact of the programme. This year, we want to strip away the conservatism and fear of being misunderstood that can develop within closed circles and bubbles. We have the freedom to experiment, and inviting international curators to join the festival is not a one-off initiative. It is part of a broader ambition to make the programme more international while preserving AUDRA’s distinct Kaunas core,” says Tautvydas Urbelis, Head of the festival’s Art Programme.
According to MOLT, this year’s exhibition will not be structured around a single predetermined narrative.
“We want visitors to become more than observers, rather, a part of the exhibition itself. There will be no single correct route or one story experienced in the same way by everyone. Every turn, every clue noticed and every artwork discovered will shape an individual path through the exhibition, turning the visit into a kind of game with the factory itself,” say the curators behind the exhibition concept.
Artworks as waymarkers
This year’s programme concept draws on anthropologist Tim Ingold’s idea of wayfinding. According to Ingold, we come to know our surroundings not by following a predetermined line, but by moving, observing and discovering landmarks along the way.
Small-scale works scattered throughout the Pergalė factory will become individual coordinates on a larger artistic map. Each will mark a point within a broader narrative, while the different artistic positions will be connected not through a conventional exhibition sequence, but through the visitor’s own movement and attention.
At the entrance, visitors will receive a map featuring poems, symbols, riddles and other clues linked to specific works. These will not only help them navigate the space but also serve as an additional tool for interpreting the exhibition.
The exhibition’s opening event will take place on 3 September at 6 pm, while key moments in the programme will be marked by performances in which bodies, movement, voice and sound will activate the factory’s industrial architecture.
On 3 September at 8.30 pm, the evening programme will begin with a screening of a work by Italian interdisciplinary artist Valentina Parati. The director and screenwriter’s practice brings together fiction, hybrid cinema and research into the invisible systems of power that shape human identity.
Later that evening, at 9 pm, Lithuanian artist Paulius Janušonis will perform. His work explores consciousness, mortality and identity as shaped by media manipulation, geopolitical crises and technological development. Working across video, performance and music, he searches for the fundamental structures of human experience and has presented his work in international exhibitions and art events.
On 4 September at 8.30 pm, UK-born, Berlin-based dance artist Adam Russell-Jones will present Release the Hounds. Inspired by dance marathons during the Great Depression and by rave culture, the work explores dancing in the face of crisis – both as an escape from reality and as a way of surviving it.
On 5 September at 8 pm, Berlin-based choreographer and interdisciplinary artist Deva Schubert will continue the programme with Glitch Choir, performed together with performance artist Chihiro Araki. The work transfers the idea of a digital glitch into voice and body, reinterpreting traditions of lamentation and public mourning.
The programme also includes an open call for FLINTA singers and performers to join the Glitch Choir workshop. Through dissonant singing, lamentation and vocal experimentation, participants will explore the collective voice as both a physical and communal experience.
The exhibition will also feature Ada Bae Nilsen, Ariana Krieger, Brad Nath, Deivydas Vytautas Aukščiūnas, Friedrich Andreoni, Hedda Grevle Ottesen, Irving Ramó, Jonathan Joosten, Leonardo Belardinelli, Manuel Goetz, Mia Van Veen, Minh Kha Le, Sandra Vaka, Serge Sanchez, Shaly Lopez and Verónica Janovec.
Their diverse practices – spanning painting, photography and sculpture as well as video, sound and installation – will come together under the factory roof as one shared narrative.
AUDRA’s art programme at the Pergalė factory will run from 3 to 6 September, 1–11 pm. It will be accompanied by four days of concerts, daytime events and parties across different locations in Kaunas.