Passing On Resilience

Passing On Resilience is a two-day programme about acts of remembering over generations, and in places. Memories are not just made by personal experiences. They can be passed down across passages of time through epigenetics and culture, especially when they are linked to trauma.

This collective, interactive, discursive project attempts to investigate the impact of post-Soviet trauma on present bodies and landscapes in Lithuania and the vicinity, and draws connections to Afropean post-colonial experiences.

The programme offers a multi-sensorial encounter with these subjects through film, somatic workshop, performative dinner, collective rituals, installations and talks. It bridges arts, psychology, performance and history. Its interlinked contributions shift between the scientific and artistic, the folkloristic and contemporary, the conscious and subconscious; it will try to hold space for the audience to engage actively, and to consider the collective consciousness as essential to easing pasts and softening futures.

Curated by Monika Dorniak. Contributions by Kamal Ahamada, Rasa Antanavičiūtė and Austėja Tavoraitė, Ieva Balčiūnė, Liza Balias & Rūta Junevičiūtė, Danutė Gailienė, Katherina Gorodynska, Agnė Jokšė, Michał Jurgielewicz and Jonas Palekas.

A project by Goethe-Institut Lithuania in cooperation with National Gallery of Art, SODAS 2123, Radio Vilnius and with support of Kirtimai Cultural Center.

Languages: English with translation into Lithuanian.

16th of November

15:00 - 16:00h
Rasa Antanavičiūtė, Austėja Tavoraitė - Breaking centuries of continuity

Venue: In the exhibition 'Wilno, Vilnius, Vilne 1918 - 1948 . One city - Many Stories' in the National Gallery of Art Vilnius.
Format: Historical talk & exhibition tour

The population of Vilnius changed dramatically during and right after the Second World War. This led to the interruption of personal and historical narratives about the place, hence breaking centuries of continuity. This talk draws attention to the demographics of the 20th century Vilnius, and challenges the consequential prejudices that remain until present. This talk takes place in the exhibition 'Wilno, Vilnius, Vilne 1918 - 1948 . One city - Many Stories'  and is conducted in cooperation with an official exhibition guide.

16:00-16:30h (and throughout the day)

Katherina Gorodynska - All that is in the absent

Venue: Foyer, National Gallery of Art Vilnius
Format: Installation & performance

At the beginning of a text that was written in order to be spoken there will be an introduction of a setting. The setting will be an almost empty room. It will be set in future tense because the space Katherina Gorodynska will speak about will turn out to be an unreal estate which means that it does not exist yet. The installation by the Ukrainian-German artist unfolds over the course of two days, and incorporates performative notions that appear in various places and times throughout the foyer. Look out!

16:30 - 17:30h 
Ieva Balčiūnė, Michal Jurgielewicz, Jonas Palekas - Sugarcoating

Venue: Foyer, National Gallery of Art Vilnius
Format: Storytelling & food workshop

In this interactive and (bitter-)sweet workshop, we look into the soothing and numbing qualities of sugar, by considering to what extent they can change historical narratives. Sweet treats help us to forget the pain - but what if they are used in times of despair to manipulate minds? Together with scholar Ieva Balčiūnė and artists Michal Jurgielewicz & Jonas Palekas, the participants will explore this subject through storytelling, and the construction of  a nostalgic and tempting 'waffle-cake'. No registration needed.

17:30 - 20:00h
Kamal Ahamada - Restoration of dignity through culture

Venue: Auditorium, National Gallery of Art Vilnius
Format: Lecture & workshop
Registration required: info-vilnius@goethe.de

In this hybrid workshop format, connecting lecture and interactive participation, we will delve into the notion of dignity and its cultural manifestation within colonized communities. Using the 'Aanda' or 'Grand wedding' tradition of the Comoro islands as a study case, we'll examine how the people of Comoros employ cultural practices as a means of healing and reclaiming their dignity. This serves as a powerful response to the historical and ongoing trauma resulting from decades of French colonialism, which has left the country in a state of poverty and despair. The session will culminate with a cultural enactment, encouraging active participation from all attendees.
Please register your attendance, by sending an email to info-vilnius@goethe.de.

17:30 - 20:00h

Jonas Palekas - Clay-Cooked Root Vegetables & Other Surprises

Venue: Foyer, National Gallery of Art Vilnius
Format: Food workshop

In this hands-on workshop, artist Jonas Palekas teaches you the traditional technique of wrapping vegetables in clay & cooking them in a two-day-fire installation. The vegetables will be eaten on the following day, so we warmly invite you to come back and taste the results!

17th of November

12:00 - 16:00h
Liza Balias & Rūta Junevičiūtė - Sore spots: scanning visceral manifestations of trauma

Venue: SODAS 2123
Format: Somatic workshop  
Registration required: (INSERT LINK)

Poet CAConrad writes  "We are time machines/ of water and flesh/ patterned for destruction/ if we do not release the trauma".

Trauma always happens in the body. It is a wordless story our body tells us about what is safe and what is unsafe. It is not a flaw or weakness, but a highly effective tool of continuity of life. We are bodies born out of other bodies feeding other bodies. Fear in one generation leads to sensitivity and even anxiety in the next. Angry people live in angry bodies, frightened ones live in bodies constantly on guard. Body remembers and ensures the possibility of memorization. Body is not only a site of memory but also a gate to access the past. Paying attention to what is communicated through the body, can be a powerful tool for unlocking and changing one's relationship to trauma. We ask ourselves, can we be held accountable for carrying transgenerational trauma with unconscious compulsion to repeat, instead of releasing it? What somatic practices and forms of togetherness can do for the sake of collective and individual post-traumatic growth? How body-oriented approaches can mend holistic wounds, shielded with shame and dissociation, that fragments our visceral truth of experience?

This workshop is open for a limited number of people (10 participants). Everyone is welcome and no prior experience in somatic work or movement practices is needed. Please inform us in advance, if you have specific accessibility needs. Reservations for the workshop are open until the 14th of November (23:59h) on the first come, first serve basis. Please register via e-mail info-vilnius@goethe.de.

17:00 - 18:00h
Danute Gailiene - The Struggle Against Powerlessness

Venue: Auditorium, National Gallery of Art Vilnius
Format: Discussion (moderated by Monika Dorniak)

The exploration of cultural and epigenetic trauma is a popular subject amongst interdisciplinary researchers - and has become increasingly important for our society. In the postdigital society, users are permanently exposed to atrocities, such as the recent pictures of the Ukrainian war. What impact do such triggering images have on, for example, descendants of survivors from the Soviet occupations? Is there a link between intergenerational transmission of trauma and the intergenerational transmission of resilience? This conversation between curator Monika Dorniak and Professor Danutė Gailienėand explores these and other questions, while focusing on the importance of resilience in our times.


18:00 - 18:50h
Agne Jokšė - Unconditional Love

Venue: Auditorium, National Gallery of Art Vilnius
Format: Film screening

Unconditional Love consists of several interlinked chapters, exploring themes related to care, compassion, and love through the lens of intergenerational relations that are constituted in parallel to the societal and political changes taking place in Lithuania around the 1990s when transitioning from the Soviet Union and its economic and ideological models into the independent state of today (and its neoliberal, capitalist, and so-called western ideology).

With this specific geography and sociopolitical context in mind, Agnė Jokšė questions how two sociologically distinct generations - the so-called "lost" and "independence" generations, formed prior to the 1990s transition period and born after the reestablishment of sovereign Lithuania, respectively - became so connected while remaining politically and ideologically far apart? And how do their generational clashes affect the relationship dynamics of these two groups that are often closely linked by a family bond?

In Unconditional Love, Jokšė observes and follows the thread of family relations as it takes her to seemingly ordinary, but tender emotional places. By filming and interviewing her extended family in Lithuania and the Lithuanian diaspora in Europe, she chronicles their rituals and collects their memories in an attempt to piece together the portrait of this "lost" generation that her parents belong to. Even though Jokšė's research originates in the idea of generational divide and cultural trauma, the space of Unconditional Love is tranquil. It reaches beyond disappointment or conflict into a state of shared familiarity, where one is resigned, resting, joking, worrying, and sharing with each other. The hours reveal the banality of unconditional love and its necessity and brilliance against the banality of evil.
(Text by Monika Kalinauskaitė)

19:00 - 19:30h
Katherina Gorodynska & Agne Jokse - The Violence of Language

Venue: Auditorium, National Gallery of Art Vilnius
Format: Discussion (moderated by Monika Dorniak)

In the search for answers, descendants of survivors often aim to dig into the wounds of the past and expose the experiences of their ancestors. But who has the right to open past bruises up? And to what extent can the act of hiding memories be an important part in the establishment of agency and integrity? In this conversation, moderated by curator Monika Dorniak, we explore the balance between hiding and revealing, as well as the balance between family histories and artistic research.

19:30 - 21:00h
Michal Jurgielewicz & Jonas Palekas - The Practice Of Airing

Venue: Foyer, National Gallery of Art Vilnius
Format: Installation & performative dinner

Sitting beside each other around a bonfire or a dinner table promises comfort and creates bonds of intimacy. What makes the warmth of such a place, to feel safe for sharing food and our vulnerabilities, struggles and emotional experiences? How can we nurture care and solidarity in art institutions to offer supportive grounds for neglected voices?

The Practice Of Airing is a durational performance and gathering space centered around the food. It invites us to share our relationship with modernization, nostalgia, memory, erasure of history, transformation, trauma, and healing in a collective setting. Over two days, food preparations, cooking, and arranging of collected objects will reset the institutional choreography of the National Gallery in Vilnius, inviting the audience for spontaneous participation, followed by an intimate dinner on the last day of the program.

You are invited to contribute to the Practice of Airing in the National Gallery in Vilnius. Do you have any give away furniture, household items, or possibly you have objects in your possession that hold a special place to you, that are telling stories you would like to share with others? Please bring them to the National Gallery on the 16th of November. Together with the artists you can build a collective domestic setting for workshops, discussions, talks and performances.

Throughout the day
Katherina Gorodynska - All that is in the absent

Venue: Foyer, National Gallery of Art Vilnius
Format: Installation & performance

At the beginning of a text that was written in order to be spoken there will be an introduction of a setting. The setting will be an almost empty room. It will be set in future tense because the space Katherina Gorodynska will speak about will turn out to be an unreal estate which means that it does not exist yet. The installation by the Ukrainian-German artist unfolds over the course of two days, and incorporates performative notions that appear in various places and times throughout the foyer. Look out!