It’s been quite some time since I did a visual performance, hence it was a nice experience to work on a performance I called Gijos (to later find out that the name is going to be exactly that of the entire exhibition this work is going to be part of). I was invited to do so by Sandra Dastikienė on behalf of Marianna von Werefkin society, which is based in Utena (Lithuania). You have no idea who Marianna von Werefkin is? Neither did I, as women are written out of art histories much more often than into them. But it’s a good idea to do some research to fill in the gaps.

Gijos is a performance about memory – trying to connect the dots between the worlds, stories, (be)comings. The process took place in a beautiful pine forest next to Utena (location scouted and all coordinated by Audrius Šimkūnas). I was hand-knitting a very thin thread between the tree trunks. The handknitting process is slow and takes time – (hi/her)stories take time. While I was knitting, the storm clouds were gathering above my head, the weather cooling and the wind started moving into the treetops. Nearly an hour in, once I started laying out the white paper lines on the moss and hanging the unwritten letters on the strings, the rain broke. It started soaking the paper, changing it from crispy white into greyish quasi-transparent. It was intense, and the raindrops were crashing onto the paper creating sound alien to the forest. I was roling the roll out to have more of the sound, and evenmore of it. However, I was soaking wet, as were the people photo and video documenting it, and the rain created a beautiful ending to the entire piece.

Video documentation by Audrius Šimkūnas.

Photo documentation by Algirdas Šapoka.