Baltic Light Chain

NARRACJE Festival has become a member of the international initiative for a cooperation network including visual art festivals from four Baltic countries, i.e. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. As a result NARRACJE will include some of the works prepared by the Baltic Light Chain artists.

The ten-month programme of Baltic Light Chain (May 2015-February 2016) comprises numerous activities which aim at enlisting the continuous cooperation of festivals organizers, promoting artists on the international arena, as well as developing a light design curriculum draft for art schools in the partner countries. The festivals included in the programme are: Tallinna Valugsfestival (Estonia), Beepositive (Lithuania), Staro Rīga (Latvia), NARRACJE (Poland).

The experts and the young artists come from all the partner countries. They took part in the summer course (20-25 July, Liepāja, Latvia) during which they shared their expertise and experiences. The entrants participated in the visual art workshops, developing their projects in the international teams. The project resulted in eleven works of art which were presented during this autumn’s visual art festivals.

 

 

Ruta Palionyte, Krista Dintere, Grete Veskiväli, REFLEXIO

installation

REFLEXIO is an imaginary space which challenges the perceptual basis of spatial representation. The space is both the reflection and the antithesis of reality. The sense of wonder created by the light extends the boundaries of your perception and the boundaries of the physical objects. The extension of the existing setting builds links between the contradictions: object vs. representation, image vs. reflection, matter vs. spirit, and city vs. nature.

 

Piotr Macha, Enlightenment

installation

This project is inspired by ‘The Dream Machine’, that is the lamp designed in the late 1950s by Brion Gysin. It is to be experienced with your eyes closed while the light stimulates the optic nerves in your brain producing natural hallucinations. The title is ambiguous – the state of enlightenment can be achieved not only in transcendental sense but also through scientific analysis in empirical sense, as enlightenment has no defined point of reference, whether religious or secular.

 

Kotryna Čalkaitė, Jurga Marcinauskaitė, Mythical Creature

installation

The main idea of the installation is to give new life to fairytales and to revive the belief in mythical creatures. The Mythical Creature stimulates visitors’ imagination, unifies them with the surroundings, and lets them dream again like children, leaving behind everyday problems, politics, and civilisation. The installation can be adapted in different ways to discover its new meanings. The version to be presented in Gdansk is meant to broaden our horizons – the visitors will be encouraged to raise their heads and see what is happening above them, as usually they tend to look straight ahead, missing out on many beautiful and unexpected details.

 

Paula Vītola, Tiny Life

object

Tiny life is a project telling a story of a species that has just been discovered and that we do not fully understand yet. The spectators become a threat to the tiny lives and have to make a choice – whether to become their friends and leaders or powerful enemies. If we are calm, polite and friendly – the creatures follow us. If we are aggressive – they run away.

 

Toms Upītis, Light Designer Starter Kit

object

Light Designer Starter Kit is an interactive installation which gives you the opportunity to create and shape light objects in any way imaginable. Just pick up a cube and start building your own light installation.

 

Justyna Orłowska, Agnieszka Piasecka, Seaside Histories

video projection

The project is a metaphorical narrative about the sea and its secrets. The means of communication on the sea are: Morse code, light signals from lighthouses, or handwritten letters in bottles thrown into the murky waters. The film has been made based on the rules of Morse code. It features footage found in the Internet video archives, self-recorded videos, sea sounds, and images created with cyanotype – a photographic printing process from the nineteenth century. The film transmits light signals at appropriate intervals, telling a story largely inspired by the thoughts of the main character of “The Old Man and the Sea” by Ernest Hemingway.