The artist-run initiative Verpėjos is looking for a interdisciplinary artists for a two-month artistic residency project “Shepherds and Spindles” in the Kabeliai village in Lithuania from 1 July - 29 August 2024.
Selected artists will have the opportunity to work on their own proposed art research project in a given frame, conditions and aims: to explore and rethink the themes of traditional rural lifestyle and nature conservation, to empower discourse on processes and changes both locally and globally. Residents will stay and work in a homestead with traditional log house, a courtyard, garden, and various outbuildings, living for two months together and sharing the responsibility of shepherding the herd of 50 sheep and include spinning wool in their artistic practice. In close communion with animals and nature, the creators will be able to rethink the relationship between contemporary humans and the environment in the epoch of the Anthropocene.
Artists will be encouraged to commune not only with the villagers, animals, and plants around them but also between each other: the daily life and routines of the two artists living together will call for new forms of artistic inquiry and dialogues. Each participant will receive a grant of EUR 1500 and travel grant (to cover travel to residency and back from EUR 350 up to EUR 700, depending on distance and m eans of transportation).Applications can be submitted until 20 September. More information can be found here.
Verpėjos (The Spinners) is an independent art initiative founded in 2017 that aims to explore and rethink the themes of traditional rural lifestyle and nature conservation, to empower discourse on processes and changes both locally and globally. The residency program is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.
