On 31 October 2024, at 7 pm, a screening and presentation of the film \u2018Swanback\u2019 by artist, LIAA member Maria Nem\u010denko will take place in the project space of the cultural center SODAS 2123. The film will be presented by the film producer R\u016bta Kiaupait\u0117 and the cinematographer Nojus Dr\u0105sutis, who will talk about the subtleties of filming a dance work on film. This event is part of the \u2018OPEN SODAS: Movement\u2019 programme.<\/p>\n
\u2018Swanback\u2019 is a film that blends fictional and documentary narratives on the interpretation of the swan symbol in the context of British and Russian imperialism. The film portrays a fictional character, played by former classical ballet dancer Oliver Connew. The first part of the film is\u00a0 partially based on interviews with members of the Lithuanian community, who illegally migrated to work in the UK before Lithuania joined the European Union in 2004. The film also responds to an infamous article printed in \u2018The Sun\u2019 newspaper in 2003 about Eastern European migrants entitled, \u2018Swan Bake: Asylum seekers steal the Queen\u2019s birds for barbecues\u2019. \u2018Swanback\u2019s\u00a0 diaristic narrative retells a<\/span> journey of an illegal economic migrant to the UK where he gets accused of killing and eating the royal swans.<\/span><\/p>\n In the second part of the film the camera follows Connew in the dance studio as he attempts to learn from the 1963 video recording of \u2018Prince\u2019s solo. Act I\u2019 from \u2018Swan Lake\u2019 (1875-76) by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky with the highly acclaimed dancer Rudolph Nureyev as Prince Siegfried. A production of \u2018Swan Lake\u2019<\/span> was shown on TV on repeat during the 1991 coup against Mikhail Gorbachev during the fall of the Soviet Union, forever connecting the ballet to political upheaval.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In \u2018Swanback\u2019 the tale of the illegal immigrant merges with Connew\u2019s own journey from ballet to semantic dance while overcoming the violence of the imperially constructed art of ballet instilled within his body. Instead of choosing to respond to the violence of ballet altering his body with the violence of amnesia altering his memory, he chooses to accept the scars that ballet left upon him.<\/span><\/p>\n Marija Nem\u010denko is a multidisciplinary artist with a research-based practice in archival material, film, installation, creative and critical writing, and projects connecting socially engaged art to civic life. Her multilayered practice aims to activate the interlinks between migration, nature, and nation-state, while critically attending to the construct of a ‘periphery’. In a world driven by narratives from and about the ‘centre’, she asks what knowledge could arise from the ‘peripheral points’? Marija Nem\u010denko is a Ph.D. student at Vilnius Art Academy, a member of the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists\u2018 Association (LIAA) and Scottish Artists Union. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, including Orlando Museum of Art, Florida, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, Gallerie delle Prigioni, Treviso, Glasgow International Biennial, Swallow project space, Vilnius, and A.M. Qattan Foundation, Ramallah, Palestine.<\/span><\/p>\n Nojus Dr\u0105sutis is a young generation Lithuanian cinematographer who works extensively with analogue cinema. His latest short film \u2018Ootide\u2019 (directed by Egl\u0117 Razumait\u0117) competed for the 2024 Palme d’Or.<\/span><\/p>\n R\u016bta Kiaupait\u0117 is a documentary film producer and filmmaker. Coming from the field of visual anthropology, R\u016bta is also active in film education and teaches at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre.<\/span><\/p>\n Film screening is organized by the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists\u2019 Association together with cultural center SODAS 2123. LIAA activities are supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and Vilnius city municipality.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Film screening with the presentation by the producer R\u016bta Kiaupait\u0117 and cinematographer Nojus Dr\u0105sutis:<\/span><\/p>\n 2024\/10\/31 7pm<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Swanback\u2019, 2024, duration \u2013 15 min., film language \u2013 english.<\/span><\/p>\n Address: cultural center SODAS 2123 (project space), Vitebsko st. 23, Vilnius.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Free entry, no registration required. This event is part of the \u2018OPEN SODAS: Movement\u2019 programme. More information \u2013 www.sodas2123.lt.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Photo \u2013 still from \u2018Swanback\u2019. Marija Nem\u010denko.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
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