SODAS 2123 (Vitebsko 23, Vilnius) will greet the last days of April (27-29th) with an international gathering \u2018Vilnius Meeting 2022: Schools & Gardens\u2019 for independent spaces and initiatives based in the Baltic countries and widely in Europe. The event is organised by the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists\u2019 Association (LIAA), curated by Lina Rukevi\u010di\u016bt\u0117 and Vaida Stepanovait\u0117.<\/p>\n
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\u2018Vilnius Meeting 2022: Schools & Gardens\u2019 aims to create a horizontal space of exchange between established professionals about the current developments and futures of independent cultural fields. Members of two networks \u2013 Artist-Run Network Europe (ARNE) and Independent Initiatives Baltics (IIB) will be taking part in this exchange.<\/p>\n
Artist-Run Network Europe <\/strong>(ARNE) is a European project thataims to strengthen the self-organised artist-run sector in Europe with focus on local and international cooperation, and to create a simple information framework for art professionals and art students, namely through a collaborative online platform, Artist-Run Resource Centre (ARRC). Independent Initiatives Baltics<\/strong>(IIB) is an emergent network, grounded in 2022, for independently run spaces in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. It attempts to establish a meeting point between the histories, presents, and the futures of the Baltic region, exploring the needs and possibilities to cooperate based on mutual ideas, social and material infrastructures.<\/p>\n Schools and Gardens<\/em>will be a buzzing three day professional event with part of its activities open to the public, unfolding in SODAS 2123 indoor and outdoor surroundings just waking up from the long winter sleep.<\/p>\n The audiences will be able to listen to the presentations by an array of invited organisations and spaces from the Baltics: Estonians from Tallinn \u2013 Hoib Gallery, Rundum, FOKU; Latvians from Riga \u2013 LOW gallery, 427, RIXC; Lithuanians from various cities \u2013 apiece, Verp\u0117jos, Lokomotif, Montos Tattoo, Swallow, Atletika, FAMM, Architecture Fund. They will intersperse with presentations by artist-run initiatives from ARNE: Candyland, and Flat Octopus (Stockholm, Sweden), Ormston house (Limerick, Ireland), Alfred Institute (Tel Aviv, Israel), Totaldobre (Riga, Latvia), Alternative Art Guide (The Hague, The Netherlands), Top e.V. (Berlin, Germany).<\/p>\n On the evening of 29th there will be a public performance programme curated by project space Swallow at SODAS 2123. Empty Brain Resort (SODAS 2123) will greet the night with a music programme.<\/p>\n Invited participants will also visit spaces in the city Editorial and I\u0161girsti.<\/p>\n The overall meeting is titled Schools and Gardens<\/em>, which is lifted straight off the meeting location and its initiator \u2013 an artist-run cultural centre SODAS 2123, organised by LIAA, based at the premises of an ex-school building. While being a reference to this abundant space housing many independent initiatives, it is also a way to establish the imaginary for the meeting around the visceral, and necessarily collective places of schools and gardens. They ensure growth but not without growing pains; they supply us with tacit and social knowledges upon which we build and sharpen our tools for their cultivation \u2013 if done right, and with a tender hand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Location: Cultural centre SODAS 2123, Vitebsko Str. 23, Vilnius.<\/p>\n