Rural Matters

„Rural Matters“ is a public programme organised by „Akee“. Over four days – 8, 16 and 17 August, as well as at the end of September – artists, scientists, and thinkers will gather at the centre, located in Lithuania’s Pakruojis district, and invite visitors to take a closer look at the changing rural areas, the rhythm and pace of life, and the role of creativity in cultivated landscapes.

Cultivated fields and towering factory giants alongside meadows and forests bear witness to diverse passage of time. Compared to the pace of city life, countryside often appears as a serene and natural space creating an impression of purity – a place to slow down. However, as one of the programme participants, Fernando Garcia-Dory, points out, this idealised image of the countryside conceals complexity of such areas: behind the mask of a tranquil oasis lies an intense rhythm of labour, infrastructural tensions, dependence on city’s economy, and cycles of nature. The four-day programme invites us to turn our attention to this rural bustle and explore its multiple layers.

8 AUGUST

6 PM REGIONAL BEEKEEPING – WORKSHOP BY PAULIUS KLIUČININKAS

Paulius Kliučininkas is an architect, urban planner, designer and strategist who in his practice combines planning and design – from international territories to individual human environments. He currently works at the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania, where he explores urban innovations and maritime spatial planning. His professional interests are closely linked to the Baltic Sea region.

Paulius holds a master’s degree in urban planning from Delft University of Technology (Netherlands), has worked with the Bauland urban planning team, participates in research and education and writes about spatial processes. He has a strong interest in the field of architecture film festivals. Seeking to go beyond technical projects, he develops architectural expression through text, education and illustration. Informally, he explores metamodernism and the connections between cinematic imagination and urban structures.

Workshop: Regional Beekeeping

During the workshop, Paulius will present his creative research conducted during the Akee residency in 2023, in which he explored the relationship between bees and their surrounding environment. By observing their behaviour and interactions, he searched for patterns that could help rethink life in today’s rural area. Beekeeping in this research is treated more broadly than as merely an economic activity – it is seen as a practice of participation, collaboration and collective landscape creation.

The workshop will invite participants to discuss rural life, the challenges these areas face and possible scenarios for the future of Lithuania’s regions. Together with the participants, imaginary models of rural futures will be created, and the necessary changes will be explored.

7:30 PM RETHINKING THE BOUNDARIES BETWEEN RURAL AND URBAN AREAS – TALK BY EDGAR VLADIMIRENKO 

Edgar Vladimirenko is a practising architect and researcher currently studying urban planning in the Master’s programme in Ecological Transformation at IUAV University in Venice. His research focuses on the transformation of territories and their physical, political and social structures.

Talk: Rethinking the boundaries between rural and urban areas

When tractors block city streets and rural policy is shaped by institutions far removed from the territories themselves, it becomes clear that the boundary between city and countryside is disappearing. With the recognition of “complete urbanisation of society”, rural areas become part of the urban system, linked by functional and physical connections.

Like many rural areas in Europe, Lithuania’s countryside is no longer a romantic periphery or an open-air museum – it is a palimpsest of political experiments whose top-down administration often disrupts ecological and social resilience.

In his lecture, Edgar seeks to trace signs of the collapse of this system – from Soviet agro-complexes to abandoned ghost villages near airports. Analysing symbolic locations, he invites us to view rural areas as living laboratories where traces of various “political seasons” have been left behind.

16 AUGUST

3 PM GROUND TRUTH – WORKSHOP BY JURGA DAUBARAITĖ AND JONAS ŽUKAUSKAS 

Jurga Daubaraitė and Jonas Žukauskas are architects, researchers, and curators based in Vilnius. Their joint practices include research into the histories of modernisation and colonisation, as well as the material processes of construction, infrastructure and extraction that shape the landscape and cultural imagination of the Baltic region. Within this framework, they develop spatial concepts, architectural and publishing projects and organize exhibitions.

Together with Egija Inzule, they operate as Neringa Forest Architecture (NFA) – a collective that explores how cultural practices and institutions mediate the relationship between humans and the environment. NFA seeks to shape the public imagination about the long-term concept of the forest and the ways in which this concept is formed. 

Jurga and Jonas, in collaboration with other creators, have curated the exhibitions The Baltic Pavilion (Venice Architecture Biennale, 2016), The Baltic Material Assemblies (AA Gallery and RIBA, 2018) and Children’s Forest Pavilion (Venice Architecture Biennale, 2023), among others.

Workshop: Ground Truth

During the workshop, Jurga and Jonas will present the “optics” of their projects – ways of seeing and reflecting on the infrastructure that shape the environment and utilise material resources. They will share case studies, timelines, cartographies and experiences from exhibitions designed in collaboration with creators from various fields.

In the second part of the workshop, they will invite participants on an expedition around the Aleknaičiai area, where they will search for material artefacts and images – signs that bear witness to the traces of human activity in the cultural landscape.

Technological and political decisions determine practices that carve, erase and reshape the landscape by exploiting natural resources. How do these interventions become visible through different ways of looking – from remote observation (using satellites and aircraft equipped with sensory imaging technologies) and spatial data collected by state institutions, to direct, embodied experience of the territory? What material data can tell stories about the past and present?

Workshop participants will act as a “living sensor” – a sensitive instrument that records signs and signals embedded in the landscape. They will create an image of the place based on ground-based observation and compare it with remote observation data to reveal the connections between what can be seen from the ground and what can be revealed from the sky.

7 pm FOOD EXPERIENCE CREATED BY NERINGA GREICIŪTĖ A.K.A ONCOOKHOOK

7:30 pm TALK AND WORKSHOP BY ADAM SUTHERLAND

Adam Sutherland is a cultural organiser, curator and creator who has been leading the contemporary art organisation Grizedale Arts, based in the Lake District region of the United Kingdom, since 1999. His activities include curating, community engagement, organizational strategy and art production, where he acts not only as a partner in the development of ideas but also as a practitioner, engaging in ceramics, construction and the development of everyday infrastructure.

Together with his partner Karen, he lives in Lawson Park, a former mountain farm where he has been developing residential, educational and cultural infrastructure since 2003. In 2020, upon his initiative, Grizedale Arts acquired a former village pub, The Farmer’s Arms. Today it has become a contemporary rural cultural platform.

Workshop

During the virtual meeting, Adam will present strategies developed over more than two decades of leading the Grizedale Arts organisation. His presentation will introduce different ways in which cultural initiatives can establish themselves and operate in rural contexts – not as representative cultural centres but as living social, economic and artistic fabrics.

Drawing on his experience working at the Lawson Park residency centre, transforming a rural pub into The Farmer’s Arms and collaborating internationally, Adam will analyse how creative practices can build sustainable connections with place, community and infrastructure.

8.30 PM EVENING MUSIC SELECTION BY VISVALDAS MORKEVIČIUS

17 AUGUST

11 AM PHILOSOPHY AND THE COUNTRYSIDE – LECTURE BY PHILOSOPHER VILIUS DRANSEIKA

Vilius Dranseika is a philosopher currently working at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Ethics at Jagiellonian University in Kraków, where he holds the position of professor. His research includes the psychological foundations of philosophical concepts, and in recent years he has focused primarily on topics of personal identity, death and memory.

Vilius is also interested in computational methods in philosophy, from natural language processing to citation analysis, which he applies in his research on both contemporary and historical philosophy. Vilius received his PhD in philosophy from the University of Grenoble Alpes, Centre for Philosophy of Memory.

Talk: Philosophy and the Countryside

Philosophy has never been solely an urban phenomenon. If historians of philosophy were to map its topography, they would have to include not only salons, auditoriums, squares, cafés and libraries but also remote monasteries, hermitages, tribal or village gatherings, and festivals where oral traditions are passed on.

On the other hand – and this will be the theme of this gathering – urban philosophy sometimes ventures into rural areas, hoping to gain something and sometimes to give something. Vilius will invite us to listen to stories illustrating variations of this relationship: from one-sided, when a philosopher simply takes or learns something from the countryside or its people to mutual cooperation beneficial to both sides.

2 PM SPINDLE WORKSHOP BY ARTIST LAURA GARBŠTIENĖ

Laura Garbštienė is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in the village of Šklėriai in Dzūkija. Her work combines ecological themes, humorous institutional critique and observations of everyday life. An important part of her practice is a direct, material relationship with the environment – her works are often created in interaction with nature, animals or the local community.

In 2017, Laura founded the artists’ initiative Verpėjos, dedicated to exploring and rethinking themes of traditional rural life, ecology and communal coexistence. Living with a flock of Skudde sheep, she cultivates spinning as a daily activity and a social gesture connecting people from different cultures.

Spindle workshop

During the workshop, participants will join Laura in making spindles from birch wood, and later, walking along local paths, they will use them to spin. Spinning thus becomes not a craft but a slow movement – a practice of being that invites us to listen to what usually goes unnoticed: the rhythms of the environment, invisible life and physical presence together.

This will be a time without a predetermined goal – not seeking to create a result but allowing oneself to be, to knit a relationship through action, material and silence. Spinning here becomes the opposite of control or a relationship with the world based on knowledge – we are invited not to understand but simply to be together.

During the workshop, Laura will also present her creative practice, born while living in the village of Šklėriai – working with animals, handicrafts, nature and the slow cycle of everyday life. She will introduce the Verpėjos initiative, in which art becomes a way of rethinking traditions, local knowledge and the contemporary relationship with the environment.

PRACTICAL INFORMATION

We invite guests staying overnight to bring their own tents, sleeping bags, and mattresses. Accommodation will be available in one of the Akee spaces (please bring mattresses and sleeping bags) as well as in the outdoor area (please bring tents).

Don’t forget that we’ll be spending time in nature – make sure to bring cooler and warmer clothing, sun and rain protection, and mosquito and tick repellents. There are also beehives buzzing around in the Akee area. Be sensitive and attentive – bees can sense this and coexist kindly.

We love nature and share sustainable practices, so if you have space in your vehicles, we encourage you to share the ride, so there is more space in the Akee area for us instead of cars. You can also reach us by bus to Pakruojis. Once you arrive at Pakruojis station, you can reach the event site by taxi or ask your friends who have arrived to give you a lift.

Spread the word, invite friends, bring what we may have missed mentioning but you think might be needed. 

We look forward to seeing you soon!

Curator: Vilius Vaitiekūnas
Graphic designer: Kornelija Žalpytė
Communications coordinator: Aistė Marija Stankevičiūtė
Translator: Ignė Smilingytė
Editor: Dangė Vitkienė

Partners: LNDM Nacionalinė dailės galerija, Stasys Museum, „Architektūros fondas“, Artnews.lt, Pakruojo kultūros centras, „Radio Vilnius“, Confederacy of Villages ir Inland.
Supported by: „Lairent“, „Medicus LT“.

Financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.