Artist Talk
Emilija Škarnulytė
March 20, 7pm
Join us on Wednesday, March 20th at 7pm for an artist talk with Emilija Škarnulytė, moderated by our artistic director, Summer Guthery!
The evening’s conversation will speak to the artist’s practice, considering how Æqualia continues Škarnulytė’s mode of working between the documentary and the speculative to create films and immersive installations that explore deep time and invisible structures, from the geologic to the ecological, and the mythic to the political. Throughout her career, the artist has probed toxic absurdities of global histories, from nuclear waste to industrial mining to mass pollution. Her video works guide viewers through decommissioned nuclear power plants, deep-sea data storage units, forgotten underwater cities, and uncanny natural phenomena. Through a future archaeologist perspective, Škarnulytė suggests that the environments and worlds we believe to be confined to science fiction and fantasy can already be found on our own planet. Diving deep into the earth and sea, the atomic and otherworldly, Škarnulytė reveals the traces of human hubris and dimensions where we are not the center of the universe.
Emilija Škarnulytė (b. 1987, Vilnius) is a Lithuanian-born nomadic artist and filmmaker. Working between the realms of the documentary and the imaginary, Škarnulytė makes films and immersive installations exploring deep time and invisible structures. She works in realms that range from the cosmic and geological to the ecological and political. She most recently presented works at MORI Art Museum, Kiasma, Gwangju Biennale, Helsinki Biennale, Vilnius Biennale, Henie Onstad Triennale, Penumbra. Her work was presented in solo exhibitions at Ferme-Asile, Sion (2023); Kunsthaus Pasquart, Biel/Bienne (2021); Den Frie, Copenhagen (2021); National Gallery of Vilnius (2021); Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2017); Contemporary Art Centre CAC of Vilnius (2015). Prizes awarded to her include the 2023 Ars Fennica Award and the 2019 Future Generation Art Prize. She represented Lithuania at the XXII Triennale di Milano and participated in the Baltic Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Architecture Biennale. She has films in the collections of the IFA, HAM, Kadist Foundation and Centre Pompidou, and her works been screened at the Tate Modern and Serpentine Gallery in London, Centre Pompidou in Paris, Museum of Modern Art in New York, and numerous film festivals.
