Join us to celebrate the launch of Vessel… as a Journal, surrounded by friends, followed by a conversation between Defne Ayas, Raimundas Malašauskas and Neringa Černiauskaitė (Pakui Hardware), inviting to explore performance as a form of reality production for collective imagination.

* as a Journal offers a fresh outlook on contemporary cultural movements and recognises the insightful contributions that artists, creators and researchers from Lithuania and beyond bring to topics of global concern.

Published twice a year, the title of * as a Journal, changes along with the theme of each issue and invites readers to immerse themselves in a single topic from a range of unexpected cultural perspectives. The content of each issue of the magazine is developed by guest editors with a special interest in the chosen topic and created by an international team of contributors.

For the 9th edition, guest editor Defne Ayas asked: What is the relationship between art, reality, and performance in the present moment? How does performance as a medium inform and shape our understanding of politics today, and how is it, in turn, informed? What are our desires, hopes, and fantasies in this era, and how are selfhood, eroticism, and nature represented in the 21st century? How do encryption, coding, and staging operate within politics, social media, and every sphere of our lives? How do elements like fashion, sound, and love intersect with the medium?

Finally, in the face of global and personal tides of annihilation, how do artists "dance" with one another in this moment? Can we eavesdrop on peer-to-peer conversations—those moments of exchange and connection that shape the fabric of our camouflages and acts of self-preservation? What lies at the heart of how artists perform—and perform themselves? And how does this manifest within the live medium?

Contributors

Adam Kleinman

Adrien Sina

Agnietė Lisičkinaitė

Alexis Blake

Augustas Serapinas

Ayoung Kim

Cao Fei

Emilija Škarnulytė

Florentina Holzinger

Gabriel Lester

Goksu Kunak

Job Piston

Kathy Noble

Kira Nova

L.on Kruijswijk

Lina Lapelytė

Michael Portnoy

Moriah Evans

Neringa Bumblienė

Pakui Hardware (Neringa Černiauskaitė and Ugnius Gelguda)

Raimundas Malašauskas

Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė

Sandra Straukaitė

Tom Engels

Trajal Harrell

Vaidas Jauniškis

Vaiva Grainytė

Valentine de Saint-Point

Guest editor

Defne Aya

Editor

Kotryna Lingienė

English language editor

Gemma Lloyd

Special thanks to

Taisa B.

Translators

Adrien Sina (pp. 38-41)

Editorial board

Adomas Narkevičius

Monika Gimbutaitė

Vaiva Grainytė

Vlada Kalpokaitė-Kručkauskienė

Acknowledgements

The Lithuanian Culture Institute is grateful to members of the initiative group of * as a Journal: Dovydas Kiauleikis, Ernestas Parulskis, Gražina Michnevičiūtė, Jogintė Bučinskaitė, Julijonas Urbonas and Kristupas Sabolius.

Principal design

Godspeed Branding

Issue design

Inga Navickaitė-Drąsutė

Publisher

Lithuanian Culture Institute

Z. Sierakausko str. 15, LT-03105

Vilnius, Lithuania

Lithuanian Culture Institute team

Ignė Alėbaitė (project manager)

Julija Reklaitė

Rūta Nanartavičiūtė

Vlada Kalpokaitė-Kručkauskienė

Supported by

Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania