Ūmėdė* (lietuviškai žemiau)
Extensive photo and video documentation is on our facebook and instagram profiles.
x⬳disciplinary festival for emerging art & related matters What happened after the meteorite of the anthropocene has hit contemporary art, and bioactivists together with AI and XR* have exploded the discourse formerly known as media art?
The umede.lt festival and symposium will begin on the morning of October 16 and end late on the evening of October 18, so reserve these days for the full festival experience.
Get your tickets https://umede.lt/program-2025/
Performances, installations, conceptual coffee breaks, open artists studios, smell of grass and trees, book presentations, hybrid discussions, chilling in the garden, sauna & bonfire trips, concerts, imaginary presence and unexpected meetings.
The third festival ūmėdė 2025 welcomes us down to earth to question why we are so awkwardly placed here.
After media and screen fatigueness and sensory overload we invite you down to earth, down to body, down to roots to exchange on what we have learned out there and was it worth the trip?
New media integration into art and society was done in a happy-go-lucky way, now we would like to rewind and freeze some of the best moments. Lets watch and listen to them in slow motion all together around the real bonfire.
Third edition of umede.lt festival will happen on October 16-19th at SODAS 2123 (Vilnius, LT) site and invites you to experience all four festival stages (strands): sodas (garden), krūsnis (heap of stones), laboratory and ether.
*ūmėdė [uːmeədeə]
is a Lithuanian word for mushroom species (Russula). It phonetically resonates with the word “media”. This mushroom is ectomycorrhizal which means a form of symbiotic relationship that occurs between a fungal symbiont, or mycobiont, and the roots of various plant species. Therefore metaphorically speaking we suppose that participants of the symposium will form a symbiotic relationship with media, art, research, the actual venue and themselves.
ARTISTS’ LIST: Aistė Laisvė Viršulytė, Allosci, Álino (Pijus Chraptavičius and Leonardas Mekionis), Antonina Nowacka, Audrius Beinorius, Banana Frenkel & Jan Glöckner, Beatričė Zaveckaitė and Anna Fedoronchuk, Becca-Willow Moss, Daniela Natale, Dárida Rodrigues, David Quigley, Eirini Sourgiadaki, Elizabeth Shores, Eva Bakkeslett, Greta Ona, Hara Shin, Ieva Rižė, Irina Gheorge, Jolanta Sendaitė-Paulauskienė, Juan Duarte Regino, Katažyna Jankovska, Kathy D’Arcy, Labor Neunzehn (Valentina Besegher Scotti and Alessandro Massobrio), Lukas Dovydėnas, Maija Demitere, Malka Pinjara, Mari Keski-Korsu, Mari-Liis Rebane & Timo Toots, Mateusz Pitala, Monika Razny, Mercedes Krapovickas, Miklós (Miki) Ambrózy and Risk Hazekamp, Nazaré Soares, Viktorija Tylos Prisilietimas, Eglė Vilpišauskienė, Rosemary Lee, Rūta Butkutė, Saulius Leonawičius, Ting-Chia Wu, Viktória Revická, Viltė Bražiūnaitė-Tomas Sinkevičius, Varvara Spilt, Vincent Roumagnac, Vygintas Orlovas, Vitalij Červiakov & Gailė Cijūnaitytė, SPORK Sound kitchen (Vytautas Bikauskas and Bailey Polkinghorne), AIRE collective (Yanis Proshkinas, Denis Bykovskiy, Yasya Minenkova), TBA
CURATORS: Vytautas Michelkevičius, Gailė Griciūtė, Ignas Pavliukevičius, Nazare Soares and others (see below)
BACKGROUND
The new Ūmėdė biennial festival is investigating the discourse of “emerging art forms” and invites artists, thinkers and practitioners to overcome their disciplinary borders and perform, share, exhibit, expose, present, talk, dine and walk together for 3 nights and days in the heart of Vilnius city. We believe that it does not matter which medium you use, or which discipline you refer to, as long as you are concerned with urgent issues of emerging art (formerly known as (new) media art, art & science, digital art, interactive art, etc.) Ūmėdė starts as a platform for emerging art forms, to accommodate and question them. Moreover, it intends to explore the limits of art and its relations to other forms of human and non-human (post-human) activities. The biennial has ambitions to grasp what is upcoming or upcycle what was lost in the history of art & science & research.
HISTORY
The first attempt of the pre-festival was Ars Electronica Garden Vilnius event which happened in September 2020 in a hybrid form: in Vilnius and online. It was curated and organised by the same team. Vytautas Michelkevičius has also initiated and co-curated a series of 9 Inter-formats symposiums which happened at Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts from 2011 until 2019.
1st ūmėdė festival edition happened in June 2021 – documentation and archive here;
2nd ūmėdė edition was self-organised as a cosy camp in geomorphological nature preserve in 2024.
3rd edition happens as a full scale festival in October 16-19th, 2025
4th edition might happen in 2027 or 2028 (depending on funding and energy of curators).
TEAM
Artistic director, founder and co-curator: Vytautas Michelkevičius
Programme Curators and co-founders: Gailė Griciūtė, Ignas Pavliukevičius
Contributing curators: Nazaré Soares (Bathing and Beyond), Johanna Zanon, Katažyna Jankovska and others
Transmediale film programme curator: Anna-Lena Panter;
Artists: Gala Hernández López, Hana Yoo, Anan Fries, Anna Engelhardt & Mark Cinkevich, Nina Davies
Curators of the Young Artists’ Film Program: Milda Trimakaitė and Agnė Balandžiūnaitė
Artists’ films: Juozas Žutautas, Sonata Vilkevičiūtė, Jorė Černiauskaitė, Ignotas Kuprys, Sofija Laurušonytė, Robertas Nevecka, Markas Montvilovas, Eglė Davidavičė, Dominykas Andriuškevičius, Ignas Montvilovas, Beatričė Jackutė
Scientific and artistic committee of the symposium
Chair dr. Vytautas Michelkevičius;
Memebers: Dr. Ignas Pavliukevičius, Assoc. Prof. Gailė Griciūtė, Dr. Marquard Smith (UK), Dr. Lina Michelkevičė, Dr. Irina Gheorhe (RO/DE), Dr. Jurij Dobriakov, artist-organiser Andrew Gryf Paterson (FIN/SCO), Dr. Robertas Narkus, Dr. Akvilė Anglickaitė, Prof. Laura Gudaitė, Dr. Skaidra Trilupaitytė
Sound engineer: Kipras Dominas
Sonic landscape and amplifiers: Vytautas Budzejus
Design: diy AI & Ignas Pavliukevičius
Producer and facilitator: Emilija Zakarauskaitė
Communication: Vytautas Michelkevičius
Volunteers: Liepa Okulič-Kazarinaitė, Oskaras Žalgiris, Arturas Sidas Bukauskas, Kamilė Žekonytė, Laura Bikulčytė, Kajus Zakarauskas, Saulė Jonušaitė, Anastasija Pčelinceva, Rugilė Jonušaitė, Titas Ignatavičius, Aleksandra Ivanova, Aleksandra Ieva Noreikaitė, Agnė Tylaitė, Agnė Danieliūtė, Elzė Vaitiekaitytė, Irina Gubacheva
Contact fest@umede.lt
BIOGRAMS
Gailė is interested in sound, its behaviour in space and time, interrelations, manipulations, multiplicity of layers and existences. In a sonic dialogue between the ‘natural’ and ‘human made’, creating sensory space for thought processes and new perceptions, questioning how can artistic actions take a conscious part in the environmental processes.
Vytautas is restless (keen) in finding what happened after media art has evaporated into the atmosphere and what is going to replace it by 2030. He is curating, writing and researching post-media art and its leftovers. To sum up art has never been an autonomous field and recently it got another chance to hook up with technologies, research and society. Moreover, he hopes that (artistic) practice generates new theories and will help us better understand the future.
Ignas fancies for digital forms of representation that can create new versions of reality. A reality for dissolving boundaries between self and the other, occupying other bodies and species. Asking how digital entities are forming relationships with our physical bodies, and in turn what our bodies offer them? The momentous question is how digitalisation shapes the meaning of what it takes for someone to be a human?
PARTNERS: Photography, Animation and Media Art Department of Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lietuvos tarpdisciplininio meno kūrėjų sąjunga (LTMKS), Eden Baths, Estafetė, Downtown forest, Yauya.lt
Organised by ngo MENE in partnership with SODAS 2123
Partly supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius City Municipality, Royal Norwegian Embassy in Vilnius, Nordisk Kulturfond – Globus Program, OCA (Office for Contemporary Art Norway), all the participants
SPECIAL THANKS TO
LIETUVIŠKAI
umede.lt komanda džiaugiasi galėdama paskelbti programą ir menininkų sąrašą, kuriame daugiau kaip 70 dalyvių. Rezervuokite vietas sau ir draugams. Festivalis su simpoziumu prasidės spalio 16 d. ryte ir baigsis vėlų 18 d. vakarą, tad rezervuokite šias dienas pilnai festivalio patirčiai. Bilietai http://umede.lt/program-2025/
Dalyviai / Participants: Aistė Laisvė Viršulytė, Allosci, Álino (Pijus Chraptavičius and Leonardas Mekionis), Antonina Nowacka, Audrius Beinorius, Banana Frenkel & Jan Glöckner, Beatričė Zaveckaitė and Anna Fedoronchuk, Becca-Willow Moss, Daniela Natale, Dárida Rodrigues, David Quigley, Eirini Sourgiadaki, Elizabeth Shores, Eva Bakkeslett, Filippos Raskovic, Greta Ona, Hara Shin, Ieva Rižė, Irina Gheorge, Jolanta Sendaitė-Paulauskienė, Juan Duarte Regino, Katažyna Jankovska, Kathy D’Arcy, Labor Neunzehn (Valentina Besegher Scotti and Alessandro Massobrio), Lukas Dovydėnas, Maija Demitere, Malka Pinjara, Mari Keski-Korsu, Mari-Liis Rebane & Timo Toots, Mateusz Pitala, Monika Razny, Mercedes Krapovickas, Miklós (Miki) Ambrózy and Risk Hazekamp, Nazaré Soares, Viktorija Tylos Prisilietimas, Eglė Vilpišauskienė, Rosemary Lee, Rūta Butkutė, Saulius Leonawičius, Ting-Chia Wu, Viktória Revická, Viltė Bražiūnaitė-Tomas Sinkevičius, Varvara Spilt, Vincent Roumagnac, Vygintas Orlovas, Vitalij Červiakov & Gailė Cijūnaitytė, SPORK Sound kitchen (Vytautas Bikauskas and Bailey Polkinghorne), AIRE collective (Yanis Proshkinas, Denis Bykovskiy, Yasya Minenkova), TBA…
Trečiasis festivalis „umede.lt“ kviečia mus nusileisti į žemę ir paklausti, kodėl mes čia taip nejaukiai įsikūrę.
Po medijų ir ekranų sukelto nuovargio bei pojūčių perkrovos kviečiame nusileisti ant žemės, prie kūno, prie šaknų, kad apsikeistume nuomonėmis apie tai, ką sužinojome ten, ir ar buvo verta keliauti?
Naujųjų medijų integracija į meną ir visuomenę vyko perdėtai optimistiškai, o dabar norėtume prisiminti ir atsukti atgal keletą geriausių akimirkų. Pažiūrėkime ir paklausykime jų sulėtintai visi kartu diskutuodami prie tikro laužo.
Trečiasis umede.lt festivalis vyks spalio 16-19 d. SODAS 2123 (Vilnius, LT) erdvėse ir kviečia pasinerti į keturias festivalio kryptis/temas: sodas, krūsnis, laboratorija ir eteris. Jis vyks simpoziumo formatu, kuriame kiekvienas svečias tampa dalyviu ir gali prisidėti prie programos diskusijomis, gurkšnodami kavą ar prie bendro pietų stalo.
Festivalio kuratoriai: Vytautas Michelkevičius, Gailė Griciūtė, Ignas Pavliukevičius
Programų kuratoriai: Nazaré Soares (Bathing & Beyond), Johanna Zanon, Katažyna Jankovska
Kuratorinė asistentė ir prodiuserė Emilija Zakarauskaitė
Transmediale festivalio filmų programos kuratorė: Anna-Lena Panter
Menininkai: Gala Hernández López, Hana Yoo, Anan Fries, Anna Engelhardt & Mark Cinkevich, Nina Davies
Jaunųjų menininkų filmų programos kuratorės: Milda Trimakaitė and Agnė Balandžiūnaitė
Jaunųjų menininkų filmų kūrėjai: Juozas Žutautas, Sonata Vilkevičiūtė, Jorė Černiauskaitė, Ignotas Kuprys, Sofija Laurušonytė, Robertas Nevecka, Markas Montvilovas, Eglė Davidavičė, Dominykas Andriuškevičius, Ignas Montvilovas, Beatričė Jackutė
Garso inžinierius: Kipras Dominas
Garso peizažai ir pastiprinimai: Vytautas Budzejus
Vaizdiniai sprendimai: Ignas Pavliukevičius
Dėkui savanoriams: Liepa Okulič-Kazarinaitė, Oskaras Žalgiris, Arturas Sidas Bukauskas, Kamilė Žekonytė, Laura Bikulčytė, Kajus Zakarauskas, Saulė Jonušaitė, Anastasija Pčelinceva, Rugilė Jonušaitė, Titas Ignatavičius, Aleksandra Ivanova, Aleksandra Ieva Noreikaitė, Agnė Tylaitė, Agnė Danieliūtė, Elzė Vaitiekaitytė, Irina Gubacheva
Simpoziumo mokslo ir meno komitetas:
Pirmininkas dr. Vytautas Michelkevičius;
Nariai: Dr. Ignas Pavliukevičius, doc. Gailė Griciūtė, Dr. Marquard Smith (UK), Dr. Lina Michelkevičė, Dr. Irina Gheorghe (RO/DE), dr. Jurij Dobriakov, menininkas-organizatorius Andrew Gryf Paterson (FIN/SCO), Dr. Robertas Narkus, Dr. Akvilė Anglickaitė, Prof. Laura Gudaitė, Dr. Skaidra Trilupaitytė
umede.lt festivalį organizuoja VšĮ MENE
Organizacinis partneris SODAS 2123
Partneriai: Vilniaus dailės akademijos Fotografijos, animacijos ir medijų meno (FAMM) katedra, Lietuvos tarpdisciplininio meno kūrėjų sąjunga (LTMKS), Eden Baths, Estafetė, Downtown forest, Yauya.lt ir kiti
Festivalį finansuoja Lietuvos kultūros taryba, Vilniaus miesto savivaldybė, Nordisk Kulturfond – Globus Program, OCA (Office for Contemporary Art Norway), Norvegijos Karalystės Ambasada Lietuvoje, visi dalyviai ir jų atitinkami rėmėjai