Mirthe Berentsen and Virginija Januškevičiūtė come together in conversation with Marianna Maruyama for an energetic exchange around writing, termitic modes of being, mothering multitudes, and life-cycles. If writing serves both as a process of emptying and accumulating, termites can be reliable guides in this contradictory, self-defeating, seemingly circular pursuit.
The conversation between Virginija Januškevičiūtė and Marianna Maruyama picks up one year after their public discussion at the Royal Netherlands Institute Rome, and is now graciously joined by Mirthe Berentsen who shares the following recollection:
“in Maharashtra, in western India, i was waiting for the delivery of a table. it had belonged to a colleague and the antique wood would suit my bedroom. shortly after its arrival, i noticed small pieces of the table on the floor every morning, dutifully i cleared it away and forgot about it. until i wandered off to find peace at night & i remembered the pieces of the table. i thought i heard the termites, feasting on my house. and in that dim zone of surrender and alertness, i felt the termites gnawing at my feet. slowly taking possession of all my corridors. until i’m merely hollow forms of inheritance and memory. i weathered from a body into a building, becoming brown mountains of masses, of self-regulating processes, becoming energy and us. buried in a living grave i am greater than i could ever have been on my own.“
This event takes place in the context of Marianna Maruyama’s solo exhibition “Six Blue Things” at Page Not Found.
Marianna Maruyama describes her multi-modal practice as translational, transformative, personal, and indebted. Since 2016, she has worked in close collaboration with the Sedje Hémon Foundation. Her work has been performed and exhibited in the CAC Vilnius (LT), Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (NL), documenta14 Parliament of Bodies, Kassel (DE), The Jewish Historical Museum, Amsterdam (NL), Manifesta 11, Zurich (CH), The Centraal Museum, Utrecht (NL), and IMPAKT festival, Utrecht (NL), Lateral Roma (IT). Publications include: Performing Security (The Fifth Season, 2019); Translation as Method (Kunstlicht, 2017); Translation in The Dark (Casco/DAi, 2014); Three Movements (Casco/DAI, 2013); Farocki’s Living Room (Harun Farocki Institut, 2018). Her writing has been published in DEARS, Nero Editions, and Archive Books (forthcoming).
Mirthe Berentsen (NL,1984) studied Literature at the University of Amsterdam and Comparative Literature and Linguistics at the Freie Universität in Berlin. Berentsen writes reviews and essays for various newspapers and magazines on art, culture and political-social developments (including for the Dutch NRC Handelsblad, Vrij Nederland, De Groene Amsterdammer, De Volkskrant, the German newspaper Die Welt and international art magazines like Art Asia Pacific, Modern Painters, Art Basel Magazine, E-FLUX and Sleek). Since 2015 Berentsen has been working as an advisor on cultural policy for the Ministry of Culture in The Hague, focusing on internationalization and inclusivity.
Virginija Januškevičiūtė is a curator and advisor at the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) in Vilnius. She has recently curated solo exhibitions by Rosalind Nashashibi (currently in view), Arthur Jafa, Yugi Agematsu, Eglė Budvytytė and Brud; as well as group exhibitions Splitting the Atom (with Ele Carpenter), History of Joy, Part 4 (with Kaspars Groševs and Siim Preiman, on view online) and Head with Many Thoughts (with the rest of the CAC’s curatorial team). Virginija also writes, interviews, edits and publishes: see www.blunt.cc for a recent collection of artist books in PDF format or follow this link for a series of video interviews with Lithianian visual artists.
Starts at 17:00.
This is a free event.