Change and Relations in the House - Grėtė Šmitaitė (Kaunas)

"Change and relations in the house" is a research-based project that deals with close family relationships - everyday interaction - and examines the possibilities of physical encounters as a method of maintaining relationships. How can interpersonal relationships and dependencies be made visible and changed through a common movement routine?

Thrown back on her own family and the home environment by the pandemic, Grėtė Šmitaitė carries these questions into her family home and lets herself and her family members become the protagonists of her work. In particular the two youngest (seven and nine years old) and the oldest (76 years old) get involved in the movement scores she initiated. For months, the participants meet every day for a shared exercise routine. By playing together, doing gardening and cooking, they slowly get to know each other's struggles, pains, joys and longings. They explore ways to live through the changes in the aging and growing body. Using the example of her own family, Grėtė Šmitaitė carefully opens up opportunities to cultivate relationships beyond language and reason, to reveal oneself to one another through being and doing together, but also to understand and dissolve resistance.

In Vilnius, Lithuania “Change and relations in the house” is presented in the Mental Health Arts Festival "Bonds" as an exhibition as well as through sharing movement practice with other households in the form of a workshop.

Concept and realization: Grėtė Šmitaitė, Participants: Veronika Šmitaitė, Jeronimas Šmitas, Liucija Šimkūnienė, Production: Karolina Zakarauskaitė (Curator Mental Health Arts Festival "Bonds", Vilnius), Artistic advise: Charlotte Arens, Video design: Dovilė Gasiūnaitė, Gvidas Kovėra