3 February – 21 April 2024

Solo exhibition

Multimedia-Installations / Skulptural Objects

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The Kunsthaus Göttingen is presenting a comprehensive solo exhibition by Lithuanian artist and filmmaker Emilija Škarnulytė (*1987 in Vilnius). She is internationally renowned for her expansive immersive video and multimedia installations. In her works, Škarnulytė deals with the effects of technological and scientific developments on the earth and addresses the complex relationships between resource use, environmental destruction and geopolitics.

The artist reflects on the activities and artefacts of human civilization from the perspective of deep time: where do we come from, who are we, how do we inscribe ourselves in the history of the earth, what will be left of us and what will the earth look like after us? Emilija Škarnulytė invites us to see the world through a non-human perspective. In her films, mythological and fictional characters explore the ruins of humanity – spheres and places that seem eerie and dystopian, fantastic and futuristic. In her works, the artist combines documentary and science fiction, the organic and the technological, imagination and reality in an exciting way.

The exhibition developed especially for the Kunsthaus Göttingen, deals with invisible cosmic, geological, ecological and political structures. The presentation focuses on the video works “t ½” (2019) and “Rakhne” (2023). For her films, Emilija Škarnulytė always goes to special places that are shaped by past political events or current scientific research.

“t ½” is based on real footage shot at the decommissioned Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant in Lithuania and in nuclear submarine channels in the Arctic Circle. Footage also includes remote sensing 3D scans of Japan’s Super-Kamiokande, a neutrino observatory, as well as of the CLOUD experiment at CERN in Switzerland. The film is a visual exploration of contemporary science and technology, told from the perspective of a future archaeologist. In “Rakhne”, the artist worked primarily with computer-generated images and AI-generated polyvocal music. The film explores the possibilities and limits of data storage and examines how data is currently constructed and mythologized. Škarnulytė’s poetic audiovisual productions invite the viewer on a meditative journey through our past, present and future.

Curated by Lotte Dinse

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The exhibition is sponsored by

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Picture left: »Still from Rakhne« (2023). Courtesy of the artist