[spectre] Hacking Public Spaces in Vilnius, an interview [u]

[Sonar Radar]

sorry i just make things up for a living.

peace out.

ta-dah,
ga.

--- Bruce Sterling <bruces at well.com> wrote:

> *Are you in LA?  Me too.
> 
> Bruce S, not a hot chick
> 
> 
> On Jun 21, 2005, at 4:59 PM, Sonar Radar wrote:
> 
> > are either of them hot?? we only care about hot
> chicks
> > in LA.
> >
> > ciao -
> >
> > ga.
> >
> > --- "Geert Lovink [c]" <geert at xs4all.nl> wrote:
> >
> >> Hacking Public Spaces in Vilnius
> >> Politics of a new media space inside the Lietuva
> >> (soviet) cinema
> >>
> >> Interview with Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas
> >> By Geert Lovink
> >>
> >> Ever since I met Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas in
> >> 1999, two contemporary
> >> artists from Lithuania, they have been in search
> for
> >> an art space where
> >> they could establish a media lab, host talks and
> >> exhibit new media
> >> related art works. In August 2004 their
> >> organization, Vilma, hosted the
> >> RAM 6 workshop in Vilnius--yet another example
> which
> >> showed how well
> >> organized they were, and how desperate in need of
> >> their own
> >> infrastructure to do critical and innovative
> >> projects. This spring,
> >> Nomeda and Gediminas suddenly saw a chance--and
> >> grabbed it. They
> >> occupied the huge voyer of the privatized Lietuva
> >> cinema, over which a
> >> controversy had arisen. In May 2005 Nomeda and
> >> Gediminas were in
> >> Amsterdam briefly for the opening of the Populism
> >> show at the Stedelijk
> >> Museum, a moment we used to catch up and prepare
> for
> >> the following
> >> interview, which was done through email over the
> >> past few weeks. The
> >> situation of their exciting projects is changing
> on
> >> a daily basis and
> >> we'll hope to keep you informed. In the
> meanwhile,
> >> if you would like to
> >> support them, for instance by sending them taping
> >> which they could
> >> screen, please contact them. Email plus URLs can
> be
> >> found below.
> >>
> >> GL: Hi, how are you? It's been an exciting few
> >> months for you. Tell us
> >> all about the space. How does it look inside? And
> >> what's happening
> >> inside, for instance last week?
> >>
> >> NU & GU: To tell all about the space, we should
> make
> >> a short story long
> >> and introduce you to the context. Since
> independence
> >> in 1991 Lithuania
> >> has been caught in an insane period of
> >> privatization, property
> >> development and demolition. Like a Wild West
> >> land-grab or a gold rush,
> >> speculators and real estate tycoons have joined
> >> forces with corrupt
> >> municipal bureaucrats to redevelop the country at
> a
> >> mad pace. Profit
> >> has been their only motive. Public space,
> landmark
> >> buildings, cultural
> >> life, and public opinion have been the principal
> >> victims. Their method
> >> is simple: tell the population that economic
> >> development is good for
> >> everyone. Convince them that Capital is King.
> Remind
> >> the public that
> >> making Lithuania look like the pale shade of a
> >> Western European city is
> >> the best way to scrub the Soviet past: and make
> the
> >> country attractive
> >> to even more investment and development.
> >>
> >> During Soviet times, cinema played an important
> role
> >> in public cultural
> >> life. Large movie theatres were built in central
> >> locations around
> >> Lithuanian cities. The theatres filled a crucial
> >> role as places for
> >> public meetings and gatherings. After
> independence,
> >> as Soviet
> >> structures rapidly crumbled in a wholesale
> fashion,
> >> the cinemas caught
> >> the attention of the real estate market. In a
> short
> >> time, private
> >> enterprise managed to take over and destroy
> almost
> >> every cinema in
> >> Vilnius, turning them into apartments and
> >> supermarkets.
> >>
> >> More than 15 cinema theatres disappeared
> including
> >> such urban landmarks
> >> as Ausra (Dawn), Zvaigzde (Star), Spalis
> (October),
> >> Pionierius
> >> (Pioneer), Pergale (Victory), Tevyne
> (Motherland),
> >> Kronika (Newsreel),
> >> Aidas (Echo), Planeta (Planet), Neris, Vingis,
> >> Lazdynai, Vilnius,
> >> Maskva (Moscow), and LIETUVA (Lithuania). In poor
> >> replacement, and
> >> mirroring the tragedy of cities all over the
> world,
> >> two 2 multiplex
> >> cinema monsters were constructed: the suburban
> Coca
> >> Cola Plaza and
> >> exurban Akropolis Cinemas. The latter, that is
> part
> >> of Lithuania’s
> >> largest shopping mall, is representative of the
> >> 'mallification' of
> >> Lithuania. With the multiplexes came multiplex
> >> Hollywood movies: so the
> >> demolition of cinematic space encoded a
> demolition
> >> of independent film
> >> programming.
> >>
> >> Now, in 2005, there is only one cinema standing:
> >> LIETUVA. And a battle
> >> has emerged to save it. Cinema Lietuva was built
> in
> >> 1965 and,
> >> significantly, is the largest cinema in Lithuania
> >> with over 1000 seats
> >> and a screen size of 200 square meters, offering
> an
> >> ideal image size.
> >> It is the home of the Vilnius Film Festival and
> as
> >> such has played an
> >> important role in the imaginative life of a whole
> >> generation of Vilnius
> >> people. The title of the enterprise “Lietuva”
> >> (Lithuania) is also an
> >> important signifier of national identity, as its
> >> name never bore any
> >> Soviet overtones (i.e. it wasn’t called the
> Cinema
> >> of the Soviet
> >> Republic of Lithuania). To say to somebody “let’s
> >> meet at Lietuva”
> >> really meant something during Soviet occupation.
> >>
> >> In 2002, the Vilnius Municipal authorities
> quietly
> >> sold the cinema to
> >> private property developers; with a caveat that
> it
> >> had to operate as a
> >> cinema for a three-year period. That term is
> ending
> >> on 1 July 2005 and
> >> a protest to save the cinema has begun.
> >>
> >> In March 2005 we infiltrated the former ticket
> >> office of the country
> >> largest cinema, staging the 'pro-test lab', which
> is
> >> the embodiment of
> >> VILMA – Vilnius Interdisciplinary Lab for Media
> >> Arts. Pro-test lab is
> >> constructed as a spatial device to register the
> 
=== message truncated ===


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