Video and sound installation developed for The Contemporary Arts Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania as part of Twilight. Presented at Onufri, The National Gallery of Art, Tirana, Albania 2003

Installation featuring Palina Panamarcuk, originally from Belarus, filmed in the caves and forest in Raudondvaris near Vilnius.

The Feminine Principle
Lithuania was one of the last countries in Europe to convert to Christianity, and pagan beliefs and nature religion is strongly evident. The feminine principle is characterized by the close relation with water, earth and the moon. In this work, body, soul, mind and land overlap in a mythic portrayal of Palina Panamarcuk as the 'anima telluris', carrying out a ritualistic journey to a hidden and sacred place in the forest. The work was made in response to the history of the Soviet occupation in Lithuania and the history of the forests around Vilnius. Forests were the sites of killings and concealments. They were also the first places to be associated with Pagan beliefs in Lithuania. Palina Panamarcuk had been a nurse in the Russian army. She maintains a healing spring within an ancient cave in the forest of Raudondvaris and uses the water for healing.

View the PARABLE Gallery

Twilight UK was curated by Tracey Warr, author of the Artist's Body

The work was made possible by consultations with Vygintas Vaitkevicius, a photographer and archivist of sacred sites and Dr. Nijole Laurinkiene, from the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore.

Publications and Presentations

Twilight Catalogue.

Onufri, National Gallery Tirana, Albania