Centripetal Force of locus: Dilemmas of Nomadism in Contemporary Lithuanian Artistic Practices

Authors

  • Martynas Petrikas Vilnius University, Vytautas Magnus University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.7146/nts.v27i1.24239

Keywords:

theatre, popular culture, liquid mind-set, anxiety, contemporary Lithuania

Abstract

By using two cases – a production, called The Heart in Vilnius (2012) and a social-artistic project Give Yourself to Vilnius (2014), the article aims to discuss the issue of a “liquid” mind-set (Bauman) as it is perceived, reflected and formulated in contemporary Lithuanian artistic practices. These examples were intentionally chosen because both seem to address the issue of “roots” in one’s native land in opposition to physical or intellectual mobility. By establishing Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, as the spiritual locus of emotional fulfillment, both cases dwell on a social anxiety that Zygmunt Bauman terms “a meaninglessness”, typical for a transitional society, where modernization progresses at a different pace in differ- ent strata. Moreover, whether it is a political statement or a popular attraction, both examples portray a nomad and nomadism of late modernity as an “Other”, drawing a divisional and alienating line between a “liquid” mind-set and a “stable” one.

Author Biography

Martynas Petrikas, Vilnius University, Vytautas Magnus University

Martynas Petrikas (Dr) is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Creative Media, Vilnius University (Lithuania) and a Lecturer at the Department of Theatre Studies, Faculty of Arts, Vytautas Magnus University (Kaunas, Lithuania). His fields of interest, among others, are social aspects of theatrical practice, the history of Lithuanian theatre, and the history and theory of theatre criticism. His contribution to a collective monograph Postsovietinis Lietuvos teatras: (Post-Soviet Lithuanian Theatre: History, Identity, ) came out in print in 2014.

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Published

2015-05-12

How to Cite

Petrikas, M. (2015). Centripetal Force of locus: Dilemmas of Nomadism in Contemporary Lithuanian Artistic Practices. Nordic Theatre Studies, 27(1), 57–65. https://doi.org/10.7146/nts.v27i1.24239

Issue

Vol. 27 No. 1 (2015): Theatre and the Nomadic Subject

Section

Articles thematic section

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