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

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.