PinchukArtCentre

Emilija Škarnulytė

Emilija Škarnulytė has been making films and videos for the last ten years mostly in places where contemporary political issues are staged. Škarnulytė investigates the shifting boundaries between documentary and fiction, between ecological and cosmic forces: feeling out all kinds of nonhuman and posthuman scales, in the depths of space and time. Emilija’s large scale video installations are vast, indicative meditations on our current ecological discourse. Her films traverse an epic landscape of geography — bringing to life the indiscernible ‘hyperobjects’ that increasingly define our political and ecological crises. She has an MA from Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art, Norway. Recent group exhibitions and screenings include Hyperobjects at Ballroom Marfa, Texas; Moving Stones at the Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; and the first Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art; On Earth, Structure and Sadness, Serpentine Galleries, UK; as well as a new commission for Bold Tendencies, London and a solo show at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. She currently co-directs Polar Film Lab, a collective for 16mm analogue film practice located in Tromsø, Norway.
Main Prize
Emilija Škarnulytė has been making films and videos for the last ten years mostly in places where contemporary political issues are staged. Škarnulytė investigates the shifting boundaries between documentary and fiction, between ecological and cosmic forces: feeling out all kinds of nonhuman and posthuman scales, in the depths of space and time. Emilija’s large scale video installations are vast, indicative meditations on our current ecological discourse. Her films traverse an epic landscape of geography — bringing to life the indiscernible ‘hyperobjects’ that increasingly define our political and ecological crises. She has an MA from Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art, Norway. Recent group exhibitions and screenings include Hyperobjects at Ballroom Marfa, Texas; Moving Stones at the Kadist Art Foundation, Paris; and the first Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art; On Earth, Structure and Sadness, Serpentine Galleries, UK; as well as a new commission for Bold Tendencies, London and a solo show at Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin. She currently co-directs Polar Film Lab, a collective for 16mm analogue film practice located in Tromsø, Norway.

Main Prize

Emilija Škarnulytė’s work “t 1 ⁄ 2” stems from deep and extensive research which has been translated in a coherent and confident way. The jury found its scale, rhythm and pace mesmerising alongside its capacity to deal with vast expanses of time in a precise manner.

Her use of video expands into a multi-dimentional experience, confronting many of the major issues facing humanity which are often left unspoken. Without being overtly didactic, the work stays open-ended and poetic while raising fundamental questions about where we come from, who we are and where we might end-up.