Emilija Škarnulytė
Index

Emilija Škarnulytė (b. Vilnius, Lithuania 1987) is an artist and filmmaker. Working between documentary and the imaginary, Škarnulytė makes films and immersive installations exploring deep time and invisible structures, from the cosmic and geologic to the ecological and political. Her blind grandmother gently touches the weathered statue of a Soviet dictator. Neutrino detectors and particular colliders measure the cosmos with otherworldly architecture. Post-human species swim through submarine tunnels above the Arctic Circle and crawl through tectonic fault lines in the Middle Eastern desert. Winner of the 2019 Future Generation Art Prize, Škarnulytė represented Lithuania at the XXII Triennale di Milano and was included in the Baltic Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale of Architecture. With solo exhibitions at Tate Modern (2021), Kunsthaus Pasquart (2021), Den Frie (2021), National Gallery of Art in Vilnius (2021), CAC (2015) and Kunstlerhaus Bethanien (2017), she has participated in group shows at Ballroom Marfa, Seoul Museum of Art, Kadist Foundation, and the First Riga Biennial. In 2022, Škarnulytė participated in the group exhibition Penumbra organized by Fondazione In Between Art Film on the occasion of the 59th Venice Biennale. Her numerous prizes include the Kino der Kunst Project Award, Munich (2017); Spare Bank Foundation DNB Artist Award (2017), and the National Lithuanian Art Prize for Young Artists (2016)), and she was nominated as the candidate for the Ars Fennica art award 2023. She received an undergraduate degree from the Brera Academy of Art in Milan and holds a masters from the Tromsø Academy of Contemporary Art. Her films are in the IFA, Kadist Foundation and Centre Pompidou collections and have been screened at the Serpentine Gallery, UK, Centre Pompidou, France, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York and in numerous film festivals including in Rotterdam, Busan, and Oberhausen. Most recently she concluded her tenures at Art Explora and Cite des Art, which occurred on the heels of another significant residency at the MAK Center for Art and Architecture. She is a founder and currently co-directs Polar Film Lab, a collective for analogue film practice located in Tromsø, Norway and is a member of artist duo New Mineral Collective, recently commissioned for a new work by the First Toronto Biennial. Contact: skarnulyte.emilija@gmail.com

Tethys
Emilija Škarnulytė
Tethys, 2024
14 minutes, 4K, 3-channel video installation
 
 
Tethys,” showcased at La Citadelle in Villefranche-sur-Mer as part of the Saison de la Lituanie en France 2024, prompts viewers to rethink the connections between the artificial and the natural, the cosmic and the earthly, myth and reality. The title references the inscription above the fortress entrance, “Tethys,” which alludes to an ancient Greek sea goddess and a primordial sea that existed long before present-day continents took shape. In the film, Škarnulytė embodies the mermaid chimera, navigating the azure waters and the ruins submerged beneath. While the mermaid is a recurring motif in her work, here she symbolizes Tethys, representing an ancient force linked to both the ocean and swirling galaxies, bridging the gap between a distant past and a post-human future.
 
Tethys was commissioned by La Citadelle – Centre d’art et Musées thanks to the support of Lietuvos kultūros institutas / Lithuanian Culture Institute and l’Institut Français. Exhibition curated by Camille Frasca and Mėta Valiušaitytė.
 
Written and directed by: Emilija Škarnulytė
Cinematographer: Eitvydas Doškus
Editing: Vytautas Tinteris
Composer: Tuomas A. Laitinen
Executive producer: Elena Veleckaitė, assisted by Deividas Katkus
Light design: Adomas Kaikaris
Goddess: Elena Veleckaitė
Drone Pilot: Davey Whitcraft, Vytautas Tinteris
Production: Mirror Matter Productions