Still Dear Friend
© Lou Mouw

AGNĖ JOKŠĖ (LT)

Dear Friend

2019
Video letter; LCD monitor; (24 mins)  

Dear Friend is a staged narrative based on an intimate, autobiographical text interwoven with elements of fiction. Portraying the story of a broken friendship, the letter raises questions of identity, intimacy, and platonic connection. A reflection on the fragility of relationships and the impact of distance and time, the basis of Dear Friend is language. Language participates in creating interpersonal connections and can both reinforce or destabilise established cultural and social norms, it unfolds new ways of telling, being and experiencing.  

Supported by: The Lithuanian Culture Institute in collaboration with the Lithuanian Cultural Attaché in Sweden, Finland and Denmark; Swedish Film Institute 

Lezbynai

2019
Performance (20 mins) 

Lezbynai is an erotic story about lesbian love in the background of the Lazdynai district where the artist grew up. The residential houses lined up in front of each other in this neighbourhood create a situation of a kind of panopticon, when everyone watches everyone, so any intimate gesture becomes both private and public at the same time. In Jokšės’s story, this situation becomes a medium for spreading a sexual, unbridled fantasy, which, unfolding within the artist’s relationship with her lovers, paints the seemingly silent concrete walls of the district’s buildings and penetrates the lives and thoughts of the people living there.  

Supported by: The Lithuanian Culture Institute in collaboration with the Lithuanian Cultural Attaché in Sweden, Finland and Denmark 


BIOGRAPHY

Agnė Jokšė is an artist and writer working between films, written pieces, and performances.  She tells stories in which her experiences and past events related to contemplations of love, intimacy and friendship intertwine with imaginative reflections on the surrounding world. Jokšė investigates questions concerning queerness, non-normative language, parallel histories, and entangled relations.  

Jokšė’s has recently exhibited at: E-flux Screening Room New York; Kogo Gallery; Cell Project Space; Editorial; Kunsthal Charlottenborg; Whitechapel Gallery; and the Baltic Triennial 


VENUE

Gothenburg City Library