KAPINYNAS
BURIAL
Trailer
A sea of display panels, cables and circuit diagrams offers a visual representation of the immense technical effort required to utilise uranium – this is also true of the Ignalia power plant in Lithuania. Once a symbol of technical progress and the most powerful nuclear power plant in the world, it was shut down due to safety concerns given its structural similarity to its sister plant Chernobyl; dismantling began in 2010. The meticulousness with which the workers, hidden behind white overalls and protective masks, proceed suggests they are constructing or producing something rather than deconstructing it. As if the arrival of something bigger and better were imminent. And that is exactly how it is: in addition to the nuclear waste left behind from energy extraction, the dismantling process produces over a hundred thousand tonnes of waste, some of which is radioactive, and this has to be buried somewhere. BURIAL not only addresses the problem of finding a waste repository but also subtly provides the viewer with a greater understanding of the relationship between man and nature and the seemingly eternal cycle of resource exploitation. The almost meditative merging of image and sound turns the documentary into a kind of real-life sci-fi horror film, one in which it is not man who is the focal point and controlling force of events.
Text: Merlin Webers
08.11.2024 | 18:30 | Glad-House (original version with English subtitles + simultaneous translation into German)
10.11.2024 | 10:30 | Obenkino (original version with English subtitles)
Supporting film: EVERYTHING'S FINE, POTATOES IN LINE (Piotr Jasiński, PL/CZ 2022, 13 min)
dcp
Emilija Skarnulyte
Vytis Puronas
Gaute Barlindhaug
Emilija Škarnulytė - 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. Winner of the 2019 Future Generation Art Prize, Škarnulytė represented Lithuania at the XXII Triennale di Milano. Recent solo exhibitions include Tate Modern (2021), Kunsthaus Pasquart (2021), and the National Gallery in Vilnius (2021). Her films are in the IFA, Kadist Foundation and Centre Pompidou collections and have been screened at the Serpentine Gallery, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and numerous film festivals. She is a founder and co-director of Polar Film Lab, and a member of artist duo New Mineral Collective.
