Eglė Nešukaitytė, Magic Carpet

2021


Magic Carpet – it’s an oracle of (your) flow. The spells of synchronicity. The divination of presence. Questions in answers and answers in questions. The perfect moment is now because you are here. Different moment – different spell. Get your spell of presence.

Thinking about the hardships people have faced during the pandemic, I wanted to create a space accessible to all, where they could experience the gift of the present moment. All the videos are made without knowing what is going to happen. I didn’t know what the conversation would be about – the movement/dance was improvisational. This was my way of seeking artificial coincidence. And I seek for the viewer to experience the same. Different moment – different video. Once the viewer enters the oracle of the Magic Carpet, the moment I experienced in the video already becomes the viewer's present moment and artificial coincidence. The spells of synchronisation are brought forth.

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Since November 2020, I have been exploring artificial coincidence as a tool for creativity. The exploration began as a natural coincidence (synchronisation), when the background talk show was unknowingly related to an action I was doing on the home carpet at the time. On other occasions, I turned on the background text or sound before I began improvising on the carpet, but not knowing what that text or sound would be about. This way, I sought to create an artificial coincidence.

Artificial coincidence evokes very similar emotions as natural coincidence. Things that you have been holding inside for a long time usually come up. And the feeling of a small marvel of surprise arises, akin to the divination process. When you are surprised by how accurate or suitable the oracle is for that moment you live in.

Idea and performance: Eglė Nešukaitytė
Video editor: Pijus Mačiulskis
Sound: Excerpts from Lithuanian National Radio and Television show "Stambiu planu"

BIO

Eglė Nešukaitytė (Lithuania) has a Bachelor degree in Lithuanian philology and most of her after-studies time was working as a copywriter. Until she started contemporary dance classes quite by accident and after 8 years the accident is still happening and became some sort of life-art-meaning. Eglė is continually attending contemporary dance, street theatre, butoh workshops in Lithuania and abroad and mostly is interested in movement and interdisciplinary improvisation.

She started as a dancer-performer in 2014 and until now she performed in contemporary dance performances, musicals, site specific projects and conceptual performances. Eglė started to listen to her own creative voice in the past year after 3 months creative program at Nadine Bommer dance company in Israel (Animato dance language) and did a research about flow narrative in dance the same year (Individual scholarship of the Lithuanian Culture Council). As the quarantine continued, Eglė began her first artistic exploration “Carpet residency” which evolved into the project “Magic Carpet” exploring artificial coincidence.