Opening Festival of “Animal – Human – Robot” exhibition at MO

At the opening of the new exhibition Animal – Human – Robot at MO Museum, visitors were invited to think about their relationship with animals and guess what creatures would dominate in the future. The events of the opening festival allowed visitors to dive into this topic as deep as possible. The museum seems to have succeeded in fulfilling its desire to involve visitors in the conversation.

Special theater and dance performances, concerts, conversations with artists, scientists and lectures as well as discussions attracted a wide variety of audiences that wanted to learn more about the exhibition’s theme.

MO continues stories about us

The new MO Museum exhibition analyses the coexistence people, animals and other life forms. The questions raised retrospectively review our relationship with animals and discuss our future, but yet the question – what will actually happen in the future – remains unanswered.

“Step by step we are fulfilling our mission – art becomes more interesting to a wider circle of people. This exhibition invites with a new story – our relationship with animals, artificial intelligence (AI), and future beings. We reveal this topic not only through exhibited works, but also in a wider context – in discussions with scientists about AI, dance performances, stories of artists and curators and films. Visitors seem to have appreciated this, as well as the fact that the exhibition covers a hot topic,” says Milda Ivanauskienė, Director at MO Museum, sharing her impressions after the opening of the exhibition.

Visitors were both scared and pacified by neurosciences

On the weekend, the lecture by a neuroscientist Urtė Neniškytė about the connection between the computer and the brain received a great deal of museum visitors‘ attention. According to her, sensory devices have been implanted in the brain since the 1970s. Visitors gave loud ovations after the scientist reassured that the victory of AI against the unique ability of the human brain to build links between the information and the facts is still far away.

The topic of AI was continued by NYLA‘s discussion that focused on the moral question: can AI, which sets human free from unnecessary work, be controlled?

Special performances for MO exhibition

Special performances at MO Museum were prepared by Low Air Vilnius City Dance Theater and students of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater (LAMT). Low Air’s performance raised questions about our relationship with animals, robots, even with us ourselves. How do we fit in and try to control our different identities? Meanwhile, students of the LAMT presented a performance “Who am I?”, adapted to the new exhibition space.

On Saturday, museum visitors could hear a concert by the alter ego of Dominykas Vaitiekūnas – Vitalijus Špokaitis – and his insights into life and situations when he became a robot or an animal. In the evening, Junior A held a concert at the museum.

More exhibition-related events coming soon

Events accompanying the exhibition will take place in the near future. On 13 April, the museum will hold a lecture “Cages can be empty – how to help animals”, organised by the organisation Tušti Narvai. On the same day, the film Acid Forest will be screened and a meeting with its director Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė will take place.

The topic of science and art will continue, and on 6 May everybody is invited to Dr Giedrė Tamulaitienė‘s lecture “How does science inspire artists to create?”. On 29 May, in cooperation with the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society, a concert of Čiurlionio Quartet will be organised, intended particularly for the exhibition Animal – Human – Robot.

There will also be special lectures on photography with Virginijus Kinčinaitis: “Photographic context for fake news”, “Metadata flood in photography”, and “Landscape in photography”.

The exhibition Animal – Human – Robot will run until 25 August. It exhibits 170 works, which cover the period from the 1960s until this day and in which a variety of means of expression is used – from traditional arts and photography to post-digital space and video installations. The exhibition is divided into nine topics, which cover separate stories and raise various questions.

Moments of the exhibition Animal – Human – Robot opening: DAY ONE and DAY TWO.

Photo credit: Giedrius Matulaitis ir Eglė Jasiukaitytė.