Since independence in 1991 Lithuania has been caught in an insane period of privatization, property development and demolition. Public space, landmark buildings, cultural life, and public opinion have been the principal victims.
During Soviet times movie theatres played an important role in public cultural life. But after independence they became centers of attraction for the real estate market. Private enterprises managed in a short time to take over and destroy almost every cinema in Vilnius, turning them into apartment buildings and supermarkets.
In 2005 there was only one cinema standing: LIETUVA.
Cinema Lietuva was built in 1965 and is significantly the largest cinema in Lithuania. It is the home of the Vilnius Film Festival and as such has played an important role in the imaginative life of a whole generation of Vilnius people.
In 2002, the Vilnius Municipal authorities quietly sold the cinema to private property developers; with a caveat that it had to operate as a cinema for a three-year period.
In 2005 the Lithuanian artists Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas squatted the former ticket office (250 square meters) at the Cinema Lietuva and converted it into a PRO-TEST LAB. The protest was aimed at reclaiming the now privatized space.
PRO-TEST LAB archived all forms of protest and generated a campaign of reclaiming public space. It turned the cinema into a production center. Referring to the Lumiere brothers’ early model of the cinema camera that performed a twofold function both recording and projecting the action.
The diverse materials collected in PRO-TEST LAB (audio, video interview, texts, schemes, posters, performances, etc) is remixed into a script for 30 minutes film, SOLD OUT, by Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas. The film focuses on the architecture, entropy of public space and traumatic relationship between private and public, that unfolds through the narration of a diary-like story by a young girl.
Link to the PRO-TEST LAB website
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