Vincent Roumagnac. Site-Specific Installation “Season 444”

Vincent Roumagnac Season 444 Site-specific installation The installation will be on view: June 4 – 6 and 9 – 11 from 11:00 to 19:00 June 12 from 18:00 to 24:00 “Season 444” is an installation project created for a specific place — the space of Vilnius Old Theatre — realised in several locations throughout the building: the main stage, rehearsal rooms, backstage corridors, the basement, and the theatre’s facade. It is constructed as a constellation of installations and interactive spaces. The work invites visitors to move freely through the theatre, to experience the environment at their own pace and in any order they choose. The viewer is not bound by time, there is no prescribed sequence of viewing; exploration is encouraged rather than mere observation. The project is built on two intertwining dramaturgical threads. The first responds to the theatre’s current transformation and its ambition to open the institution to multifaceted dialogue, polyphony, and multilingualism. Through archaeological and poetic signs, the project reveals traces of the theatre’s past, archival fragments, scenographic motifs found in its history, and plant symbols. The second dramaturgical axis is the artist’s ongoing research “Re-Ecologisation of the Theatre,” which seeks to view the theatre as a whole that encompasses not only people but also a non-human-centred environment. In “Season 444,” seasonal elements — flowers, leaves, air currents, and meteorological phenomena — enter and return to the theatre building as actors playing lead roles. Such “non-human” elements break long-established stage conventions and renew the connection between the theatre, the “non-human” element, and the rhythms of the living world. The project was developed from spring 2024 to spring 2025 through visits to Vilnius in different seasons. This allowed the experience of the city’s changing landscape, dialogue with the theatre’s activities and archival data. Plant motifs found in the history of scenography at the Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Cinema Museum, the city’s vegetation, and local cultural phenomena became part of the work’s vocabulary. “Season 444” is the first part of V. Roumagnac’s four-year artistic research “Stages of Flower Power.” The research reflects on how theatre can contribute to the historical legacy of the flower power movement and its renewal in Europe, marked by geopolitical upheavals. The title “Season 444” refers to the number of seasons that have, in one way or another, shaped the theatre since its founding in 1913. The premiere of the work was scheduled for June 2025, marking the 444th season experienced by the theatre. Vincent Roumagnac (Biarritz, Basque Country, France; lives in Helsinki) began working in theatre — first as an actor, then as a director — but moved away from “conventional theatre,” drawn by how theatricality evolves in response to climate change and technological progress, based on what he himself has described as a disciplinarily drifted methodology. His works combine visual art, installation, and performance, grounded in ecology and environmentally sensitive intervention. Indirectly playing with the memory of Western theatre, its conventions and internal mechanisms, architecture and literature, V. Roumagnac transforms his practice as a director into what he calls “redirecting.” The methods of redirecting, agencies, relationships, and temporary structures create scenographic solutions that question the legacy of anthropocentrism embedded in the very mechanism of Western theatre. V. Roumagnac also participates in research and transdisciplinary projects combining art and scientific research. Since 2010, he has collaborated with Finnish choreographer Simo Kellokumpu, and since 2012 with French visual artist Aurélie Pétrel, with whom he won the “Villa Kujoyama” residency prize in 2020.

Adresas: Vilniaus senasis teatras