Goda Palekaitė

Through trans-chronological method and experimental writings Goda Palekaitė's new book "SCHISMATICS" consists of 10 short stories of forgotten historical personas. Among them the artist includes Mary Anning –– an amateur discoverer of dinosaurs, Emanuel Swedenborg –– a mystic who empirically explored the architecture of heaven, and Essad Bey –– a Jewish-Muslim writer and orientalist. Previously, its characters and narratives have already appeared in Palekaitė’s performances and installations, which are presented in the middle of this bilingual edition.
The book narrates an history of existences that were driven by an invincible instinct against any imposed order and that sacrificed everything to an ideal: the Schismatic characters are those that not only envision a different prospective reconfiguring the status quo, but, most importantly stretch out their positions and theories by embodying them in their lifestyles and through their life choices.
In her work, Palekaitė fuses elements of fiction, academic writing, and artistic research, and intertwines rumours, forgeries, and inventions to question methods of validating truth and hegemonic discourses in the academic world and beyond.
Along with the publication, in June 2021 Goda Palekaitė will present her new line of research on the role of women mystics as proto-examples of feminist positions, with a solo show at Kunstal Gent.

BIO
Goda Palekaitė (1987, Vilnius) is an artist and researcher whose work can be described as a combination of visual, literary, performative and anthropological practices. It evolves around long-term projects exploring the politics of historical narratives, the agency of dreams and collective imagination, and social conditions of creativity. Their outcomes usually manifest as performances, scenographies, installations, and texts. Her recent solo shows were opened at the Konstepidemin Gallery in Gothenburg (“Liminal Minds”), RawArt Gallery in Tel Aviv, and the Art Cube Artists’ Studios in Jerusalem (“Legal Implications of a Dream”).

In the last years, her performances and installations have been presented at the Swamp Pavilion in The Biennale Architettura 2018 in Venice, Contemporary Art Center in Vilnius, and Kanal - Centre Pompidou in Brussels. In 2019 Palekaitė received The Golden Stage Cross and The Young Artist Prize from the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture. Goda is based in Brussels and Vilnius.*
https://www.palekaite.space/