The Shepherd's Residency lasted from June to October 2021, it was implemented as part of the ongoing Neringa Forest Architecture (NFA) programme, developed within the framework of NERINGA - Lithuanian Capital of Culture 2021.
In cooperation with the Curonian Spit National Park and Verpėjos, the artist-run residency and project space in the Dzūkija, NAC brought a flock of 30 Skudde sheep, owned by artist Laura Garbštiene (Verpėjos), from Dzūkija to Nida.
The idea to hold a residency for shepherds was initiated by Garbštiene as part of her participation in the Neringa Forest Architecture residency in autumn 2020. NFA follows the material cycle of the Curonian Spit forests and analyses this cultural landscape as a case study in the context of Baltic and Scandinavian forests: as a space where ecological, recreational, representational, and industrial narratives intertwine.
Through NFA, NAC aims to develop tools and initiate processes to explore and give insight into society's relationship and cooperation with this unique landscape that has been shaped by human activity over the past 200 years. Following the current regulations of upkeeping a diversity of natural habitats in the Curonian Spit National Park, the meadows of Tylos valley and Grobštas Nature reserve in Nida are to be protected from overgrowth and are a particularly valuable habitat for meadow plants. The flock of Skudde breed sheep that grazed there is particularly suitable for landscape-shaping.
This collaborative project combines the objectives of several different institutions. Developed by using the sheep for the Curonian Spit National Park for nature conservation purposes, the shepherds’ residency is based on exploring the concept of artists working in the forest with sheep as a form of coexistence. Working with sheep in this landscape gives an opportunity for the artists to delve deeper into reflecting on the ongoing processes of how landscape, space, and nature are shaped and designed. The sheep graze in the meadows that will not be reforested, thus inhabiting the landscape, grazing, and becoming new co-inhabitants in this protected structure of recreation, forestry, and cultural practices.
In order to cooperate with the local municipal agencies and the Curonian Spit National Park in initiating cultural projects that emphasise the need to create a new relationship with the environment, NAC launched an open call for the shepherds’ residency in spring 2020. Three individual participants and one collective of two have been selected to take part in this programme.
All of the participants are experienced shepherds and artists with backgrounds covering a broad spectrum of artistic practices. The selection was made by the NFA curatorial team, the artist Laura Garbštiene, and the artist and agroecologist Fernando Garcia-Dory who runs a shepherding school in Spain.
Throughout the residency period, the shepherds-in-residency, Laura Garbštiene, and the NFA curatorial team organised public events like the Exercises in Landscape Reading event programme, the wool felting workshop with Kathryn Wood and the Shepherd's Residency edition of the Neringa Forest Architecture Tours: Shepherding / Landscape / Art / Environment / Territory / Intertwined. The events enable the broader public to join the process of questioning this landscape with the support of the flock of sheep.
Skudde, a breed of sheep native to Lithuania and also the title of Kat Wood’s new project, is an unfiltered and personal account of shepherding a flock of sheep on The Curonian Spit, Lithuania. The Curonian Spit is a 98-kilometre-long sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea. Its northern portion lies within Klaipeda County, Lithuania and its southern within Kaliningrad Oblast, Russia.
Working under the project title ‘The Shepherd’s Residency’ artist Kat Wood was responsible for watching over a flock of 30 sheep, walking them through Grobštas forest for several hours each day, with the purpose of preserving the landscape.
Skudde is split into three different publications; the first one features a mix of portraits and landscapes, highlighting scientific research by Curonian Spit National Park, alongside raw photographs of lambing, dog attacks and friendships made.
The second draws parallels between the experience of Shepherding in Lithuania to Wood’s experience of hill-farming in the North of England. The last publication is a documentation of textiles and wooden frames Wood has produced using by-products from the project. All three publications are bound using hand-spun wool from the flock of sheep and are bound into one hard-back case.
