Kristė Agota Savė: For Our Hopeless Business

In the Soviet Union, when Lithuanian dissidents drank with their friends, they would laughingly raise their glasses with a bittersweet toast, “For our hopeless business”, and continue to oppose the totalitarian regime and fight for freedom. I choose this toast as a way to look into our future endeavours. Hopeless, isn’t it? And yet, we have to raise our glasses, make the toast, and move forward.

As a curator of the SIRENOS Festival, I have decided to dedicate the next three years to exploring the apocalyptic moods that haunt the world these days. In Lithuania, on the eastern border of the EU, we have lived in fear of war for the past few years. But wars are firing up in different places across the world every day. The climate catastrophe affects us all harder with each passing year. The increasing migration of people from the Global South, in search of a better life in Europe, has become a shameful dehumanizing process. What is the role of artists in all of this? What can we do and what purpose do our artistic tools serve if we seem to be facing inevitable apocalypse?

The 2025 edition of SIRENOS will be dedicated to the theme of Theater as a Weapon, exploring what we strive to protect and defend against the impending doomsday. In 2026, we will delve into Theater as Escape, marveling the power of art to help us avoid the world’s challenges. In 2027, the festival will attempt to envision future scenarios under the topic of Theater as Future.

During my residency in Athens, I plan to search for work by Greek artists that engage with the topic of apocalypse, both directly and indirectly. By revisiting the etymology of “apocalypsis”, a Greek word, we might find other meanings, such as revelation or disclosure, instead of doomsday. I will look into a diverse range of work, including contemporary theater, dance, exhibitions, and performative lectures. I aim to meet artists and curators who work in this topic, seeking hope and ways to deal with the difficult times.

Ideally, following the residency, I would like to present 2-3 artists, shows, or projects in Vilnius, Lithuania, as part of the 2026 edition of SIRENOS. This would mark the first dedicated focus on Greek theater in the festival’s history. I would also like to invite curators and artists from Greece to engage in discussions and participate in the Lithuanian theater showcase, build networks, and create new connections between our artistic communities.