Residency at ‘Pragiedruliai’, 2024
During the “Art or Not?” residency, Agnė Bagdžiūnaitė conducted research on the industrial past of Panevėžys, focusing particularly on the history of the Meat Factory, its workers’ stories, and the surviving environment of the factory canteen, including its interior details and artworks. Through archival research and conversations with former factory employees, the artist explored how industrial labour, everyday routines, and collective memory continue to shape the city’s identity today.
The research drew on institutional resources such as the local history department of the Gabrielė Petkevičaitė-Bitė Public Library, the local history museum, and the organization Panevėžys NOW. Interviews were conducted with former employees of industrial institutions in Panevėžys, including the Meat Factory and “Ekranas”.
Although many industrial stories came to an end in the 1990s and early 2000s, the central question of the research remained: what traces do former industries leave behind in contemporary social life, memory, and urban space? The residency developed into an exploration of the emotional relationship between the artist and the director of the canteen’s director, while reflecting on nostalgia, transformation, and disappearance.
As part of the residency, the artist presented video work to the lunch audience of the canteen, accompanied by handmade cottage cheese doughnuts. The research was later presented at the creativity centre Pragiedruliai.
Imaginary archive 