Report: Visaginas
radio drama
22′
The youngest town in Lithuania, Visaginas was built in 1975 as a town for workers engaged in the construction of the Ignalina Nuclear Power Plant and their families. As a result of a political decision, the reactors are now shut down, and the orphaned town is searching for a new identity.
I have been visiting Lithuania and developing my social and cultural projects with a view to exploring the unusual landscape of that unusual town. I have spent time there talking to people because I want to build awareness about Visaginas and broaden public perception of the town beyond the context of the power plant. Especially interesting are the communities and the ties from before the Soviet town was built. The history of Visaginas, its ancestors, old rural scenery and nature are all a source of inspiration.
I
My radio drama Report: Visaginas is built on the multiple voices of the locals. It is an ethereal recording of the contemporary history of the place – a sound map if you will. I have been listening to my companions – guides and hosts – and the local activists, noting down what they have to say with the aim of transposing them into my narrative as a stroller/observer. We have been accompanied by sounds, illustrative music, and melodies. Listening to their stories and memories, I am trying to sonically illustrate the city and its distinctive features. Alongside the hard industrial sounds, the town has shown me sincerity and paint its inner landscape with melodies and confessions. I want the old Visaginas, whose heart was the power plant, to be remembered through sound.
II
I watch and listen to the architecture and the plan of the city. I can see that some contemporary objects have already begun their life as exhibits. The city is intertwined with nostalgia and life, with memories and attempts to build a new self-identity.
The radio drama is a sequence covering six days. The stories combine industrial post-Soviet landscapes with their flourishing nature, traditional Lithuanian villages and legends and customs from before the times of the power plant.
The sounds and their perimusical interpretations, provided by the local community, were intended to introduce freshness and allow for a new perception of the city.
The radio drama is in English.
Published by The Baltic Sea Cultural Centre (Nadbałtyckie Centrum Kultury).
Urb Cultural Planning
Interreg Art Residency programme
Visaginas, Lithuania
2021