Emilija Škarnulytė

At the RAW opening event on May 30, 2025, at Grizindarzs Creative City, visitors will have an exclusive opportunity to experience Eternal Return, a video installation by Emilija Škarnulytė.

Eternal Return meditates on the ruins and possibilities of humanity as seen across the infinite expanse of time. Set 10,000 years in the future, looking into the past (our present), the artist dives into deep time, from the cosmic and geological, to the ecological and political. The artist based the work on mapping technologies, such as sonar, remote sensing and seafloor scanning, and set out to explore structures in the depths of the sea. Dressed as a mermaid, the artist freedives in an attempt to measure space and time, using her own body as a scale. 

Reflecting upon Škarnulytė’s work, the poet Quinn Latimer encourages us to ‘hold our breath. Drop. Dive. Open our eyes. Leave our body at the surface. We are now all eye, like a drill; all tail, like a fish.’

The film was presented for the first time as a four-channel installation in the Tate Modern’s South Tank to mark COP26 (the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference taking place in Glasgow).

Film / 15 min, looped / 2021

Emilija Škarnulytė is an artist and filmmaker. Working between documentary and the imaginary, Škarnulytė makes films, immersive installations and performances exploring invisible structures and deep time – from the cosmic and geologic to the ecological and political. Winner of the 2019 Future Generation Art Prize, Škarnulytė represented Lithuania at the 22nd Triennale di Milano. Her films are in the IFA, Kadist Foundation and Centre Pompidou collections and have been screened at the Serpentine Gallery, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, and numerous film festivals.

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