The Saturn Youth Group Archive

Aus dem Einladungstext der Künstler*innen:
A group of seven artists, invited by curators „Sid Young“ and Saulė Noreikaitė, were actively searching for archival documents throughout the year, aiming to uncover the existence and to reveal the story of “The Saturn Youth Group”. The exhibition presents the material.

„The Saturn Youth Group“, a Lithuanian radical anarchist group active in between 1910 – 1920, was making plans for inhabiting Saturn and establishing a utopian commune on this planet. The number of members of this organisation is unknown, neither their identities. During the First World War group members were located all over Europe, however, even though they were far away from each other, one goal united them – to establish their ground in Saturn and to find ways to move there.

The prophetic organisation has vanished into the abyss with just a few documents left available for researchers. Scattered diaries, photographs, posters and maquettes, created by enigmatic members of the group, tell us a story of rethinking colonisation on a planetary scale, searching for new ways of coexistence and alternative ecologies. Imagining a happier life on Saturn, the group criticised the problems of their times – expansive and nationalistic politics of the world’s leading states, accelerating economy and the lack of empathy in society. Big dreamers that „The Saturn Youth Group“ were, have disappeared, having left little trace, but it is up for us to address their legacy today.

The speculative archive and its interpretations are to be presented at „Atletika“ as the result of a collaboration made possible by artist collective „Sid Young“ (Katerina Sidorova and Debbie Young) and artist Saulė Noreikaitė. (…) Viewers are to be given an opportunity to distinguish the factual from the fictional by themselves. The audience will be invited to think together with the artists on how can we collectively repurpose the utopian ideas of „The Saturn Youth Group“ and utilise them to create a healthier community right now and not in the distant future, on a planet far far away.