Elena is a past participant in the Rosetta Arts’ Artist Accelerator scheme. She is an artist and a community activist based in London. She comes from Lithuania and studied figurative painting. However, in later years she developed an interest in group creativity and community engaged art.
Since 2017 she has taken part in numerous projects across East London, facilitating educational workshops, creating resources for families and organising events. A lot of these projects have been centred around working class history, shedding light on stories from women and minorities, map making and matching historic events to places. Working with the community had a transformational effect on Elena’s art practice and professional development, it helped her to start formulating new engagement methods and ideas in art.
Since 2016, Elena has also taken part in activities with DAta Miners Travailleurs Psychique collective. They’re an improvisation group that encourage public participation for example playing 3-sided football, picketing, hexing and psychogeography. The aim of their work is to unionise on a proletariat basis and create a playful alternative to serious culture.
Currently, Elena is interested in developing an anti-capitalist art strategy, taking inspiration from G.Medzger’s Self Destructive Art concept, Dada and Situationist International avant-garde ideas. Currently, her interests lie in how both sides of her practice can merge, finding or creating space for her work and creating effective methods to interact with the public in a non-hierarchical way.
Upon receiving a place on the 2022 Artist Accelerator programme, Elena said:
“I am very excited about meeting the other artists, to share ideas, see where we can help each other, perhaps collaborate in some project. I am very grateful for this opportunity and determined to make the best of my time.”
