Marissa Lee Benedict and David Reuter. "Metric No. 5, Interlude"

"Metrika Nr. 5" is a newly created video installation by artists Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter, presented from May 22 to June 30, 2026, at the Rupert Centre for Art, Residencies and Education in Vilnius, at Mindaugo g. 15. This solo exhibition is a series of documented performances directed by the artist duo, attempting to grasp the infrastructures of thought, history, and memory.

An important part of this project, "Metrika Nr. 5, interlude," is presented at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. Filmed in 2025, the work features psychotherapists who have gained access to the National Library's archives. Surrounded by shelves of documents, the women at the center of the performance listen, ask, and react, while the archive reveals its desires and fears. Critical questions of selfhood, consciousness, and collective experience form and dissipate, with the sessions reflecting psychotherapy procedures as they might be applied to a subject whose "mind" is composed of the vast, undying writings of humanity.

This work—a performative series staging the intersections of public archives, psychoanalysts, and artificial intelligence (AI)—is part of the larger "Metrika" project. The artist duo first initiated this series in 2023 during their residency at the Rupert art center. An initial interest in the history of land ownership in the region led Benedict and Rueter to two different Lithuanian historical repositories: the Lithuanian Metrica books, partially digitized by historians at Vilnius University—essential administrative records of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the 14th–18th centuries, most of which were taken out of Lithuania (and still remain in Moscow)—and the oral histories of the 1990s post-Soviet Lithuanian administrative processes, newly created by the independent state in its attempt to reprivatize and return land, which ultimately led to a new digital state land registry. From the encounters between these archives, artists, and artificial intelligence systems, the "Metrika" series creates various forms based on dialogue and exploring the institutional subconscious.

In their latest performances ("Metrika Nr. 5–7," 2025–present), Benedict and Rueter invite professional psychotherapists to conduct introductory therapy sessions for public archives. The archival psyches voiced by an AI agent created by the artists are based on historical land records, administrative documents, and literary texts—official records reworked into personal memories.

On May 29 at 4:30 PM, we invite you to the presentation of the video work and a conversation with the artists in the 5th-floor atrium of the National Library.

Library visitors will be able to view the video installation until June 28.