(from the video series Stages)
Leisure is set in Visaginas, the youngest city of Lithuania, which was built in 1975 to provide housing for employees of the Ignalina nuclear power station.
The singing of a youth choir rehearsing in the Visaginas culture house reverberates on the empty stage. The words of the song are reminiscent of the desperate and deep faith in the future, inherited from the Soviet period: “We wish you happiness, happiness in this big world”. Today this song no longer carries such positive undertones in Visaginas. As plans to close down the nuclear power station are in the air, the city is probably going to be depopulated as quickly as it had once been inhabited. The empty stage is an impending image of the future.
In addition to this main accent, we can hear the voices of a group of housewives talking in Russian, interrupting the song performed by the young choristers. They talk gloomily about the limited possibilities of spending their spare time in Visaginas, about the lack of women’s clubs, and the importance of doing their best to keep themselves in good shape despite the lack of an audience. As such, visitors to the town think that its women are beautiful.