The first episode ‘The Solitude of Simultaneity (My name is Ali Bi)’ is a message in a bottle written about a decade ago, that we came across and coincidently it resonated with some things we have been going through or thinking about during the Covid-19 lockdown. Recently when we met the author of the text, Raimundas at Annastate in The Hague, we had a chance to discuss many different subjects that are important to us and the time we are all in. Framing specific times in certain historical events, happenings, inventions is what we are doing again in our conversation with Raimundas and using it as the title of the first letter. This episode is a sum of different sequences of events accidental and created that made a great collaboration happen.

The present situation was totally unimaginable just a few months ago, and shows both an unprecedented rise of state control over the public sphere and an inspiring example of what can be achieved if humanity is united in a common cause. The global lockdown is a rite of passage of sorts – our society is at the crossroads of perhaps more compassionate times, and as people spend more time with themselves and their families, it also means a certain intensification of experience, which could bring about a change in the outlook and values. To celebrate this transition and offer some mirroring, Annastate residents are issuing a video-broadcasting series combining video and performance with the readings of works of Lithuanian writer Raimundas Malašauskas.

Annastate would like to thank Stroom for the support of the project, PageNotFound for the informational support, Raimundas Malasauskas for his interest in collaboration and West for the guidance and platform.

P.S. The members of Annastate have started the project during the peak of the pandemic and today (four months later, July 2020) it seems that the whole world is ready to ‘get out’ of the lockdown, to meet friends again and... continue the life as it used to be. We share the same desire to overcome the lockdown, but putting a different meaning to what overcoming means. It is about re-evaluating oneself and the world we are living in, to meet the new world where the whole system and society as we know it, invests more into education, health, people’s values and morals.