KAUNAS FULL OF CULTURE 2020 FEBRUARY by Kaunas Pilnas Kultūros

KAUNAS FULL OF CULTURE

Folk art

2020 FEBRUARY Illustration by Gie VilkÄ&#x2014;

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Can you guess which piece of textile was made in Kaunas, and which in Iran? Read the issue to find out. Photos by Teodoras Biliūnas and Arvydas Čiukšys.

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“It differs from professional art because fine art and applied decorative artworks are created by selftaught local folk artists. The artworks are usually of the utilitarian nature, created without preliminary models or drawings. They are characterized by the verve of form and composition, functional expediency and decorativeness. The artistic expression of the works is greatly influenced by the local (regional) artistic traditions passed down from one generation to the next,” this is the definition of folk art available on the internet. And we touch upon this theme in this issue because the year 2020 is the year of folk art in Lithuania.

With your own head and hands This year was chosen because of the 130th anniversary of Paulius Galaunė, the Lithuanian art historian and critic, graphic artist, pioneer of Lithuanian professional museology and a deserving figure in the art world who contributed a lot to the development of folk art. Galaunė was born on the 25th of January but there will be more opportunities to give a sense to the year of folk art and visit his home in Žaliakalnis this year. In this issue, we also visit Žaliakalnis both literally and figuratively. We also visited Aleksotas – managed to meet Aurelija Gražina Rukšaitė who was awarded in early January at the Golden Wreath Awards – most important folk artist’s award – founded by the Lithuanian National Culture Center. Also, we have finally found the opportunity to knock on the door of the Persian carpet gallery, which has been operating on M. Valančius Street for over a decade, and we did not feel like leaving.

When we left, we learned that Kaunas National Culture Center invites to its various clubs or workshops not only in its premises next to the Kaunas Castle but everywhere in the city. We were also surprised to hear for how many decades the Saulutė Gallery – belonging to the Kaunas community of Lithuanian Folk Artists’ Society – has been operating. Eventually, we didn’t fit into the definition of folk art completely because we really wanted to tell you about the folk architecture of the late 20th and early 21st century, the so-called collective-farm baroque. When else if not now? We start the issue with a small reflection on the Kaunas (folk) auto art of the same era. Flip through the pages and identify with it all! But we’re not here to educate you, after all, if not the things that we learned about and gathered, Kaunas wouldn’t be Kaunas and Lithuania wouldn’t be Lithuania. 2020 FEBRUARY

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The authors of this piece hadn’t met each other before the creative occasion. Both are, however, quite interested in the situation in the streets and garages of Kaunas at the beginning of the 21st century. Words by an author at Sumauta Pavara blog happened to be a great bonus to the photo archive of Donatas Stankevičius.

Autofolk Aurimas Margiris Grinys Photos by Donatas Stankevičius

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I will decorate the back of my Civic with spoilers And trim its bottom with green lights...

That’s how a locally famous song by Vytautas Klova would have sounded like if it had been written some seventeen years ago. Back then, when your older brother was playing the latest Need for Speed on his newly released Pentium and you watched the first Fast and Furious on a pirated DVD in awe, the Civic or Calibra that had been driven by more than one Westerner and had finally “galloped” to Lithuania, became the modern horse and the car-decoration trends that came from the Western pop culture, had taken the place of the peonies intended for horse decoration in the young man‘s consciousness.

If you were twenty-something in 2004, you really knew what it was like to use a chemical to scrub the rear lights of a car to whiteness. Or paint the interior with white/red/another non-standard colour aerosol spray paint, so that your “horse” looked

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like they do in the movies, games or magazines, in which, the trends were dictated by Lithuanian car tuning fashion studio Automoderna. A name that doesn’t say anything to today‘s teenager, almost twenty years ago referred to Michelangelos of car decoration, who were moulding the wheeled works of art – a dream of every young man – in the company‘s garages. Even if those artworks were not made entirely of licensed details and did not exactly match the original copied from some famous US tuning company. Other “masterpieces” that were resembling the originals from the magazine even less were being born in the endless garages and basements of apartment blocks. Fibreglass thresholds and spoilers, wings from Makroflex and a kilometre of rigmarole wires to supply electricity to the Lithuanian flag-coloured light music set in the underbelly, sparkling rainbows on the black tarmac of the night. All of this was made mostly by the hands and minds of young guys often not even in their twenties.

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Those minds of theirs were calculating the dimensions of connections as well as the fixing points as rightly as the most perfect electronic factory equipment. The internet timidly marching inside your brother’s computer from 5 pm to 8 am, was not yet a very useful source of information for a boy, who was trying to perfect his “horse”, and who had to draw creative ideas from films and Automoderna’s creations’ exhibitions in Laisvės alėja. And those whose hands were unable to realize the neon-glowing surreal fantasies of bodywork shapes were helped by the infinite resources of spare parts found in open markets. Horseshoeing his Golf with horseshoes from the Chinese smitheries bearing the names of BBS or ENKEI, your older brother would proudly drive it down the long and winding neighbourhood road ... ... to the nearest place in the city where the owners of such “horses” with the same decorated bottoms gathered. Sometimes it was just a quiet observation point of the night city lights, where the only thing dis-

turbing the peace and quiet was the music roaring from the tuned trotters. Sometimes they would gather in the closed Urmas shopping town, where the market spirits’ rest was disturbed by summer night races. Of course, the appearance of the trotter wasn‘t always proportionate to its capacities. The youthful “peonies” often hid completely standard and time-affected motors that would finish the late-night city avenue‘s route in ... eh, perhaps the seconds are not important. The most important thing then was the view and emotion created by it, which made the owner of the tuned car proud of the synthesis of his imagination and manual labour. But nonetheless, time was cruel to the neon-glowing “horses”. Most of them had ridden out their resources on the neighbourhood roads and today we are only reminded of them by these photographs, brightly gleaming at us with various colours of the 2000s from the pages of Kaunas Full of Culture.

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When Aurelija Rukšaitė showed photographer Arvydas Čiukšys and me to the car, upon closing her little gate, she ended the conversation with the last impressive biographical nuance, “... so then, that grandfather of mine lived in America and was a cowboy.” Our interviewee, a Lithuanian philologist, and weaver, a laureate of this year’s folk art exhibition Aukso vainikas (golden wreath), has been awarded for her impressive rugs made out of traditional Lithuanian sashes. We saw them at the artist’s house, which resembles a museum full of exhibits from around the world: artworks, masks, and ceramics.

Sacredness and hard rock Julija Račiūnaitė Photos by Arvydas Čiukšys

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Let’s start the conversation with your recent trip to Peru. What lured you there? I really like old things. The older the culture, the better, and I find it less exciting to travel around modern cities. Older people should be advised not to go to Peru because of oxygen levels. Your head is constantly in terrible pain in these altitudes; therefore, you have to chew on coca leaves constantly. Coca is very rich with oxygen, and it is sold in every store. So, I am thinking – I will bring some coca for my friends! I grabbed fifteen packs and was about to purchase them. It’s good that that specific day we were travelling with a guide and somehow, I decided to ask him if I can bring coca to Europe. His eyes popped out of his head, and he said, “You would go to jail for a long time! Even if you put one small dried leaf in a book, dogs will still smell it.” So, I would have gone to jail for a long time [laughs]. I am glad this interview is not happening in jail. Anything can happen with my flights of fancy! What attracts you to ancient cultures? I have long been interested in signs, symbols, and their meanings. This interest was born around 1982 in Riga, where an annual artisan market is held. Compared to Catholics in Lithuania, the Reformed church in Latvia was lenient on folklore and folk art, so Latvians are well aware of their symbols and their real meanings. During the interwar period, a well-known Latvian ethnographer Ernestas Brastinis wrote about signs and their meanings. His works drew me in. Thus, the interest did not start with the sashes but

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with the symbols. That is why the aforementioned ancient cultures are vital to me. There’s a reason why I went to India, where – just as you leave the airport – swastikas (incidentally, found in the Baltic folk art) just start pouring. Meanwhile, the meaning of this sign is very similar across cultures: Latvians call it the cross of fire (ugunskrusts), and in India, simply put, it is a sign of happiness. Importantly, archaic symbols are sacred. In the beginning, I was even afraid to weave them. I felt like a non-believer coming to a church and not knowing how to behave – she is afraid, but also wants it and is hesitant at the same time. To me, the weaving of sashes seemed so sacred that I wasn’t even sure that I will be able to do it. So how did you make up your mind finally? I am a Lithuanian philologist by education. I was born in Siberia, so during the Soviet occupation, I encountered many nuances at work: they either did not really want me at work or wanted too much. I was in need of some extra activity, so I asked my friend textile artist Laima Oržekauskienė to teach me how to weave. Was it difficult financially working as a Lithuanian language teacher during the Soviet occupation? I was born in Siberia, and I’m proud of it – they didn’t like it. When you are young, it does not even occur to you that you may not be accepted for what you are. But even at school, a teacher who transferred me to his class because of my good grades left a note in my pupil’s record book, saying that I was a Siberian and avoided community service. As a result, I later had problems with the Mandate Commission.

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My mother had to work as a home economics teacher, but since she had returned from Siberia, she was no longer fit to teach Soviet children how to knit and cook. Another time she wanted to get a job at a canteen, but it was decided that she will poison the food. That is how things went back then.

So, did you avoid communal work? Of course, why would I go to the Komsomol meetings? I also had problems at work because of my passport. They referred me to proofreading although I, as a teacher of Lithuanian language and literature, had nothing to do there. I worked quickly and well, so, one time, this guy appeared, who offered me a better position and a flat, provided I agreed to become a member of some Komsomol committee. Wait a second, I told him, I am not a Komsomol. To that, he replied, “It doesn’t matter.” Then I asked him again, “Have you really come to the right person? You haven’t confused me with someone else?” Now I understand how cleverly everything was twisted, but back then it seemed like complete nonsense that he came to me with such offers. You can give me a million good flats, but I am definitely not going to join the Komsomol committee. So, you found some additional work. I was weaving tapestries, baskets, already then with symbols! When I joined the Folk Artists’ Society, I was suggested to weave sashes. That was when I thought that perhaps it was too sacred for me. I was taught how to weave them by the famous folk artist Antanina Didžgalvienė. After learning about my hesitation, she said, “How can you find out if you’re capable if you haven’t even started? Just weave!” 1 4

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Why did sash weaving seem too sacred for you? Because of the symbolism. For example, Latvians have the so-called lielvarde sash, which is given to a newborn baby as if was their woven life path. Therefore, I never make up symbols. I can play with colour, bring in some modernity, especially if I am making the applied works, such as belts or bracelets, but I never create symbols. Believing in them is what brings the sacredness. When I started weaving, I learned this craft pretty quickly. Later, I wanted something more, and my teacher was weaving the so-called double sashes the colours of which go in a double rhythm. I learned how to weave them too – these sashes allow for more flight of imagination, more play. What meaning lies in the sash? What are the differences between the regions? The regions differ in pattern, ornamentation, colour solutions. Colour combinations vary by region. By the way, I like to use active colours. During the occupation, everyone thought that if it is folk, then it must be colourless, brown-grey, below the ground, completely worn out. Not at all – there is nothing brighter than folk art. In the old days, I visited the archives of one of the churches in Vilnius that functioned as a folk art museum. When you lift an old sash and look closely at the parts that hadn’t faded, you find active, bright colours. For example, blue – add a brass piece of jewellery next to that intense blue, and it hits so hard you might fall down! Only symbols have different meanings; the meanings of sashes do not change. At the end of the 18th and 19th centuries, (we don’t know much about the earlier times) sashes had a

utilitarian function: to bind, to tie, to decorate. But in Lithuania, as in Latvia, the sash was usually given as a wish. Let’s say, you could get a sash mottled with a cross of happiness. I respect Paulius Galaunė for collecting and preserving folk art, but I do not like how he trivialized the names of the symbols, for example, the double-cross turned into the “rosette.” That means the names were given not according to meaning but associatively, based on form. If we compare it to the Brastinis mentioned above, the depth of the signs he analyzes is quite different, but the signs are the same – Baltic. People are still gifting sashes in the village, though they may have forgotten why – what is the meaning of this gift. For the same reason, we put sashes – albeit terrible – on matchmakers or people celebrating their anniversaries. You hold strong patriotic beliefs. Is this how you were raised? I wasn’t raised like that specifically, but there were plenty of strong personalities in the family. For example, my grandmother (father’s mother) was illiterate but a very strong woman. Back in the old days, my grandfather had bought a manor in Širvintos, build a mill and a sawmill, which provided the town with electricity. At the time Širvintos was mostly populated by Poles. Still, my grandmother was able to introduce services carried out in Lithuanian in their church. She bought local women warm felt boots and told them to go sing in the church. That is where they also founded the first school of crafts. The grandparents did not want to show off as patriots, they simply felt how they should act. And my grandmother was extremely religious. While in exile in Siberia she had become a priest of sorts. There were no priests there, so the community

was allowed to elect a clergyman (though without ordination) and she took that position. My mother was also like that. She could walk fifty miles across Siberia to seek justice. Apparently, these traits are passed through blood. And in 1987, I, a thin girl along with four grown men, we took our passports and went to the rally at the Adam Mickiewicz monument. I remember, my mother didn’t say anything, and my father just uttered, “My dear child, you have no idea how it is.” But when you don’t know, there is also no fear. My whole family is like this, that is why our phones were bugged. For there was nothing worse for the authority than a man with principles. What does a man with principles mean? It means that you can suggest anything you like to him and do whatever you like with him – you will not break him. Neither an offered flat nor anything else will help your cause. Besides, my friends always had the same views as well. What does weaving provide you with? I like it! Only two words? There is not much to talk about here. I have heard somewhere that weaving is a real meditation or something like that. For me, primarily, it is a long technical work and definitely not meditation. The only thing is, when you weave a sash that holds so much meaning, you can never feel bad. Can you listen to music while weaving? Quietly. When I was young, I loved listening to hard rock. So, imagine – hard rock is blasting through speakers, and Aurelija is weaving [laughs]!

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Everyone understands tradition in their own way. For someone, it might be having a cup of coffee every morning while watching the sunrise, for others, it’s a joint family activity, and yet others see it in an ethnic holiday or custom. Traditions – whatever they may be – nurture our personalities, shape our values and allow us to discover unique qualities within ourselves and notice the similarities and differences between people. Traditions not only allow us to get to know the old culture but also help shape its new phase. Kaunas National Culture Center is a place where traditions – known to everyone and almost forgotten – take on new forms in the hands of children who discover them.

To whisper in the national spirit Justė Vyšniauskaitė Photos by Elijus Kniežauskas

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this kind of inner zest of children, their freedom and the unexpected approach to the sort of seemingly self-evident things that the adults are bored with, made her choose this line of work. We talked with teachers not only about what lessons can be learned from children but also how the classes are beneficial to students. Eglė Vindašienė, a teacher of Paper cuttings and paper plastic’s class, emphasized that this artistic activity complements the theoretical courses of the school. If, during those classes, children hear about the important state commemoration dates, then in this class the dates are marked in practice – by lighting a candle on January 13 or learning to sing “Lietuva brangi” (Dear Lithuania) on February 16. The classes develop fine motor skills, concentration, and mindfulness, and at the same time, it is a place where children can relax. Although teachers work on a pre-planned program, they try to pay attention to the individuality and desires of each child.

Kaunas National Culture Center has as many as eight classes for schoolaged children. All of them are united by the aim of providing space and creating a warm environment where children could spend their free time in a meaningful way and learn to recognize and understand their national identity through various types of folk art. From painting to straw plastics, from graphics to textile art, from ceramics to weaving – the range of classes aims to include various forms of folk art and provide children and their parents with a wealth of options. And if it is difficult to make up your mind because everything sounds interesting, then Arts workshop, which combines the fields of painting, graphics, composition, drawing, photography, floral design, crafts, and handicrafts, awaits your little ones. There will be enough time there to paint a landscape, make felt and other home decorations. However, the photographer and I visited the more specialized classes: Paper cuttings and paper plastic, Spingsulė (glimmer) and Molinukas (fictile).

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It has been a few years since I set foot in a school classroom or other afterschool activity space, so the energetic, creative chaos that greets you in there, caught me and drew me in unawares. Snipping, moving around, clattering noise of the hammer and the never-ending choir of voices only at first glance could have reminded of disarray. In truth, children of all ages, the youngest one of whom is six and a half, share spaces in a friendly, respectful, helpful manner and follow the commonly agreed-upon rules. Both university students and various professionals could learn some of the sincere and relentless enthusiasm of these children. Lina Audzevičiūtė, a teacher at Molinukas class, told me that it was

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E. Vindašienė said that in the studio, students are never forbidden to simply read or do their homework because staying in a calm, safe environment is generally beneficial. If a child is interested, they will get involved in the process of paper cutting on their own. In L. Audzevičiūtė’s Molinukas studio, next to the planned topics, there is always time for the implementation of freely chosen ideas, which help promote children’s creativity and involvement. “Art is versatile, and the child needs to be given a lot of freedom. It is possible to give advice, to push, but not to limit,” L. Audzevičiūtė shared her approach.

All the studios we visited give a lot of importance to traditional Lithuanian celebrations. When visiting Molinukas class, we saw the already finished – or still in the making – clay masks for the Pancake Tuesday (Mardi Gras). Both L. Audzevičiūtė and E. Vindašienė said that later on, they will also try out the papier-mâché technique with the children for mask making. The use of this technique helps teach children about ecology, sustainable use of materials and recycling which is particularly relevant today and has been encoded in our cultural system of values since ancient times. Of course, there is always time for other traditional folk art elements, such as Baltic symbols, trees of life and grass-snakes, which take on new forms in children’s drawings, little sculptures; which become a cup, or elements decorating small curtains,

napkins or coasters. Teachers also mention important historical personalities. “2019 was announced as the year of Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas, so I told the children about him, and in 2018 about Vydūnas and his work,” E. Vindašienė explained. Both teachers try to attract children’s attention and truly engage them in tradition through folk tales, folk games, and songs. In this way, attention to the old customs and the wish to nurture them is fostered organically. “You don’t want to force something on the children during the class but rather naturally and almost imperceptibly whisper in the national spirit,” G. Latakas shared his thoughts. “Maybe not all children understand the benefits of these activities, but parents can see it,” E. Vindašienė explained. True, when asked if they had decided to attend the studio themselves, few of the bolder children responded energetically, “Yes!” However, the teacher is probably right in saying that some of the stories or recognized symbols are gradually forgotten but remain encoded in the children’s consciousness and encourage them to return to folk art later. These classes seek to develop a fundamental respect for and interest in the national culture of Lithuania, which, according to the teacher of Paper cuttings class is what makes up each and every one of our selves.

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Children’s self-expression is also not restricted in the Spingsulė studio. During these activities, children usually choose the theme they want when they are drawing, painting, making carvings or even making ornaments on the copper plate. “The most important thing is for the children not to be afraid of themselves; to not wait with their mouths agape for someone to tell them what to do but rather to discover all that inside themselves,” Gvidas Latakas, the teacher of the class explained.

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Perhaps there aren’t many Kaunas residents who haven’t yet visited the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, which is located in the most artistic axis of Kaunas – V. Putvinskio Street. Close by, on the other side of the street, art lovers are invited to visit the A. Žmuidzinavičius Creations and Collections Museum (known to many as the Devils Museum) and Kaunas Artists’ House.

From the attic to the museum Justė Vyšniauskaitė Photos by Lukas Mykolaitis

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But all this is not news. However, open archives of the Folk art department, located in the premises of M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum, often become an unexpected, pleasant and completely new discovery for today’s visitors. As soon as you enter the room that holds this collection, you get astonished by the abundance of exhibits. The truly small hall hosts more than 3,000 statues of various sizes, shapes, and colours. Most of them depict religious scenes from the Old and New Testaments. It doesn’t take much time for the eyes to locate folk artist Elžbieta Daugvilienė’s work nestling in the corner. It is distinguished not only by its size (more than 3 meters in height), original form, a unique technique that was used to make it but also by the fact that it is a historical scene, which is rarely seen in folk art. Today, only one of her artworks reminds us of her talent. It is a sculptural group called The Gallows of Serfdom created in 1945 – 1955. Although this isn’t the only artistic legacy of the folk artist, only it alone allows us to look at folk art in a completely different way.

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Elžbieta Daugvilienė (1886–1959) was born and spent her entire life in Kaunas. It was here that she spent the difficult years of her youth, worked and secretly created. The artist came from a cultured family. Her father was a lawyer and her mother a hat designer. Unfortunately, E. Daugvilienė’s father passed away when she was very little, and then the family fell on hard times. To survive and feed her daughter, the artist’s mother worked from morning till late at night, and soon Elžbieta started helping her. Difficult life pushed E. Daugvilienė to learn a craft while in her childhood. Following in her mother’s footsteps, the artist soon began making

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hats of unspeakable beauty. This is where E. Daugvilienė’s sensitivity to material, form, and composition unfolded. “Every self-respecting lady of Kaunas intelligentsia was proud to have a hat by Daugvilienė,” Janina Savickienė said while showing us around the Folk-art department’s archives. In her spare time, she also made masks, clippings, various souvenirs and tried to draw. Unfortunately, none of these works survived. The role of E. Daugvilienė’s grandmother was significant in the formation of her personality. It was she who was nurturing the artist, telling her what she remembered about the folk artist’s grandfather who participated in 1863 uprising and was punished for it by hanging. The head of the Folk art department, J. Savickienė, considers that the stories E. Daugvilienė heard in her childhood, eventually sank into oblivion but the WW2, which reached Lithuania in 1939, and the following repressions, resonated with the grandfather’s story. That is how the hardship, serfdom and the mentioned uprising of the 19th century became the theme of the folk artist’s work. However, these sculptures – tired, deformed faces – reflect the mid-20th century man’s feelings and worldview. Possibly due to that reason or simply because of a lack of confidence in her talents, E. Daugvilienė worked on her Gallows of Serfdom for ten years, hiding in the attic of her house in Žaliakalnis (today, the house at Kauko al. 7 reminds us of the former resident with the memorial plaque). Perhaps this artwork would have decayed in the old attic if the folk artist Stasė Samulevičienė had not intervened. The artist, who also lived in Žaliakalnis, was aware of E. Daugvilienė’s hidden talent and helped organize the acquisi-

Next to the small sculptures, which rarely reach a height of one meter, Daugvilienė’s work looks enormous, massive and heavy. Nevertheless, due to the unique author’s technique, it weighs very little. J. Savickienė assured that she can lift the parts of the sculptural group by herself. E. Daugvilienė used simple, soft, plastic materials: soaked elm

bark, clay, and glue. By sewing the bark to the canvas, shaping it and fixing it with the help of clay and glue, the artist developed a distinctive aesthetic of the reliefs and bas-reliefs, and the skill of the hat modelling helped with creating the details. Here, together with the head of the Folk art department, we remembered a well-known law that creativity is best stimulated by limited opportunities and resources. This rule also seems to apply to E. Daugvilienė. Her works and technique did not come from a good life, but they undoubtedly enriched the collection of Lithuanian folk art.

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tion of the folk artist’s works and their transfer to the M. K. Čiurlionis National Art Museum’s Folk art department. That is how they found themselves among thousands of folksy little Christs.

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Once known as Panerio Street, M. Valančiaus Street is one of the oldest in Kaunas. It is one of the compositional axes of the city’s plan. Once you were able to find a buzzing – some say it was fish – market at the end of it. Scales were also found there along with ceramics during excavation. In short – it was and remains busy. In recent years, M. Valančiaus Street has become an alley of shopping, boutiques, colours, forms, scents, and beauty. One of the old brick houses accommodates a Persian carpet gallery called Lauros namai. Its founder, Laura Bohne, smiles – Kaunas up until 1919 was a small town, so we do not have a strong carpet tradition, even though manufactures of this quality of textile did exist in the territory of the Great Dutchy and then Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. But thanks to Laura, we can touch upon the old Indo-European culture, which is not that alien to Lithuanians.

On a flying carpet from the Caspian to the Baltic sea Kotryna Lingienė Photos by Teodoras Biliūnas

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“I have been doing this professionally for thirteen years,” Laura begins the story and soon reveals that the roots of her work go much deeper. The woman was born in Kaunas just like her mother. Her grandparents’ home was furnished with art deco furniture made in the interwar period; there was also a carpet that belonged to her great-grandmother – a part of her dowry. “We know very little about her. Only recently I have ordered a search in the archive. However, certain artifacts suggest that she belonged to a higher class of society. All these details really stuck with me and, I believe, helped shape my taste,” Laura says also emphasizing the influence of Kaunas architecture. She studied at the current Jonas Jablonskis Gymnasium, which was also designed during the interwar period. Laura took a closer look at the Persian rugs that became an integral part of her life while studying abroad. After all, histories of families in Western Europe, unlike ours, are not broken or erased. “I have always been interested in what is beautiful and the people who created and continue to create beauty. The result is – I do whatever provides pleasure. I am glad I can share my knowledge of history, culture and, what we can refer to, as a common heritage of humanity.” While sinking in a dangerously comfortable art deco-style armchair, one can listen to Laura’s stories about what we used to call Persia and now Iran for ages. “Persia” is a term used by ancient Greeks. For 2500years, Europeans referred to the large territory inhabited by many nations, stretching from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, as Persia. In 1935, the country returned to the archaic name “Eran”, meaning “Aryan land.” Later various

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events followed, but to this day, Iran is a multi-ethnic state inhabited by Kurds, Azerbaijanis, and Turkmen and only a few per cent of Arabs although the official religion is Islam. According to Laura, most Iranians do not consider themselves to be extremely religious, although the things we hear and see suggest otherwise. “You know, I think being a Lithuanian from a country that experienced oppression and occupation, helps me understand that nation better than, say, for my colleagues in Western Europe,” founder of Lauros namai gallery ponders. As you begin to think in these categories, you understand the importance of symbols in textiles, language, literature, and cinema. “The links between their symbols and the Baltic ones are undeniable,” Laura points to the patterns on the carpets that symbolize fire, flowing water, sun, birds and the seasons. Symbols do not change for centuries, for millennia – they are an ethnographic DNA. Languages assimilate, eating habits change, but symbols, the weaving, the knotting technique doesn’t. The colours of the carpets stacked in the gallery – not only Persian but also Kurdish, Azerbaijani – seem familiar to the Lithuanian eye and close to Lithuanian heart. After all, they are natural, derived from natural sources. However, the formulas are complex. It is interesting that when the Brits were spying in Iran when it was still called Persia, they were unable to trace the formula of one hue – the spring green. Of course, why give a stranger a formula that has been transferred from one generation to the other, mouthto-mouth? Carpet weaving, the dyeing of wool or silk, is a family affair.

“I had to make a choice at some point – am I a businesswoman or a collector? You can’t be both – the activities are contradictory,” Laura laughs when asked if there are many rugs in her home. There are enough. In the salon, she has hundreds. The oldest one is from the mid-19th century, and not all of the carpets are for sale. You can do more things than shop here – Laura advises in evaluating, for example, inherited carpets; she has restorers abroad who can bring a valuable antique back to life. Properly maintained carpet can become a family heirloom. And it does – there are regular customers, or more precisely, their children, who return to Kaunas after spending years abroad,

visit the salon and say, “You know, I take the carpet that my parents bought in your shop and gave me as a gift, everywhere I go.” Maybe that’s the idea behind the flying carpet? Carpet is home. A foundation, a patch of your own land. If you have it, then you can start building your life. And balance is key in a carpet. Persians find it essential, which is obvious even in the kitchen. “Zarathustra had mentioned two types of people – warm and cold. This also applies to food,” Laura opens another page of history. In her kitchen, you will always find saffron, the most expensive – warming and even healing – spice in the world. Sometimes you can hear Sufi music there that also puts everything in balance and in place. Here Laura reminds us of the initiative Gera muzika gyvai that we wrote about in our magazine a few years back. It was thanks to it that Kayhan Kalhor, a virtuoso of the Persian string instrument kamancheh, has visited Kaunas repeatedly. Simply put, everything is much closer than it seems when you look at the map. Especially if you have a flying carpet and a hot cup of saffron tea. 2020 FEBRUARY

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Of course, in order to figure out what was encoded in the fabrics, colours, and patterns, Laura had to visit Iran several times. She mentions the local code of communication, the art of etiquette – Tarof – with a smile. She says that in order to master it, one has to be born there and know Hafez and Omar Khayyam by heart. “We northerners do business in a straightforward way. In Iran, it is nothing like that – it is poetry.”

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One stitch for one person

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In 2016, there were about 25 million refugees in the world – people, who for one or the other reason, were forced to run, flee and abandon their homes and their native environment. Today, the numbers may be different, but Jennifer Kim Sohn, who moved to the US from South Korea, when she was a schoolgirl, had to use something as a starting point.

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Kotryna Lingienė Photo by A. Aleksandravičius

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The interdisciplinary artist is also an activist who wants her works to be loud. “I believe that small things, small changes in habits – both in terms of consumption and communication – can change the paradigm,” J. Kim Sohn says, referring to the problems plaguing the world. She also hopes that precisely “traditionally feminine” crafts – textile, embroidery – could engage others and invite them to share their experiences and emotions while inspiring change. 25 Million Stitches is probably the artist’s biggest project so far in which Kaunas and Kaunas District is playing a quite a substantial role. One more introduction will be needed here. One of the programs of Kaunas 2022 is the Fluxus Labas laboratory dedicated to stirring up, awakening and revving up communities in the city and the district. Microdistricts and settlements have their own program agents. Aistė Ptašinskaitė from Žaliakalnis is one of them. Last summer, Aistė was looking for a unifying creative idea that would go far beyond the creation of yet another object, “I didn’t want to create an ephemeral product because we already have too many of them. Why hoard, overload?” Aistė was already acquainted with textile artist Rasma Noreikyte, who also lives in Žaliakalnis. This artist had answered Jennifer Kim Sohn’s call for contributions to the 25 Million Stitches project, which she had found on the internet, deciding to produce five artworks. And, almost by accident, he shared the news with Aistė. “That’s it, let’s do this,” both of them decided and took action. The women emphasize that the project not only has a purpose and speaks of global issues but is also sustainable – thread and fabric were donated by people and businesses. It was a bit more difficult to get the participants together and ensure K AU N A S F U L L O F CU LT U R E

that Lithuania’s contribution to the global project was tangible. But only initially – later the yarn started spinning on its own. “Only a few people came to the first, completely open meetings in Žaliakalnis, but then we decided to take other measures. We started telling about the idea of stitches at schools, went to other neighbourhoods, for example, the seniors of Panemunė invited us,” Aistė remembers. Rasma happily adds that the number of Lithuanian artworks ended up being double from what they had expected, “There will be seventy in total. We have recently opened an exhibition at Kaunas Culture Center, during the event I got one more piece, someone has to send one more from Birštonas, and I will soon finish mine...” I keep mentioning “works” but what are we talking about exactly? We are talking about the strips of fabric – 40 cm wide and 80 cm long – that are patterned withs stitches: words, phrases, symbols, and abstractions. “We didn’t teach the workshop participants how to embroider – everyone knows how to do that. On the contrary, we invited people to relax, let go, and forget about the rules,” Aistė says. Rasma adds that it was not easy, especially for older people. What do you mean “don’t think”? What do you mean by, “don’t embroider the edges, let it stay frayed”? Some would even take the fabrics home because they couldn’t dare improvise “in front of everyone.” So, they had to look for commonalities and talk about things that unite us during the workshop, including the talk about what we all find painful to lose – home. “Our nation has suffered a lot. Of course, we cannot compare the exiles with a current refugee crisis, but the emotions are similar,” Aistė says. Lithuanian flag, its three colours and other national symbols were transferred onto the fabric.

“It’s different with the kids. They embroidered their Minecraft symbols and objects. I was so curious to see how it will all end, but I never intervened, I just observed,” Rasma opens up. We come to an important moment when I have to ask: where is that boundary between embroidering your favourite symbols in a relaxed way and folk art? What is folk art today and how it can be relevant? “I think winners are those teachers who are not afraid to open up, let the children create what they are interested in and in doing so convey the message of what tradition is to them, insensibly teach the craft,” Aistė is certain. Rasma agrees with her – according to the textile artist, the truth is that traditional ornaments no longer speak to modern children the way they spoke to their grandmothers. It is true. You can explain to a kindergartener that here we have a symbol of a horse that will protect him, but what if she or he had never seen a living horse? And if you allow them to embroider whatever their imagination suggests, the child will tame the technique and will start viewing the “real” – and perhaps created by their grandparents – folk art in a friendlier manner.

Here we see another parallel between nationality, symbol preservation, and opening to the modern world, leading to the beginning of the story – Jennifer Kim Sohn’s creative idea that speaks of the refugee crisis. We are not simply afraid of something that we don’t know – we worry that that something will destroy our traditions. However, if everyone is afraid of the same thing, then perhaps...?

So, one thing is to look freely at the canons, and another to know how they came about, to share experience, protect what has been passed down from generation to generation by our ancestors. Rasma told us that she kept asking the late weaver Marija Danilaitienė to write down or at least record how to throw a twelve-dent heddle. Unfortunately, she did not, albeit having said once, “Oh how much I am taking away with me.” Rasma is certain that it’s the responsibility of the state. We need to invest in the preservation of traditions while ensuring that folk art does not become an expensive hobby that would have to be aggressively commercialized.

People from all over the world responded to Jennifer Kim Sohn’s invitation – Kaunas were among the first in Europe, and now the Danes as well are preparing a parcel to California. It is planned that the textile installation will travel to more than one state while Rasma and Aistė admitted that it would be marvellous if the 25 Million Stitches would come to Kaunas in 2022. And the project participants would love to see their work again; apparently, some were worried about how their works will be shipped to America. I wonder how we will speak about what’s ours and what’s foreign, what’s tradition and what’s modernity, in two years’ time. 2020 FEBRUARY

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kaunas2022.eu

Aistė and Rasma opening the project’s exhibition at the Kaunas Cultural Centre. Photo by Andželika Leikuvienė.

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N G I S E D F O Y T I C O C S E N U – S A N A U K

In the transforming Soviet empire of the late 1980s, Lithuanians were able to enjoy more and more freedoms. Whether it was a right to finally engage in business legally, to sing the national anthem again or have an opportunity to express different ideas publicly: almost everything around us was pointing to the changing times. Yet another aspect was of great importance to a Lithuanian person. After a long break, the ideological constraints related to the sacred fortress of each and every Lithuanian – their house – were starting to weaken. One by one, documents forbidding the construction of individual houses or limiting their sizes in big cities for many years were being thrown into trash cans. Finally, with the return to independence, the broad freedom also returned to the horizons of construction.

Vernacular Paulius Tautvydas Laurinaitis Author’s photos

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This freedom exploded in many forms, but often in the shape of a semicircular arch, a castle silhouette or a baroque ornament. On the one hand, people wanted a house as big as possible and attributes of luxury. On the other hand, quite often this concept of good life was borrowed from, let’s say, the first telenovelas that appeared on our TV screens or, for example, when interpreting the shapes of mansions seen in childhood. And this is understandable, given that for almost 50 years people lived under the regime with strictly prohibited the flow of information and the evolution of aesthetics had been monopolized by intercommunicating heads. In parallel, in the sphere of professional architecture, postmodernist trends continued to spread across Lithuania, which, borrowed from foreign examples, some architects perceived quite straightforwardly. There was a point somewhere where these two worlds met and did not always contradict each other. K AU N A S F U L L O F CU LT U R E

But the person building the residence of his dreams often wanted a house with as much of his own heart and imagination as possible. After years of taking orders from above on what is allowed and what isn’t, what should and shouldn’t be done, people wanted to do things their own way. The land reform of the first version of the modern republic, with the individual homestead program that was destroying the serfdom-symbolizing villages, promised individuality to the parents or grandparents of the Lithuanian of the time with their own land and, albeit modest but nonetheless their own, homestead. In Kaunas, a city with a tradition of the individual house that can be traced to the same time, the pursuit of a personal residence was deeply rooted. Whether it was villas on Perkūno Avenue or small cottages somewhere around Žaliakalnis Market – a frequent Kaunas resident always saw the town homestead in front of him and accepted it as an ideal. Here, too, there was a sense

of injustice, with no alternative to living in a communal block or even in a communal flat. That mythical entrepreneurial gene of Kaunas residents, which survived the Soviet period and now gained new opportunities for realization, should be mentioned as well. Now, with all these new opportunities, people wanted not only individuality but also for it to reflect the result of these opportunities. What they wanted was something radically different from the slabs of alytnamiai (prefab houses produced during the Soviet period in Alytus) or the silicate triangles of the so-called three-arc roofs. And definitely something very different from the featureless rectangles of microdistricts. Sometimes architects’ postmodernist interpretations – occasionally not superficial – were enough. But many wanted to add something from themselves. Sometimes almost the whole project. And at times the boundary between the own’s wishes and architect’s suggestions was invisible. Former wastelands of Kaunas’ suburbs suddenly had towers, arches, and columns emerging, with bannisters surrounding large terraces. Arcades were separating living rooms from hallways and a swimming pool in the basement, reveted in mosaic tiles had become everyone’s dream. For the most part, these were not buildings that, to put it mildly, would bring delight to a snob. Some architects today have long renounced their signatures on the blueprints of those times. Despite everything, that architecture reflected transformation and change even if not always mature. And while it is true that some of these buildings have links to perhaps the shadier phenomena of the society of the time, far more of them are a monument to the coun-

try’s emerging business. It would be difficult to count today how many walls back then built with the money made with Opels and Fords that found their way through Poland under difficult conditions to the city’s car market. And although similar architectural phenomena have spread over many countries of the former Eastern bloc, Kaunas exhibits were different from, for example, Russian castles decorated with uncontrolled plaster cakes. The buildings here were even different from the ones you found in Vilnius or Klaipėda. Perhaps the Kaunas-specific calculations determined the fact that the new haciendas of the city were barely untouched by a widespread disease of the time when huge, unfinished skeletons of buildings spread around the outskirts of other cities. There were only a few like that in Kaunas. And yet, these buildings that very aptly reflect the chaos, optimism, and quests of the time are disappearing at a fairly rapid pace. Will these constructions that reflect the era better than anything else survive? 2020 FEBRUARY

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S U J I R U K R E M

Usually, we settle the Merkurijus rubric – new or recently discovered objects that were published, created or produced in Kaunas – in a different space each time. This time its geography was dictated by the theme of the issue. How symbolic – folk art salon Saulutės Gallery has been operating for 53 years perhaps a hundred meters away from the place where once stood Merkurijus shopping center. Saulutės Gallery, which is of particular interest to the world Lithuanians coming to the song festivals (some cannot even hold their tears), has successfully outlived it and might outlive many of the other old-timers of Laisvės alėja. The building that houses the gallery is even older, dating back to the 19th century. It is the former Ritenberg Palace. It is also home to the Kaunas community of Lithuanian Folk Art Society, which unites several hundred artists of Kaunas and its environs. Gallery hosts exhibitions and if you drop by on Palm Sunday, you can learn how to make your Easter palm, free of charge. Here you will find both inexpensive souvenirs and handmade products worthy of their price. We have selected the most interesting ones for Merikurijus shelves.

Merkurijus Gunars Bakšejevs Photos by Arvydas Čiukšys

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Dowry chest € 300

National costume € 300

Valentinas Jazerskas, who heads the Kaunas community of the Lithuanian Folk Art Society, and his wife Rasa create dowry chests. They are wooden, reinforced and decorated with metal details made by a blacksmith and spruced up with traditional patterns and symbols. The biggest ones are the most expensive but there are also really small ones that can be used as a box for a smaller gift.

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Ona Jazerskienė, the mother of V. Jazerskas, was the designer of national costumes - not only the winner of Paulius Galaunė Prize but also the author of his granddaughter’s national costume. She is already deceased and she hadn’t transferred her craft to anyone directly, so the several costumes (shirt, skirt, apron, vest) that we found in Saulutės Gallery are the last ones. If you don’t buy it, some Australian Lithuanian definitely will.

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Sodas (traditional Lithuanian straw decoration “Straw garden”) € 80 The straw garden is a very well recognized folk art piece, which has recently undergone a kind of renaissance. You can buy it as a gift for a wedding or christening, decorate your rural tourism farmstead with it. It is fashionable to decorate your Christmas tree with miniature straw gardens – environmentally-friendly and stylish. The only problem is humidity – if the summer was humid there won’t be any straw suitable for straw gardens, thus there won’t be any new ones made. The price depends on the complexity of the structure. Just think about the time it takes to get ready for work, to cut the straws. The author of the dense straw garden that we selected is Ramutė Šilkūnienė, who resides near Kaunas lagoon.

Distaff € 93 The second or third generation Lithuanian Americans had grown fond of tattooing – especially on the calf – the distaff or its motif. It says a lot about the uniqueness and aesthetics of this tool. Though perhaps in the modern household the “relatives” of distaffs – towel-horses or sash-horses – are more applicable. All of them, exhibited in Saulutė Gallery, are carved by Kaunas resident Edmundas Akulauskas.

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Calendar STAGE Sunday, 02 01, 6 pm

Performance “Ghetto”

Tuesday, 02 04, 6 pm

Opera “Porgy and Bess” “Forum Cinemas”, Karaliaus Mindaugo pr. 49

National Kaunas drama theatre, Laisvės al. 71

Evenings with live screening from New York Metropolitan Opera continue. Photo by D. Stankevičius James Robinson’s stylish production transports audiences to Catfish Row “Ghetto”, a performance directed by on the Charleston waterfront, vibrant Gintaras Varnas and based on a play by with the music, dancing, emotion, and Joshua Sobol, was the highlight of the heartbreak of its inhabitants. “If you’re theatre’s 99th season. The play focuses going to stage Gershwin’s opera, this is on the experiences of the Jews of the how,” raved “The Guardian” when the Vilna Ghetto during Nazi occupation in new production premiered in London World War II, as well as the story of the in 2018. David Robertson conducts a dyJewish theatre inside the ghetto. Theatre namic cast, featuring the sympathetic became the source of strength and resist- duo of Eric Owens and Angel Blue in the ance. It’s a story about a collective fight title roles and an all-star ensemble that for survival, both physical and spiritual. includes Janai Brugger, Latonia Moore, Varnas added a lot of documentary mate- Denyce Graves, Frederick Ballentine, rial to the work of Sobol. You’re now able Alfred Walker, and Donovan Singletary. to see it subtitled in English.

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Pet-friendly places

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February Thursday, 02 13, 7 pm

Saturday, 02 15, 6 pm

National Kaunas Drama Theatre, Laisvės al. 71

Kaunas City Chamber Theatre, Kęstučio g. 74A

Dance performance “Overheated”

Premiere. Dance and music performance “Oneiro”

Photo by D. Matvejev

In today’s world, we are unlikely to find a modern human being who has never been burned out in his or her life. Such snowmen simply do not exist anymore. After all, we live on a planet that, over the last few decades, has learned to rotate around its axis, disregarding the laws of physics. Knowledge here is ageing faster than one can possibly read it. While being in a hurry at every step, we take it not only as a natural status but also as a trendy sensation. Surrounded by virtual reality, we live in times of constant competition and seek for statuses. It’s getting easier and easier to get lost in a variety of identities and responsibilities that we ourselves created. It is getting easier and easier to burn out. Inspired by such contemporary modus vivendi and their own burnouts, dancers and founders of the Dance Company “Nuepiko” Marius Paplauskas, Marius Pinigis and Andrius Stakele in their latest dance performance explore the phenomena of the so-called overheat.

Dance and music performance “Oneiro” is about the magic of an intermediate state. The centrepiece of the performance, presented by the Šeiko Dance Company, is David Lang’s “World to Come”, which he created in the wake of the September 11 tragedy, when the world was standing in the midst of great uncertainty. The creators of the performance were inspired not only by the deep, mathematical music but also by the name of the piece, which indicates limbo. The intermediate stage between the end and what’s behind it can be fascinating.

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Calendar Sunday, 02 23, 6 pm

Dance and music performance “Boléro–Extended”

Dance performance “Kaunas Zoo”

National Kaunas Drama Theatre, Laisvės al. 71

Tuesday, 02 25, 6 pm

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This unique dance and live music performance by the Šeiko Dance Company has evolved from a thought that occurred to cellist Mindaugas Bačkus. The idea was to make a cello version of “Boléro”, one of the most famous orchestral works by French composer Maurice Ravel. Renowned Danish choreographer Palle Granhøj was invited to create choreography for the performance. In “Boléro–Extended” Granhøj employs his obstruction technique, which reduces movement and creates a specific repetitive motion for the dancers, based on the rhythm of Ravel’s “Boléro”. The music, performed by one to eight cellos throughout the piece, gets deconstructed and therefore sounds quite unexpected and modern. The stage setting here is no less surprising: an ordinary situation with musicians in the orchestra pit and dancers on stage appears to be turned upside down.

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Photo by Laura Vansevičienė.

Dance theatre “Aura” and improvised music band “Kaunas Zoo” invites you to a performance of dance and live music, which analyzes the topics of beauty, fashion cults, the aim of luxury and demonstrates the vanity which living with “masks” brings forth.

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February Saturday, 02 29, 6 pm

Operetta “Silva”

Kaunas State Musical Theatre, Laisvės al. 91

MUSIC 02 07 – 02 08

“Lizdas” Birthday Weekend

Club “Lizdas”, Nepriklausomybės a. 12

Photo from the theatre’s archives.

I. Kálmán began writing one of his most famous operettas “The Csardas Princess” in 1913 after L. Stein and B. Jenbach offered the play “Long Live Love” to the composer. The enthusiastic work was interrupted by war. It seemed meaningless to create an anthem for love while cannons roared in Europe and newspapers regularly printed lists of the dead. However, after a short pause, the operetta premiered in Vienna at the Johann Strauß-Theater on 17 November 1915. After that “The Csardas Princess” has been staged in many theatres all over Europe. Back in the day, in the Eastern block, it gained popularity under the name of “Silva”. “The theme of love is always relevant because it is a feeling that a person experiences at any age, at any time. It is one of the most important conditions of our existence. Love is independent of time. There are no rules on how, when and who to love,” says Rūta Bunikytė, director of the newly reborn operetta.

Levon Vincent. Photo from his personal archive.

Five years for a museum or a theatre may not seem like much. But for a nightclub dedicated to a specific sound of contemporary (or even future) music, this is a great achievement. To celebrate such occasion one night isn’t enough. Hence, “Lizdas” invites you to party for two nights in a row with thirteen great DJs on the line-up. Levon Vincent and Fantastic Man will show what’s what on Friday. Gamma Intel and DJ Down The Rabbit Hole will gift a memorable Saturday. Your favourite Lithuanian DJs are also on the list.

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Calendar Friday, 02 07, 6 pm

15th Birthday Concert of the Orchestra

Kaunas State Philharmonic, L. Sapiegos g. 5

Before the upcoming anniversary, orchestra’s director Algimantas Treikauskas remembered the very beginning. “Having started conducting the Kaunas Chamber Orchestra at that time, I had one goal – to create a fullfledged symphony orchestra, of which Kaunas city and its residents could be proud. Today I am really happy with the work we do. I know that the people of Kaunas love us, so we will try to give them many beautiful emotions in the future with our music. Looking back, it is satisfying to talk about the work that has been done. It has helped us to evolve from a small ensemble (chamber orchestra) to the Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra, which today is known not only in Lithuania but also abroad. Through its work, the orchestra strives to delight Kaunas residents and make the city famous throughout the world.” Conducted by maestro Constantine Orbelian, Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra together with talented pianist Robertas Lozinskis and soprano Karina Flores is gifting this concert to all its supporters and fans.

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Saturday, 02 08, 9 pm

Live. The Hills Mover Social centre “Emma”, A. Mickevičiaus g. 35

Photo from the artist’s personal archive.

Underneath the black hoodie of singer and songwriter, The Hills Mover crouches Grégoire Fray, a French musician living in Brussels (also the brain of post-rock/industrial gang THOT). Over the past years, he has taken the stage alone with his folk guitar. Now the performances are enriched with synthetic and organic sounds from his new four-song EP “Before the Wind”. Released on musician’s 40th birthday (on the 6th of January), this EP witnesses Fray’s constant need for novelty and exploration, an echo of his several tours across Europe. This is where he feels at home, with his backpack and his guitar, ears wide open to peoples’ stories from which he draws his inspiration.

February Tuesday, 02 11, 6 pm

Martynas Levickis and “Mikroorkéstra” Quartet Concert “Winter Classics” Kaunas State Philharmonic, L. Sapiegos g. 5

On the International World Cancer Awareness Day, a charity concert by accordionist Martynas Levickis and “Mikroorkéstra” quartet will be held. All funds collected from the ticket sales will go to the production of an art therapy play “Unbeatable”. This play is based on stories told by people who are fighting cancer. Friday, 02 14, 6 pm

Concert “Chopin Meets The Blues. Peter Beets & Kaunas Big Band” Kaunas State Philharmonic, L. Sapiegos g. 5

Jazz pianist Peter Beets (The Netherlands) invites you to a romantic and enchanting concert where the blues will meet Frederick Chopin. Not only will they meet, but they will also create an indescribable musical wonder thanks to the talents of the performers. “Impeccable technique, incisive sense of swing,” is how Tony Hall, a reviewer of the UK’s largest monthly jazz magazine “Jazzwise”, described Peter Beets. And the musician himself claims that Chopin’s music is like a gem to him because it doesn’t demand attention but receives it naturally.

Sunday, 02 16, 8 pm

Jazzu’s Concert “Mano Namai” “Žalgirio” arena, Karaliaus Mindaugo pr. 50

Photo from the artist’s personal archive.

Home is where the heart is? Exactly. Wherever in the world Jazzu performs, her heart is always in Lithuania, her thoughts revolve around her home and people that are dear to her heart. In Kaunas, singer Justė Arlauskaitė-Jazzu will perform an exclusive concert “Mano namai” (My home) with a live band. The singer strives to make the audience feel comfortable, to help them relax and celebrate life in her beloved country Lithuania.

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Calendar Tuesday, 02 18, 6 pm

Maestro Gintaras Rinkevičius’ Anniversary Concert Kaunas State Philharmonic, L. Sapiegos g. 5

Thursday, 02 20, 8 pm

Festival “Godisnowhere” Club “Lemmy”, Girstupio g. 1

Three bands are already a festival if it is death / blackened / brutal metal music. From Moscow we have “Enemy Crucifixion”, from Saratov comes “Psychosurgical Intervention” and “EradicationOfTheUnworthyInfant” represents both the US and Finland. Saturday, 02 29, 5 pm

Concert “Muzika ne tik PUČIA”

Kaunas State Philharmonic, L. Sapiegos g. 5

Photo from the orchestra’s archive

One of the most prominent Lithuanian artists, whose name has already been written into the history of music, maestro Gintaras Rinkevičius is celebrating his 60th anniversary. On this occasion, to his audience maestro presents a magnificent work by Austrian composer Arnold Schönberg (1874–1951), titled “Gurre-Lieder”, based on a poem by the Danish novelist Jens Peter Jacobsen. Many talented artists are joining forces for this magnificent performance. The audience will see soloists Corby Welch, Laurynas Bendžiūnaitė, Ieva Prudnikovaitė, Tadas Girininkas, Edgaras Davidovičius, reader Vladas Bagdonas, more than 150 choir members from Kaunas State Choir, Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet choir, and the choir “Vilnius”, as well as a huge symphony orchestra composed from the Lithuanian State and Liepaja Symphony Orchestras. Nearly three hundred artists on stage will be conducted by maestro Gintaras Rinkevičius.

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Photo from the orchestra’s archive

This project is already counting five years and yet remains faithful to its original idea to invite young performers from Kaunas Juozas Naujalis Music Gymnasium to perform with the Kaunas Brass Orchestra “Ąžuolynas”. This year the young musicians will be joined by students from Kaunas 1st School of Music and Vytautas Magnus University’s Music Academy. The concert will be conducted by Jonas Janulevičius and Giedrius Vaznys, conductor of Kaunas Brass Orchestra “Ąžuolynas”.

February EXHIBITIONS 01 15 – July

Exhibition of Fur Toys by Stasė Samulevičienė

01 18 – 03 01

“The Best Artwork of 2019” Kaunas Picture Gallery, K. Donelaičio g. 16

Children’s Literature Museum, K. Donelaičio g. 13

Museum’s photo.

Children’s Literature Museum (department of Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum) starts the Folk art year with an exhibition of unique fur toys created by the famous folk artist Stasė Samulevičienė. Since 2013, the entire company of plushies has been safely resting on the museum’s archives, so for them, it’s time not only to air out the fur but also to look at each other’s glittering eyes. “We invite you to come. Here we will read books published by the artist. We look through albums filled with photographs taken by her son Raimundas Samulevičius, and we will take pictures of our own,” says the museum’s staff.

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“The Best Artwork of the Year”, one of the most popular and highly praised exhibitions since 1999, invites visitors to the annual show. Artists and the public have the opportunity to choose the best artwork of the past year. The exhibition “The Best Artwork of 2019” presents creations of 93 authors of various ages – from recent graduates to seniors. The display is dominated by painting, although there are sculptures, works of ceramics, textile, and graphic art as well. As usual, the works reflect the artists’ point of view and reactions to the prevailing moods and current issues of the society. Visitors can vote for their favourite piece until 15 February, 5 p.m. The winners will be announced and awarded on 16 February, the Day of the Restoration of the State of Lithuania.

2020 FEBRUARY

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Calendar 01 24 – 03 19

01 30 – 02 09

M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, V. Putvinskio g. 55

Kaunas County Public Library, Radastų g. 2

Jazmina Cininas’ exhibition “Eglė and the She-Wolves”

“Eglė and the She-Wolves” is the first solo exhibition in Lithuania by Australian artist Jazmina Cininas since 2002. The Melbourne-born daughter of Lithuanian refugees, Jazmina still identifies strongly with her ancestral heritage, incorporating many Baltic motifs and themes into her work. For over two decades, Jazmina has been creating linocut portraits of female werewolves from throughout history and has more recently begun creating artists’ books from found materials such as used business envelopes, redundant encyclopaedia illustrations, and packaging recycled into narratives of transformation, migration, and re-imagination. “Eglė and the She-Wolves” presents a survey of Jazmina’s technically demanding female werewolf portraits alongside her more recent books. Source material for the books was largely gathered during a 2017 residency at the Estonian Printing and Paper Museum in Tartu, supplemented by decommissioned books from the Melbourne-Lithuanian library, and the steady stream of bills from the artist’s letterbox.

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Leonas Strioga’s Exhibition “Bėga bėga gyvenimas”

K AU N A S F U L L O F CU LT U R E

In celebration of his 90th birthday, winner of the Lithuanian National Culture and Art Prize, sculptor Leonas Strioga is presenting an exhibition of small sculptures and drawings. Never short of motives for his creative work, Leonas Strioga remains one of the most active and prominent representatives of the plastic arts in Lithuania and his contributions to the field are already counted in hundreds of works. In the exhibition, in addition to the self-portraits of the artist, the audience will also recognize images of other famous and interesting people.

February 01 28 – 02 22

Dovilė Martinaitytė-Tarallo’s Exhibition “Sky is The Body” Gallery “Meno parkas”, Rotušės a. 27

02 11 – 07 01

Exhibition “Jonas Mekas – Idylls of Semeniškiai” Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum, Rotušės a. 13

During the stay in Lithuania. From left: Jonas Mekas, mother Elžbieta, brother Adolfas. 1971. Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum‘s photo.

Photo by Dovilė Martinaitytė-Tarallo.

The project delves into the topic of a depressed body, claiming that a body is not just matter or an object. It is a biological, cultural, social and political construct with close correlations to its surroundings. The body is used as a scale to measure the depth of the soul and to cross the surface to dig deeper. At the time of mental anguish, the body experiences both psychological and physical pain. It is supinely pierced by unease, inner aggression and flow of intense feelings. In her publications, Virginia Woolf described the unstable condition of a depressed human as “a body drowning in the sea of other bodies”. It fits the situation perfectly, defining a man who is unsteady, unrestful and emotionally spent; a man who finds himself in a world that “gobbles him up”. The man is like a wax statuette, a melting, thawing, weakening body set on the path of self-destruction and self-rejection, impacted and unsettled by the rhythm of the life of the modern society.

Photos, interesting facts of the artist‘s life and the details of his works in the exhibition tell a unique story. The name of the exhibition hints not only to the famous collection of Jonas Mekas’ poetry “Idylls of Semeniškiai” (1948) but also to the artist‘s first return to his homeland, Semeniškiai, from emigration in 1971. It was here that he made one of his most acclaimed films “Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania”, which became famous worldwide. You can see this film at the exhibition. At the exhibition, curator Jindřich Čeladín presents poetic blackand-white photographs created in Lithuania in 1971. Most of them come from the archives of the famous photographer Viktoras Kapočius. Visitors are given a wide view of Jonas Mekas‘ films, which are presented through posters, flyers, and leaflets. The exhibition offers a brief but fascinating look into the artist‘s literary works. It features a rare edition of the book “From the Land of Fairy Tales” (1947), written by Jonas Mekas with his brother Adolfas.

2020 FEBRUARY

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Calendar

01 31 – 02 22

02 13 – 03 22

Gallery “Meno parkas”, Rotušės a. 27

“Kaunas Gallery”, Vilniaus g. 1

Exhibition “Kontr-argumentas III”

Curators Vita Opolskytė and Kazimieras Brazdžiūnas present young Lithuanian painters, who participate in the exhibition, as follows: “Benediktas MarijaŽukasRaimondaKielaitėMonika RadžiūnaitėMonikaKornilovaArtūras MitinasEglėNorkutėGytisArošius AuksėMiliukaitėDariusJaruševičius KazimierasBrazdžiūnasAira UrbonavičiūtėAkvilėMalukienėTadas TručilauskasKristijonasŽungailaGoda LukaitėAndriusMakarevičiusRūta VadlugaitėJurgisTarabildaGiedrė ŠiaulytėDominykasSidorovasDonata MinderytėKristinaMažeikaitėEglė PetrošiūtėAdelėLiepaKaunaitėVita OpolskytėSandraKvilytėMonika PlentauskaitėRamintaBlaževičiūtė DovydasAlčauskisLukas MarciulevičiusIevaTarejevaSonata RiepšaitėIevaJaruckytėRasaDaveikytė LinasJusionisAlgimantasČerniauskas IndrėErcmonaitėRosandaSorakaitė DomasPundaikaAkvilina ŠimkevičiūtėRokasJakubauskas LiudasMatijošius”.

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Anton Roland Laub’s Exhibition “Mobile Churches”

Photo by A. R. Laub.

Bucharest in the 1980s. Ceaușescu’s “systematisation” programme is in full swing in the Romanian capital: onethird of the historic centre has been wiped out to make way for imposing buildings and wide avenues intended to honour the regime. Despite Ceaușescu’s particularly dogged approach towards the churches, seven are spared and undergo a process as incredible as it is absurd: they are lifted and placed on rails then moved and hidden behind housing blocks. Withdrawn from the cityscape, they live secret lives interpolated in the disparate architecture that shapes Bucharest’s urban landscape today. An exhibition by photographer and architect Anton Roland Laub, featuring archival footage, the imagery of contemporary Bucharest and maps of urban change, tells about the regime‘s influence on the cityscape. The exhibition is curated by Sonia Voss. “Mobile Churches” is partly funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.

February CINEMA 01 30 – 02 09

Festival “Žiemos ekranai | Ecrans d’hiver”

From 01 24

Film “Little Women” “Forum Cinemas”, Karaliaus Mindaugo pr. 49

Kaunas Cinema Centre “Romuva”, Kęstučio g. 62

Still from the film. Still from the film “Burning Ghost” (Vif-argent).

More than 30 films will be screened at the 15th French Film Festival (a little lesser will come to “Romuva”). This time the main theme of the festival is “In Search of the Present Time” (a reference to M. Proust’s novel “In Search of the Lost Time”). To reflect the trends of contemporary French cinema, the programme is diverse in both genres and themes. From heart-warming comedies “Invisibles” (Les Invisibles, directed by Louis-Julien Petit) or “Cyrano, My Love” (Edmond, directed by Alexis Michalik) to highlights of Cannes Film Festival parallel programs “Burning Ghost” (Vif-Argent, directed by Stéphane Batut) or “The Bare Necessity” (Perdrix, directed by Erwan Le Duc). From debut films like “Father and Sons” (Deux fils, directed by Félix Moati) to recent works by acclaimed directors like Valérie Donzelli’s “Notre Dame”. Almost all of the films will be shown only once, but most of them will be screened with Lithuanian and English subtitles.

The novel “Little Women” was written by an American writer Louis May Alcott a century and a half ago. Now it is considered a true classic of its genre and gets compared to the works of Bronte sisters and Jane Austen. In a book filled with autobiographical details, L.M. Alcott describes the lives of four sisters, Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth March. Maturing girls reflect on the world, rebel against society’s stereotypes of women, and gradually develop into strong, independent personalities. Numerous television series, musicals, operas, plays and, of course, films have been made based on this novel. The latest, directed by Greta Gerwig, is the eighth film adaptation of the book. Portraying Jo, Meg, Amy, and Beth are the film stars Saoirse Ronan, Emma Watson, Florence Pugh, and Eliza Scanlen, with Timothée Chalamet as their neighbour Laurie, Laura Dern as Marmee, and Meryl Streep as Aunt March.

2020 FEBRUARY

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Calendar

From 02 07

Film “The Specials”

Still from the film.

“Forum Cinemas”, Karaliaus Mindaugo pr. 49

After this movie, the Cannes Film Festival audience gave a standing ovation, smiled and wiped away tears for the full 5 minutes. This is how the most recent work of Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledan, creators of “The Intouchables”, was received. The new film “The Specials” is admired for its depth of thought and unmistakable humour. Bruno and Malik (actors Vincent Cassel and Reda Kateb) have been working with people, mostly children, with autism for twenty years. They face many challenges: this syndrome (especially its milder forms) isn’t always included in official state medical programs, and even those “special” people who have medical insurance do not always get as much help as they need.

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Saturday, 02 11, 19:30

Film “Lost in Translation” “Forum Cinemas”, Karaliaus Mindaugo pr. 49

Veteran Hollywood actor Bob (actor Bill Murray) arrives in Tokyo, Japan, to film a whiskey commercial. He doesn’t really want to do this, but the pay is too solid to reject the offer. The actor is going through a huge crisis, he doesn’t know what he wants, forgets the birthdays of his beloved children, feels tired of his wife, and is in general very disappointed with life. A young girl named Charlotte (actor Scarlett Johansson) is also staying at the same hotel in Tokyo. She came here to support her husband John (actor Giovanni Ribisi) on a business trip. He works as a photographer and spends all his time in endless photoshoots. Charlotte usually stays in the hotel room alone all day long. She has just graduated from university but can’t figure out what she really wants from life. She seeks meaning by exploring ikebanas, listening to motivational CDs, or just watching people on the street. Bob and Charlotte keep accidentally bumping into each other in the hotel elevator, bar, lobby, hallways. For two lonely confused people, developing friendship with long evening chats, karaoke, strolls through an unfamiliar big city, helps to escape a sense of meaninglessness in life. The two lost souls find each other. But they are both staying in Tokyo for only a short time.

February SPORT Wednesday, 02 19, 8 pm

“Kaunas Hockey” – “Hockey Punks”

Kaunas ice arena “Baltų ainiai”, Aušros g. 42C

MORE Wednesday, 02 26, 7 pm

“inDISternet: What is Money?” Kaunas Artists’ House, V. Putvinskio g. 56

Heated Kaunas vs Vilnius matches in sports are always highly anticipated. Hence it’s not as cold on ice as it may seem. The National Hockey League season is off to a fast start. Last year, the Kaunas players won the bronze while Vilnius’ team got the silver. But what will happen when the multiple champions from Elektrėnai aren’t participating in the championship this year? Friday, 02 28, 8 pm

Euroleague: Žalgiris Kaunas – AX Armani Milan “Žalgirio” Arena, Karaliaus Mindaugo pr. 50

February’s end will be marked by a match between Kaunas and an ambitious team from Milan. At the beginning of the season, the Italian club made big claims and is already knocking on the door of the Euroleague elite. Under the supervision of Ettore Messina, AX Armani is finally delighting its fans not only with words but also with accomplishments. The coach of Kaunas’ team Šarūnas Jasikevičius together with a full Žalgirio Arena will try to complicate the plans of the opponents. No basketball enthusiast should miss out on this. Strong emotions and a thrilling evening guaranteed.

“What is money?” is the second event of the “inDISternet” event series organized by Kaunas Artists’ House Infocentre. In these entertainment-educational events, the aim is to take a critical look at the challenges of digitization and to explore the impact of the Internet on culture. Artworks accessible via the Internet will serve as symbolic points to guide and illustrate the analysis of the processes under consideration. Events will feature contemporary art, post-internet vigilance, informal atmosphere, music, debates, enjoyable tastes, online videos, academic ideas, and “dis.art”. The “inDISternet” drama will take several hours and will replicate the collage of the Internet with its eclecticism.

2020 FEBRUARY

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“In Kaunas, the second most important town in Lithuania, we had to see an exhibition of very ugly modern stained glass, a textile mill, and an interesting museum of antiquities. In this museum I saw a fine wooden figure of Christ; very ugly reproductions are to be seen all over the country, but the original is very beautiful. It is a sitting figure, crowned with thorns, and it leans its cheek upon its hand: it is the very picture of desolation.” Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986), From the memoir “All Said and Done” (Tout compte fait, 1972)

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Laisvės al. 59, Talent Garden Kaunas

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Authors: Artūras Bulota, Arvydas Čiukšys, Aurimas Margiris Grinys, Austėja Banytė, Bernadeta Buzaitė, Donatas Stankevičius, Eglė Šertvyčūtė, Emilija Visockaitė, Gie Vilkė, Julija Račiūnaitė, Justė Vyšniauskaitė, Kamilė Kaminskaitė, Kotryna Lingienė, Kęstutis Lingys, Lukas Mykolaitis, Paulius Tautvydas Laurinaitis.

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2020 2017 Nr. Nr. 22 (54) (18)