Poetry Without Fragility exhibition of works by contemporary artist Selma Selman opened in the lobby
The MO Museum’s travels through Lithuania began: first stop – Marijampolė!
Opening of the small BAXT exhibition
Celebrate for Change photography exhibition arrived in Molėtai
Opening of the major exhibition Kaunas–Vilnius: Moving Mountains
Organised together with the Kaunas City Museum; part of the “Kaunas –European Capital of Culture 2022” programme
Opening of the audiovisual exhibition Ukraine: A Breaking Point to support humanitarian missions to Ukraine by the organization Lašas Jūroje
22
Second MOgazine Museum’s looks at cities what
After the war began in Ukraine, we donated museum ticket proceeds to the Blue / Yellow Foundation
Third teacher training held in collaboration with the British Council’s “Visual Thinking Exchange Through Art” project for teachers in Lithuania
Ignitis Group became a Major Partner of the MO Museum.
Erudito Licėjus became a Major Partner of the MO Museum
“MO outside” summer events: acoustic concerts by young groups, poetry readings, discussion about Jonas Mekas
MO sustainability campaign won 1st place at the PR Impact Awards in the NGO Communication category
Fragments of the Mekas Winks Better exhibition went on display in Klaipėda at the Švyturys Bhouse. Project with UAB Švyturys-Utenos Alus.
Jun
issue of MOgazine, the MO Museum’s magazine, “What makes what they are?“
13 Jul
MO TV project with partner Cgates extended
25 Aug
Opening of the small exhibition Op Art Reflections
5 Sep
Celebrate for Change photography exhibition arrived in Akmenė
26 Oct
Second “It‘s a Match” conference on business, art and creativity held
31 Oct
Celebrate for Change photography exhibition arrived in Šilutė
9 Nov We proposed to the government that “Philanthropy Day” be celebrated in Lithuania on 15 November
Third “MOdyssey” virtual art game project with LRT
Second MO “Children’s Night at the Museum” held
27 Jun
Celebrate for Change photography exhibition arrived in Antalieptė
1 Aug
Programme to improve young people’s emotional literacy launched
27 Jun - 15 Jul
Summer camps for kids took place
18 Oct
Vingrių Square opened
18 Oct
We celebrated the MO’s 4th birthday
10 Oct
“5 Stories About World Art” project with LRT took place
8 Oct
Opening of the major international exhibition The Meeting That Never Was
26 Dec MO Christmas events
3 Nov MO Teacher Passport conference for the teacher community held
We bid farewell to 2021 with new hope – at last the pandemic had stopped weighing on the museum’s activities. But in February 2022, the entire world was shocked by the war that Russia launched against Ukraine. Again, rapid reaction and focus were needed: we thought simultaneously about how to help the people of Ukraine and how to ensure the safety of the museum and its collection. Within hours of the outbreak of the war, we took the decision to make the museum free for Ukrainian citizens and to donate part of the proceeds from museum tickets and merchandise with a pro-Ukraine message to the Blue / Yellow Foundation, along with money raised through support events. Once again, we saw that art is necessary: it brings people together, relieves stress, and helps find calm and peace in any circumstances.
We count 2022 as an extremely active year for the MO Travelling Museum. Even now, we are still travelling through Lithuania’s cities and towns with an adapted version of the Celebrate for Change photography exhibition as well as activities for families, educational initiatives, and training sessions for cultural workers in each region. In the spring, we linked to one of the year’s most important cultural events’: “Kaunas –European Capital of Culture 2022”. Together with the Kaunas City Museum, we organised the Kaunas–Vilnius: Moving Mountains exhibition, exploring the two cities’ culture and identity from a variety of angles. Kaunas’s and Vilnius’s interdependence was also reflected in the fact that to see the entire exhibition you had to visit both cities.
Andrew Miksys’s BAXT exhibition on the life of the Roma community in Lithuania also drew considerable attention. The Roma theme was highlighted internationally too, from the Venice Biennale to the documenta exhibition in Kassel. With reason BAXT was mentioned in “Vogue” magazine as one of the world’s most recommended exhibitions to see. But most importantly, it gave us all an opportunity to listen to the Roma community itself.
We opened the autumn season in grand style with a two-weekend-long “MOrathon” culture fest for the opening of the major international exhibition The Meeting
That Never Was. This exhibition constitutes the most important event of 2022 for the MO Museum and an exceptional moment for Lithuanian art. It brings together works by Lithuania’s most prominent artists and the most famous artists from the US and Europe from the 1950s to the 1980s. Extending it is the small Op Art Reflections exhibition, opened in late summer, which explores the origins of Lithuanian op art and the relationship between op art and minimalism. We are delighted that these two exhibitions have brought the number of visitors to the museum back to pre-pandemic levels.
This year, we are especially proud of the first scientific study in Lithuania substantiating the positive impact of art on children’s emotional literacy.
We celebrated our fourth birthday with the opening of Vingrių Square, together with Vilnius City Municipality. The sculptures in the square, donated by the founders of the museum, offer a close look at the country’s most important sculptors, and have given this spot in the city even more cultural weight.
In these years, we have come to realise that we have a very big credit of trust and so should pursue positive change even more intensively. We estimate that since its opening we have welcomed over half a million visitors to the MO. It is wonderful that so many people are discovering the museum and taking from it what is most important to them.
In four years, the MO has become a relevant, open setting which brings people together and encourages them to think about topics that are important for society. And this year, with the opening of Vingrių Square, the museum’s environs gained even greater cultural weight. We are delighted to have been able to donate the sculptures for the square. We are proud, as well, that the MO is going beyond its walls and, led by new ideas, is boldly travelling, giving it a much bigger reach than that of a physical museum.
Danguolė Butkienė and Viktoras Butkus
MO sustainability campaign “The climate of the inner world is just as important”, NGO Communication category
The MO campaign “The climate of the inner world is just as important” was nominated for most effective public sector communication project
From the very first days of the war in Ukraine, we have worked to help support Ukraine and promote emotional health by loudly calling to MAKE ART, NOT WAR. We support the people of Ukraine with all our heart. We must stay united and continually provide help for those who need it most.
The first week of the war, we donated all the money from museum tickets to the Blue / Yellow Foundation for Ukraine. In the MO store, we set up a special table for MO merchandise that sends a message of support for Ukraine. We’ve donated all the profits from these items to Blue / Yellow as well.
In total, we’ve donated €27 340 for Ukraine since the start of the war.
All refugees from Ukraine and Ukrainian citizens living in Lithuania can visit the museum for free, and children can also attend MO educational activities without charge. In December, we invited Ukrainian citizens to free tours of the exhibition The Meeting That Never Was in the Ukrainian language. Since the start of the war, a total of 3 083 Ukrainians have visited the MO free of charge.
For the international exhibition The Meeting That Never Was, we created a Ukrainian-language e-guide. The Ukrainian e-guide project was financed by the European Cultural Foundation.
We are also able to support Ukraine by buying artworks, and artists can do so by selling them and donating the proceeds. One acquisition for the MO collection in March came to our vault in this way. We acquired sculptor Vytautas Viržbickas’s Pokyčių vėjelis (The Wind of Change) in exchange for a donation of €6,000 to the Blue / Yellow Foundation.
As the war raged on, about half a year later we again added art to the MO collection in support of Ukraine – works by the two young painters Donata Minderytė and Dominykas Sidorovas. We acquired them at a charity auction for Ukraine organised by the Vartai Art Gallery.
Regularly updated information about support for Ukraine can be found here
On 5 March we hosted a lecture by Prof. Dr Eugenijus Laurinaitis about anxiety in extreme situations and how to reduce it.
On 11 March the MO hosted two screenings of Ukrainian director Iryna Tsilyk’s film The Earth Is Blue as an Orange.
On 25 March we held readings of Ukrainian poetry and read together with Ukrainian poets.
On 8 April we hosted a talk on art during the war, with Ukrainian art critic Lizaveta German, one of the curators of the Ukrainian pavilion at the Venice Biennale and a partner of The Naked Room gallery in Kiev.
As a contribution to the Ukrainian Days programme of events organised by GO Vilnius, on 14 May we hosted a lecture about Ukrainian artists by Valentina Ryvlina from Ukraine.
On 19-25 May, together with Inconvenient Films and NARA, we presented an audiovisual exhibition entitled Ukraine: A Breaking Point in the event hall of the MO. More about that on p. 25.
Authors of the idea and organizers: Kaunas City Museum and MO Museum
Author of the exhibition concept Tomas Vaiseta
Curators and co-curators of the exhibition: Justina Juodišiūtė, Kotryna Lingienė, Ernestas Parulskis, Miglė Survilaitė and Rasa Žukienė
Consultants: Julijana Andriejauskienė, Marija Drėmaitė, Linara Dovydaitytė, Giedrė Godienė, Lara Lempertienė, Jurgita Verbickienė and Sigita Žemaitytė-Strazdė
Coordinators: Iveta Jaugaitė, Justina Juodišiūtė, Giedrė Malūkaitė and Sigita Žemaitytė-Strazdė
Kaunas and Vilnius, Vilnius and Kaunas. Lithuania’s two biggest cities. Are they in competition, perhaps? Or could it be, rather, that they are vital to each other? How and why do they (not) get along?
The exhibition examined aspects of the culture and social life of Kaunas and Vilnius, similarities and differences. It revealed the two cities’ fundamental dependence on each other: how they have shaped each other and how contemporary Lithuania emerged from the tension between them.
It was a unique exhibition, created jointly with the Kaunas City Museum and spread over the two cities. One part was at the MO in Vilnius, the other at the Temporary M. K. Čiurlionis Art Gallery in Kaunas.
This exhibition was part of the “Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022” programme.
Architects: Vladas Suncovas and Julijonas Urbonas Designer Inga Navickaitė-Drąsutė View
I highly appreciate the MO tradition of basing exhibitions on deep sociocultural research, which the exhibitions then translate into a popular visual language (it becomes popular thanks to the guides, lectures, and discussions integrated into the exhibition). Unreal!
Virginija Vitkienė, a head of project “Kaunas –European Capital of Culture 2022”
2022 10 08 – 2023 03 12 / Main Hall
Curators: Charles Esche, Anders Kreuger and Gabrielė Radzevičiūtė Architect: Justinas Dūdėnas
Coordinators: Marius Armonas and Gabrielė Radzevičiūtė Designer Juozapas Švelnys
The exhibition brings together works from the collections of two European art museums – the MO in Lithuania and the Van Abbemuseum in the Netherlands. It is the first meeting on such a scale of Lithuanian, Western European and US artists and their works: many were kept apart by the Iron Curtain through the decades of the Cold War. Now that over 30 years have passed since the Cold War ended, this exhibition suggests looking back on that time and its enduring significance.
It is a unique chance to see works by so many varied and intriguing artists – Andy Warhol, the Guerrilla Girls, Yves Klein, Marlene Dumas, Maria Teresa Rožanskaitė, Deimantas Narkevičius and others – in Lithuania.
Major partners:
Institutional partners:
The curators selected a bouquet of megastars for the exhibition. Art-loving visitors review the names of the artists that are included like a lover of sweets looks over a box of the finest colourful candies, unable to decide which one they most want to try.
Aistė Paulina Virbickaitė, art critic
Art for the exhibition was loaned by the Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, the Netherlands), the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, the Lithuanian Photographers’ Association and Eugenijus Antanas Cukermanas. View the TV spot for the exhibition
The exhibition presented, for the first time, the most recent photographs by artist Andrew Miksys from the BAXT project, which for 20 years now has been documenting the lives of Lithuanian Roma.
It was a chance to take a fresh look –through the prism of visual art– at the situation of the Roma in Lithuania, to critically review the prejudices linked with this community, and to examine different points of view and life experiences. The exhibition was among initiatives to mark Vilnius’s 700th anniversary.
The BAXT exhibition was included on Vogue magazine’s list of “art exhibitions to see”. VOGUE recommendation
2022 02 10 – 2022 08 14 / Small Hall
Curator Andrew Miksys Consulting curator Ugnė Paberžytė Exhibition architect Dominykas Šavelis Exhibition designer Akvilė Paukštytė Essay author Laimonas Briedis
Translators: Skaistė Aleksandravičiūtė, Rumina Rumianceva and Darius Sužiedėlis
Language editors: Audra Kairienė, Gopalas Michailovskis and Darius Sužiedėlis
When I visit the MO Museum again, I see a lot of visitors. They’re studying Miksys’s photographs, listening to Roma on the screen discussing what baxt is, then taking a look at Roma Selma Selman’s Poetry Without Fragility exhibition. A change of perspective is in the air.
Agnė Narušytė, art critic
Exhibition partners:
Institutional partner:
This was the first-ever exhibition in Lithuania on the influence of optical art (“op art”) on the Lithuanian art scene of the 1960s and 1970s. The creations of Lithuanian artists working on the margins of the official art scene at the time –graphic artists, restorers, stage designers– stood out as bold experiments.
Abstract expression helped artists escape from Soviet reality and distance themselves from the authorities’ preferred narratives. Interest in op art was stimulated by exhibitions of prints in Poland and other socialist countries and reproductions in the cultural press. But those were not the only factors that drew the Lithuanian gaze to op art. This exhibition is about the varied local influences and the artworks that emerged from them.
Visitors to the exhibition can become optical artists too! They are invited to extend an optical motif on the wall by affixing stickers, or to create an illusory postcard to remind them of the exhibition.
The curator presents a well-developed theme: she has gathered recognisable phase works, well-known artists and unexpected elements of all kinds. The exhibits are presented very smoothly and vividly, in a well-balanced overall narrative.
Monika Krikštopaitytė, art critic
2022 08 25 – 2023 02 19 / Small Hall
Curator Deima Žuklytė-Gasperaitienė
Coordinator Ugnė Paberžytė
Architect Dominykas Šavelis
Designer Akvilė Paukštytė
Consultant Viola Klimčiauskaitė
Exhibition assistant Agnė Kuprytė
Thanks to Karolina Jakaitė, Jurga Mižutavičiūtė, Rokas Sutkaitis, Deimantė Jasiulevičiūtė and the private individuals and institutions that loaned works for this exhibition.
Selma Selman is a contemporary artist of Roma origin whose works explore her multi-faceted identity.
Being an artist, an activist, a woman, a feminist, and a Romani born in Bosnia who emigrated and lives abroad, means a constant experience of becoming –being ever in transformation from one identity to another. Drawing on her own experiences and those of her family and community, Selman speaks in her art of discrimination, and strives to create unique forms of resistance. Belief that art can stimulate social change is an integral part of her efforts as an activist.
Šarūnas Sauka’s most recent creation, For Mother, painted in 2022 after the artist’s mother’s death, was exhibited in the lobby of the MO. The work’s key figure, portrayed in the centre with a raised hand, is Rūta Saukienė (1929-2021), a Lithuanian language specialist, long-time editor at the Vaga publishing house, and translator. Right up until her passing, she closely followed her son’s artistic activity and had her own interpretation of every piece. As Sauka himself says, his mother took part in all his paintings.
We set up a game in the lobby based on Arvydas Každailis’s painting Flight
When the picture was painted, 50 years ago, the race to conquer space was in full swing. The topic was of interest to everyone, from heads of state to artists.
Photographers: Benas Gerdžiūnas and Denis Vėjas
Audio installation: Tomas Valkauskas and Adomas Zubė
Architects: Antanas Šarkauskas and Gabrielė Šarkauskienė (ŠA Atelier)
Designers: Nerijus Keblys and Mantas Rimkus (Taktika Studio)
Lighting Justas Bø
Sponsor InnoForce
Andrius Repšys (Foto123) contributed to the exhibition
Information partner: Lithuanian Radio and Television (LRT)
Supporters: BANGUOJA Audio Festival, Lithuanian Centre for Human Rights
Exhibition organizer: MO Museum, Inconvenient Films and NARA
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began early in the morning of 24 February. No place in the county was safe anymore and all became participants in the resistance to Russian aggression. The unexpected rupture plunged the entire country into a new state of shock which is hard to comprehend.
LRT photojournalist Benas Gerdžiūnas and NARA multimedia artists Denis Vėjas and Tomas Valkauskas spent a total of two months in Ukraine capturing the anxiety of anticipation, the first airstrikes and attacks on civilians, their desperate evacuation to the West, and humanitarian convoys rushing to help. When Russian troops withdrew, they were there with the people returning home who found their cities destroyed and loved ones who had hidden in cellars and endured torture.
Ukraine: A Breaking Point was an audiovisual exhibition combining authentic stories, photographs and testimonies of survivors of the war.
The proceeds from tickets, whose price visitors could freely choose, went to support the Lithuanian humanitarian missions to Ukraine organised by the group Lašas Jūroje (“A Drop in the Sea”).
We continue to reaffirm the important sustainability policy tenet that a sustainable world is not possible without personal harmony. Indeed, human wellbeing is one of the United Nations’ key Sustainable Development Goals. A museum can contribute to people’s emotional wellbeing. Art is an excellent setting for calming down, reducing stress, strengthening social bonds, and getting to know oneself. All over the world, museums are increasingly focusing on emotional and ecological sustainability, realizing their role as promoters of public awareness of these issues.
Sustainability concerns not just the wellbeing of the planet, but also the wellbeing and health of people and social groups. That’s why, in talking about sustainability, our eyes turn first towards the human person – a sustainable person in a sustainable world.
In 2022, a partnership with Icelandic museums allowed us to develop the educational project “A Travelling Museum: Get to Know Yourself through Art”. It was a chance to reach out to more distant cities and towns, acquainting people there with modern art and presenting the Celebrate for Change photography exhibition.
/ A travel adaptation of the Celebrate for Change exhibition.
/ Professional training for teachers and people who work in culture.
/ Educational activities for children from the region.
/ Family Saturday educational activities for children aged 3-8, in cooperation with the Pradžia Theatre.
Celebrate for Change exhibition team:
Curators: Tomas Pabedinskas and Ugnė Paberžytė Consulting curator Arvydas Grišinas Consultant Egidija Ramanauskaitė Exhibition designer Gytis Skudžinskas Architect Dominykas Šavelis Architects in MO Museum spaces ŠA Atelier Travelling museum coordinators: Barbora Sakalinskaitė and Jurgita Zigmantė
In three days of training in each city, MO Museum educators share their experience on how to use an art exhibition to organise effective, creative and engaging educational activities. They explain how to develop children’s emotional intelligence and present methods that encourage collaboration and critical thinking.
Formal and non-formal education institutions in each city are invited to register for free MO educational activities. The activities are organised by MO educators during the first days of the exhibition, and later by people from cultural and educational institutions in the area who have attended training.
Two ‘Family Saturday’ educational sessions are held in each city for families with children aged 3-8. The children are invited to learn through play what a celebration is, why we celebrate and how celebrations work. Together with actors from the Pradžia Children’s Theatre, we create, draw, play and experience celebration.
We cannot imagine summer without a trip by a MO Museum exhibition to Klaipėda. This time, as we celebrated the centenary of Jonas Mekas’s birth, we knew immediately that what we wanted to present at the Švyturys Bhouse this summer was fragments of the MO’s Mekas Winks Better exhibition.
In the photographs on display, visitors had a chance to see a number of famous figures – the likes of Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Andy Warhol, Nam June Paik, Elvis Presley and George Maciunas. They are not purposefully captured in Mekas’s shots but become part of the overall cultural context of New York.
The exhibition experience was broadened by talks about Jonas Mekas that were organised and tours with a MO guide.
Project partner:
2022 06 08 – 2022 09 04 / Švyturys Bhouse, Klaipėda
Curators: Edmondas Kelmickas and Deima Žuklytė-Gasperaitienė Exhibition architect Dominykas Šavelis Designer Gytis Skudžinskas Images printed by Arūnas Kulikauskas Travelling exhibition coordinators: Raminta Masiulytė and Barbora Sakalinskaitė
The MO Museum’s collection, which spans from the 1960s to the present day, is one of the largest private art collections in Lithuania. It comprises more than 6 000 works of modern and contemporary Lithuanian art. In 2011 it was recognised as a Collection of National Significance.
This year, founders Danguolė Butkienė and Viktoras Butkus added 232 new items to the collection, including 112 by new artists. There are now thus 6 194 works in total by 337 artists.
Mia Farrow II, 2020
“I explore what misleads, misdirects, manipulates, deceives or otherwise plays with visual perception. I often use paused video footage of everyday life: someone wearing a sweater, eating a banana on the roof, exercising, going to work, etc.,” Minderytė explains. This young artist’s painting Mia Farrow II came to the MO Museum’s collection through a charity art auction in support of Ukraine at the Vartai Gallery.
Internationally acclaimed artist Eglė Kuckaitė’s artistic range is very broad. She is a graphic artist, a painter, a book illustrator, and an installation and performance artist. In her works, she speaks openly about sexuality and society’s tendency towards a strict upbringing which gives rise to inner complexes that often leave one distant and alienated.
The MO collection was enriched with works from an exhibition by this artist commemorating the first hospital in Vilnius, begun in 1702 in the Dominican monastery by the Church of St James and St Philip.
An artist of the young generation, Viržbickas stands out in the context of contemporary art for special attention to the material form and materiality of an artwork. No less important, however, are the personal stories, metaphors and social critiques contained in his works. With Pokyčių vėjelis (The Wind of Change), the sculptor helped support Ukraine: the work came to the MO Museum’s collection in exchange for a donation to the Blue / Yellow Foundation.
Greenhouse in Užupis, 2021
Serapinas’s Užupio šiltnamis (Greenhouse in Užupis) is a symbol of the inevitable gentrification of Vilnius; it consists of parts of a greenhouse abandoned in Vilnius’s Užupis neighbourhood. By moving a useless, broken greenhouse into a museum space and reconstructing it in this foreign environment, the artist seeks to draw attention to human activity and urban change.
Passtoorrrrrralllllllllll. Kiiiiite Runnnnnning, 2020
Also added to the MO’s collection were works by this young artist and writer from her doctoral art project “How to create and how to live. An (al)bum with a phantom Don Quixote, artworks that come to life, poisonous flowers, self-dreaming systems, letters that jump (out), and a pastoral encompassing it all.” A veritable boom of colours, no?
This young artist’s spatial installations can be recognised from their unique handwritten texts and drawings of abstract forms. In her works, Rojūtė explores day-to-day human relationships, conflicts of family and individual identity, and everyday folklore. The MO collection was enriched with two of her works which were created especially for the Kaunas–Vilnius: Moving Mountains exhibition. They were some of the most Instagrammable works on exhibit.
The collection was complemented by carpets created by the young generation artist Remeikytė using watercolor and tufting (handmade, hand-tied) techniques. As soon as one of the carpets entered the collection, it traveled to Riga, where it was exhibited at the “Zuzeum” art center, at the exhibition “Growing Out? Growing Up? Contemporary Art Collecting in the Baltics.”
A work by this young painter was added to the MO collection through the “Stand with Ukraine” charity art auction at the Vartai Gallery. In that way, we helped to support the people of Ukraine who are suffering from the war.
A Poem About Gloves, a Lamp, a Path of Light and Shadows
Until now, the art of Vaidilutė Grušeckaitė (1937–2021) has rarely been exhibited. This artist, who worked in an experimental container and packaging design bureau, is best known as a graphic designer. In fact, she designed the logo for the Lithuanian pavilion at the 1968 Soviet Trade and Industry Exhibition in London!
Deimantas Narkevičius’s videos and films have at their core the complex history of the 20th century, with uncomfortable and controversial historical narratives and experiences. The film Lietuvos Energija (Energy Lithuania) tells the story of the Soviet-era industrial town of Elektrėnai.
Marija Švažienė’s rotating tapestry Plaštakės (Moths) was the first three-dimensional work of its kind in Lithuania. The artist’s quest for new things and experimentation during the Soviet era coincided with changes in the world of textiles, which from the 1960s on came to be seen as an independent and full-fledged sphere of art.
The MO collection includes a number of works by this artist. She is one of the best-known contemporary Lithuanian painters, familiar to many for her reproductions of masterpieces from the Renaissance and 17th-century masters that recreate the interiors without the people. This time, an sample of Jurkšaitytė’s early work was added to the collection.
In Plokštumos (Public surfaces), photographer Gintautas Trimakas explored the phenomenon of photography itself. These photographs of his also served as a rebellion against the traditional photography of the time.
The film, filmed in the nature of the Curonian Spit, explores non-human consciousness, interdependence, death and decay. In 2022, this Eglė Budvytytė film, a collaboration with Marija Olšauskaite and Julija Steponaityte, was screened in the main exhibition of the Venice International Biennale.
In his photography, Raimondas Paknys steadily and meticulously captures Lithuanian churches, manors, castles, and palaces, along with the fading heritage of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in Belarus and Ukraine. Four photographs of impressive dimensions depicting the Church of St George the Martyr in Vilnius were added to the collection.
The artist wrote: “For me, abstraction is a natural way of life. The main protagonists of my works are space and the matter found in it. They manifest themselves in the guise of a small number of elementary forms/things. They are like fragments of a space (or a plane) of different densities that have moved and shifted. It is not the abundance of forms or their outward expression that is significant, but their arrangement and interrelationships (often ambivalent).”
Vita Zaman is known in the art world as an initiator of international art projects, founder of Ibid Projects galleries in London and Vilnius, director of the Vienna Art Fair, an artist, and a curator. In 2013, she withdrew from cultural activities and began a search for her own authenticity as an independent artist.
Laima Oržekauskienė
Her Name Was Eglė. Frame No. 2 , 2006
Laima Oržekauskienė is one of the most prominent Lithuanian contemporary textile artists. The main features of her work are respect for the textile craft, topical content, and contemporary methods of expression.
Other artists whose works the museum acquired in 2022: Tomas Andrijauskas, Dovilė Bagdonaitė, Emilija Balas, Aušra Barzdukaitė-Vaitkūnienė, Eglė Budvytytė, Eugenijus Antanas Cukermanas, Ramūnas Danisevičius, Donata Minderytė, Felicija Dudoit, Raimondas Gailiūnas, Bronius Gražys,Vaidilutė Grušeckaitė, Henrikas Gulbinas, Viačeslavas JevdokimovasKarmalita, Naglis Karvelis, Patricija Jurkšaitytė, Eglė Kuckaitė, Marius Liugaila, Antanas Martinaitis, Andrew Miksys, Donata Minderytė, Deimantas Narkevičius, Robertas Narkus, Henrikas Natalevičius, Laima Oržekauskienė, Valerija Ostrauskienė, Raimondas Paknys, Viktoras Paukštelis, Romualdas Požerskis, Julija Račiūnaitė, Diana Remeikytė, Ieva Rojūtė, Augustas Serapinas, Dominykas Sidorovas, Algirdas Šeškus, Virgilijus Šonta, Marija Švažienė, Arūnė Tornau, Gintautas Trimakas, Monika Urmanavičiūtė-Jonaitienė, Eglė Velaniškytė, Vytautas Viržbickas, Milda Zabarauskaitė, Vita Zaman, Vladislovas Žilius.
One of the MO Museum’s top priorities is developing key competences for the 21st century – creativity, critical thinking, and the abilities to work together and communicate. We see the museum as a space for lifelong learning, so offering interdisciplinary cultural education for all age groups will always be one of the MO’s key objectives.
Here is a brief overview of what we did in 2022 as regards cultural education for families, children and adults.
The tradition of Family Sundays continued this year. During the Kaunas–Vilnius: Moving Mountains exhibition, we invited visitors to discover in game form what a city is, what it consists of and what is needed for it to exist. For the small BAXT exhibition, we organised a T-shirt making workshop with illustrator Akvile Magicdust. And alongside the international exhibition The Meeting That Never Was, we invited people to discover what pop art is, why it has so many colours, and how it’s related to Andy Warhol. Creative activities for children aged 3-8 years are organised at the MO Museum by the Pradžia Children’s Theatre.
Starting in October, a new activity was added to the Family Sundays offerings: creating computer game ideas with Code Academy Kids. We invite young people aged 10-16 to learn about computer game development and genres, and to create their own game concept: from original characters to a full game script!
We continually work to address the needs of children and broaden their experience of exhibitions, which is why this year we added some new creative tasks to the MOmukai workbook.
MOmukai elements can also be found within exhibitions by scanning the QR code next to artworks and on the screen in the museum lobby.
Project partner:
One of the major goals of collaboration between the MO and the Kazickas Family Foundation is to introduce young people to modern art and develop abilities that will help them more easily integrate into society in the future. This is an initiative that every visitor to the MO can contribute to. Active for several years now, it has already benefited more than 1 000 young people from all over Lithuania.
In June and July, there were three summer camps for children: two Creativity Camps and one Sensory Camp. At the Sensory Camp, we developed deep instincts. We explored the museum and the world of our imagination. The Creativity Camps, meanwhile, featured team and individual tasks: we created, we moved about, and we played.
A new educational programme started at the MO Museum in August that aims to enhance schoolchildren’s emotional literacy, reduce stress, and develop social-emotional skills through exposure to art. It is intended for students in years 5-8 at school from Vilnius and outlying areas.
Four sessions were held for improving the knowledge and practical skills of MO Museum educators and to strengthen emotional literacy and stress management competences.
According to the scientists, such emotional literacy educations are innovative on a global scale and deserve further development.
During art interventions, the young people said they improved emotional cognitive skills, including awareness of the variety of emotions, understanding of the relationship between emotions and the body, and awareness of the emotions of others.
It made me realize that you shouldn’t hide your feelings.
I learned that [...] art can be not just beautiful but can also express a feeling, or several feelings at once.
I didn’t know you could feel so many emotions.
This project is funded by the National Fund for Public Health Enhancement.
Since October, another new experience awaits children in the museum’s lobby. For lively visitors who get to know the world by moving about, the MO’s lobby offers a game based on Arvydas Každailis’s Skrydis (Flight): the huge dice and squares inviting you to jump will appeal to more than just little ones.
We invited kids to a unique nocturnal adventure: a night at the MO Museum! Creative activities, a night-time orientation game, a treasure hunt, a concert by Keistuolių Teatras and Open Circle actors Jurgis Marčėnas and Justas Tertelis, and cinema at night – all after closing time at the museum!
The camp’s participants were supervised and led in the various activities by Keistuolių Teatras actors Eimantas Bareikis, Vaidotas Žitkus and Marija Korenkaitė and by MO educator Sandra Zubielaitė
I thought I’d be as lonely as a wolf, since I took part without knowing anybody, but the loneliness only lasted a few minutes – I very quickly made friends and the night was really great.
Karlas, a participant of the Children’s Night at the Museum
MOrathons, the culture festivals that have become a tradition for the opening of major exhibitions, continued this year. The MOrathon for the exhibition The Meeting That Never Was lasted two entire weekends!
In January, as part of the Vilnius Light Festival, the interdisciplinary art studio 1024 architecture’s audio-visual installation Core was exhibited at the MO.
We welcomed people to spend the summer in our open spaces – on the MO Terrace. Besides well-loved events, we also added a few new ones. For the 100th anniversary of Jonas Mekas’s birth, the MO Terrace hosted talks about him. And for those keen to spend their evenings with music, we offered four acoustic concerts. Residents and guests of Vilnius also had the chance to enjoy poetry readings, which have been drawing visitors for years.
This year we turned 4! We celebrated our birthday with the slogan “I pay what I want” as the MO team greeted visitors at the ticket office.
Over half a million people have visited us since the MO Museum opened.
Ričardas Jankauskas’s traditional “Back2school” lecture series explored the styles of modernism and all the other “-isms” that baffle our ears, to learn how they have influenced the Lithuanian school of art.
An important and interesting encounter awaited art lovers and fans of the bestseller What Are You Looking At? on 15 October: Will Gompertz, the former BBC art editor and Tate Gallery director who is currently Artistic Director of the Barbican Centre for the Performing Arts in London, came to the MO Museum to give a lecture on contemporary art.
The “Visual Thinking Exchange Through Art” project for teachers, carried out by the MO together with the British Council, has engaged more and more participants. The third edition of the training drew 145 teachers of varied subjects from all of Lithuania. They said the knowledge gained helps them get students talking, unleashing their imagination and creativity, and inspires new educational approaches.
It’s great to see that culture and creativity are increasingly being integrated into formal education. I sincerely hope that there will be more initiatives like this in the future.
Agnė Liucilė Andriuškevičienė, Adviser to the Minister of Education, Science and Sport
Speakers at the annual MO Teacher Passport Conference this year shared neuroscience insights on modifiable and non-modifiable traits of children’s emotional intelligence. They also spoke on inclusive education, collaboration between cultural and educational institutions, and helping children with special needs feel a full sense of belonging at school.
We are delighted that so many people were keen to attend this year’s conference. The 120 places filled up within hours, and 400 other teachers joined remotely. The MO Teacher Passport community now includes 3 000 teachers. All of them can visit exhibitions free of charge and integrate the content into lessons.
We visit cultural institutions because that’s where you can see and learn about history. When we come to the MO Museum, we get to know ourselves and our students.
A physics teacher from Erudito Licėjus
Erudito Licėjus, a Major Partner of the MO, has helped develop key competences for the 21st century. Together with the school, the museum created a new joint educational activity for Erudito Licejus students, enhanced teachers’ skills, and shared best practices. On 16 June, the museum hosted a presentation of art by students from years 5-10 at the school. The project was linked to the museum’s Kaunas–Vilnius: Moving Mountains exhibition, ongoing at the time. It called on students to create art involving the ties between the cities of Kaunas and Vilnius.
The square is a place not only to relax on benches and admire the water flowing from the Vingrių spring, but also to examine an open-air exhibition of contemporary sculptures.
Seven sculptures by contemporary Lithuanian artists are displayed in the square: Jonas Aničas’s Stebėtojas (Observer), Mykolas Sauka’s Unguriai (Eels), Nerijus Erminas’s Paniręs (Immersed), Tauras Kentsminas’s Sala (Island), Beatričė Mockevičiūtė’s Asukai, Petras Mazūras’s Tulpė (Tulip), and Juoda guma (Black rubber) by “Geraširdys Linkėtojas” (aka Vytautas Viržbickas).
The second issue of MOgazine, the MO’s limitededition magazine, explored the topic of the Kaunas–Vilnius: Moving Mountains exhibition by the MO Museum and the Kaunas City Museum, analysing what makes these cities what they are. The MOgazine issue went first to subscribers of Žmonės magazine in Vilnius and Kaunas and was later made available free of charge at popular locations in Vilnius, Kaunas and by the seaside, as well as in the MO Shop.
All MO merchandise is now available online! The MO Museum’s online shop, at shop.mo.lt, offers books, paintings, prints, drawing albums, reproductions of art from the MO collection, souvenirs, clothing and other inspiring items. With every purchase you support the work of the MO!
The MO e-shop:
We organised a MOdyssey together with LRT for the third time this year. Happily, the number of participants in this virtual modern art game continued to grow: there were 1 369! Almost half were from outside of Vilnius. It’s nice how every year the MOdyssey expands further beyond the capital. Thank you to all who joined and played!
This was the first year of life for MO TV. Culture lovers could watch MO exhibitions, behind-thescenes stories, and interviews with artists and cultural figures on all Cgates television platforms from anywhere in Lithuania.
Together with LRT, we presented a new series of video narratives titled “5 Stories About World Art”. Each features different artists and their stories, for a small dose of art every day.
You can watch them all here:
The MO is not just a building on Pylimo Street. Both physically and virtually, we travel to many places and build communities. This is and will remain one of the MO Museum’s key goals. All the communities help us create the museum we dream of – one that is friendly, open, and invites people to spend time with others of like mind; one where it is good to be, to learn, and to get to know everyone.
visits the MO, live of our community. Thank you!
The MO Teacher Passport community (teachers)
The virtual MO community Families
Great exhibitions, a break from what’s routine. The volunteer guide explained everything brilliantly. I highly recommend it. A museum for today.
Kęstutis
Art is one of the few things that leaves a mark on our history. Thus, I suggest you visit the exhibition The Meeting That Never Was at the MO Museum. It’s an interesting one-hour journey through artworks from the last century by different creators from Europe and elsewhere.
Petras
A must for everyone, from the youngest to the most mature. Worth discovering.
Algimantas
I really enjoyed my visit here. The building itself is very sleek and impressive. Had an audio guide to take us around the different elements to the exhibition, which was incredibly useful. The artwork was curated beautifully, especially the BAXT photography. Definitely worth a visit!
Hollie
Visiting the MO Museum is always like a feast, enriching you with new knowledge and full of surprises. The museum’s audio guide is a fantastic resource. It was a thrill taking part in the quiz game when I answered all the questions correctly. Thanks to the wonderful staff.
Aldona
Every exhibition is such an experience! It’s interesting, original, inviting. A perfect 10. I really liked the last exhibition about Kaunas and Vilnius.
Anonymous visitor
Very great exhibition! Combining internationally acclaimed artists together with local ones.
Sofia
It was an unexpected, fascinating learning experience. Thank you to the presenter.
Kristina
A space for quiet, intellectual leisure, whether alone, or with family or friends.
Audronė
A place for art therapy. Lizaveta
In 2022, we experienced once again that the MO is more than a museum. It is an institution which initiates and shapes important changes. That is the reason to support MO and to expect even more to come.
At the start of the year, we rallied in support of Ukraine. We went from being an institution receiving support to one that provides it. You can read recent updates about Ukraine support at mo.lt/ukraina. In 2022, we raised almost €30 000 for Ukraine – many thanks to the MO community for that.
Research on philanthropy shows that in times of crisis, patrons and sponsors do support impactful and leading institutions even more. We are happy that supporters of MO share the same values and trends.
We appreciate that the community of MO supporters, after hearing about our efforts for Ukraine, supported MO additionally before year-end, realising that inflation and the war are happening right now. Some increased their support after seeing the work we had done during the year, telling us: ‘We are supporting you MOre, because we want you to do MOre!”
Seeking to promote a culture of philanthropy in Lithuania, we approached the government and the president’s office with a proposal to mark Philanthropy Day, which is celebrated in the US and Europe. The experience of the US is that publicly promoting philanthropy can be very effective: from its start in 2012 to 2022, the famous #GivingTuesday initiative has grown into something that now generates $2.7 billion of support. It has mobilized 35 million people (about 10% of the US population) to contribute. Interestingly, the average donation per person that day is relatively small, about $37. But when there are millions such people, the results are amazing. It took 10 years for the initiative to reach this scale. If we
want results in Lithuania in 10 years’ time, we need to start now. The government, the president’s office and the Ministry of Culture welcomed our proposal. Maybe in late 2023 we will have Philanthropy Day in Lithuania. That alone is not enough to promote philanthropy, of course, but it could be a good start.
We ourselves, leading by example, declared one week of November 2022 #MO_Philanthropy_Week and thanked all our supporters on MO’s social media. We believe it’s important and worthwhile to talk publicly about philanthropy and to thank those who contribute to the common good. This needs to be done more loudly and intensely than until now.
Research shows that people who share with others get a boost of positive energy and want to do it again. We at the MO also thrive on making the world a better place, helping build a modern, progressive, critically thinking society, bringing communities together and being an active leader in the cultural sector.
While there are worries about a slowing economy in 2023, the team at the MO will continue striving to do everything even better. And in supporting us, you too will be part of this story which is driving change. Only together can we withstand the recession and create even more.
Thank you to all the MO patrons, partners and supporters. Thank you also to those who continue to express their wish to remain anonymous – an anonymous heartfelt thanks to you as well!
We are supporting you MOre, because we want you to do MOre!
MO patrons
Vilija and Gediminas Kuprevičiai ***** Žilvinas and Ekaterina Mecelis **** Antanas Guoga Arvydas Janulaitis *** In memory of Alvyda Janulaitienė
Jonas Garbaravičius and Živilė Garbaravičienė **** Žana and Vladas Algirdas Bumeliai ***** Albinas and Vita Markevičiai Jonas and Agota Markevičiai Halina and Dr. Antanas Milakniai
Ina and Darius Zubai **** Kęstutis Juščius **** Irmantas Norkus and Žaneta Norkienė ** Eugenija Sutkienė **** Laima and Šarūnas Andriukaičiai Sutkai Justina and Vladas Jurkevičiai
Asta and Darius Vaičiuliai **** Vilma and Virginijus Striogos **** Rasa Juodviršienė ****
In memory of Remigijus Juodviršis Mariaus Jakulio Jason fondas **** Andrius Šlimas **** Marius Markevičius **** Justina and Vladas Jurkevičiai **** Sergey and Natallia Avetikov *** Aras Pranckevičius *** Jurgita Krasauskienė *** The Bajorunas/Sarnoff Foundation *** In memory of Alvyda Janulaitienė LitCapital *** Kęstutis Ivanauskas and Jurgis Jasinskas ** Agnė Jonaitytė ** Justas Janauskas and Gabija Grušaitė ** Renata and Rolandas Valiūnai Matilda and Tomas Bučinskai Ramutis Petniūnas and Daiva Tonkūnienė Rytis and Renata
Rasa Klimavičiūtė*** Dovilė Burgienė*** Justė and Darius Pinkevičiai*** Laimonas Belickas*** Darius Daubaras** Viktorija and Simonas Jurgioniai** Vilma Dagilienė** Vilija and Gintautas Kvietkauskai** Stede Ingram** MAGNUS kredito unija** Aurelija Kazlauskienė Janita and Tauras Plungės Tautvydas Barštys and Neringa Mataitytė Milda and Arūnas Gečiauskai Ieva Koreivaitė
** - ***** Supports MO Museum for two - five years in a row More about the support to MO mo.lt/support
Although it is a non-profit institution, the museum faces the same economic challenges as businesses in the country. This year was no exception.
At the start of the year, we rallied to support Ukraine. We donated part of ticket proceeds to that cause. The war mobilized society and in its early months there was no space for culture. Up until summer, visitor numbers fell to a minimum, meaning a significant drop in ticket revenue as well.
Another difficulty we had to cope with was inflation. Higher prices notably affected exhibition budgets and brought a drastic rise in electricity costs. Works of art must be kept at a suitable humidity and temperature 24 hours a day, so we had little room for savings.
We are grateful to the patrons of the MO, whose support helped us withstand these two major challenges: the new major partners who joined us, existing patrons who increased their support, and the long-standing loyal patrons and supporters who have stood by us even amid challenges of their own.
For our part, we sought out and applied for ways to finance projects through public funding. And thanks to that private support and the public funding we won, we managed to nearly balance the budget. We are proud to have come through a challenging year reasonably well.
We have planned for 2023 based on actual figures for the most recent years. We hope to see a steady flow of visitors, to maintain the existing community of patrons, and to sustain public strategic funding from the Lithuanian Council for Culture and the Vilnius City Municipality.
We plan to keep expenses at their usual level, taking inflation-related cost increases into account.
Tickets Other activities
Private donations
Public funding
International donations
Exhibitions
Costs of other activities Administration Facilities Communication
* Figures for December are preliminary
Tickets
Other activities
Private donations
Public funding
International donations
Exhibitions
Costs of other activities Administration Facilities
Communication
The year 2023 will be special for the 700th anniversary of Vilnius. To mark that important occasion for the city, we will host an immersive exhibition in the spring with its origins in Ričardas Gavelis’s novel Vilnius Poker “Everything is possible in Vilnius,” Gavelis wrote in the book, which is still seen as one of Vilnius’s most important texts. It has become a symbol of liberation from the Soviet era and creative freedom. We are delighted that the challenge of rethinking the novel visually has been taken up by one of the most prominent and innovative personalities in theatre, director Oskaras Koršunovas, and set designer and artist Gintaras Makarevičius.
In the spring, the Small Hall will house Žilvinas Kempinas’s exhibition Portraits–Fossils 2023 which will relaunch the artist’s plaster mask workshop after more than 27 years. In the 1990s, masks of friends of his who are now well-known painters, dancers and directors were cast at the workshop. Kempinas was inspired to revive his workshop again by the only three remaining casts by him from that time, which were displayed in the MO’s most visited exhibition to date, The Origin of the Species: 1990s DNA. In 1996, Kempinas was interested in memory and identity, now there are questions about self-representation and identification in the age of digital technologies.
Following the MO’s first exhibition for children, Lake Full of Stars, which sparked a lot of interest, we have been continually asked when we are going to organise another exhibition for young museum visitors.
At last the time has come: at the end of summer we will open a second exhibition for children and families. We are creating it together with our partners Vaikų Žemė and book author and illustrator Kotryna Zyle. In the exhibition, we will invite visitors to explore the links between art and literature, and the exhibition itself will become a space rich in unexpected experiences.
In 2023, we will continue to go beyond the physical walls of the museum. We will visit Biržai, Druskininkai and Šalčininkai with fragments of the Celebrate for Change photography exhibition. And we will not forget about improving emotional health – for that, we will make use of all the museum’s exhibitions, educational activities and other various initiatives.
A representative survey conducted at the museum this year showed 64 % of visitors believe the MO builds communities they want to be part of. We will continue to do so, ensuring that the museum remains an open space where everyone is keen to be, to interact, to reflect, and to be inspired.
Thanks for being with the MO Museum. We can only do so much together with all of you.
Artworks used in this issue:
Donata Minderytė, Mia Farrow II, 2020 Eglė Kuckaitė, Soul Penetrated the Body, 2019–2020 Vytautas Viržbickas, The Wind of Change, 2018 Augustas Serapinas, Greenhouse in Užupis, 2021 Arūnė Tornau, Daughter of Charity, 2022 Arūnė Tornau, Wounds I, 2018–2020 Dovilė Bagdonaitė, Passtoorrrrrralllllllllll. Kiiiiite Runnnnnning, 2020 Ieva Rojūtė, Normal Person, 2022 Ieva Rojūtė, Impossible to Communicate, 2022 Diana Remeikytė, 46 / Mutation, 2021 Diana Remeikytė, Mountain, 2021 Dominykas Sidorovas, A Poem About Gloves, a Lamp, a Path of Light and Shadows, 2021 Vaidilutė Grušeckaitė, Rams, 1967 Deimantas Narkevičius, Energy Lithuania, 2000 Marija Švažienė, Moths, 1970 Patricija Jurkšaitytė, Untitled, undated Gintautas Trimakas, Public surfaces, 1995 Eglė Budvytytė, Songs from the Compost: Mutating Bodies, Imploding Stars, 2020
Raimondas Paknys, St. Church of George the Martyr IV, Vilnius 2016 Eugenijus Antanas Cukermanas, Margins II, 1977 Laima Oržekauskienė, Her Name Was Eglė. Frame No. 2, 2006 Vita Zaman, Swamp Architecture, 2022
Agnė Papievytė
Danas Danulis Macijauskas
Gediminas Bartuška
Gediminas Gražys
Gintarė Užtupytė Kęstutis Stoškus
Lina Jushke Romanas Naryškin Rytis Šeškaitis Tautvydas Stukas