KAUNAS FULL OF CULTURE / SEPTEMBER 2020

KAUNAS FULL OF CULTURE

Underground

2020 SEPTEMBER Illustration by Mitya Pisliak

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One of two-hundred-something bomb shelters installed in Kaunas is now known all over the world. Read more about the Atomic Bunker on page 8. Photo by A. ÄŒiukĹĄys 2

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Last summer, we wondered how Kaunas looks from a bird’s eye when we released a refreshing issue called Wings. This one’s a bit darker but not as gloomy as you might think. Kaunas, of course, like any city has some dark pages in its history. Some of them are inevitably associated with vaults, bomb shelters, dungeons. But dungeon does not necessarily mean hardship and pain. It’s a fundamentally different world, another, rarely seen face of the city.

Kaunas from below So, from the vaults of old Kaunas, where some are still snoring, to one of the current symbols of the city, which is passed by thousands of people every day. Some stop and buy a rose. From the shelters – that once were as many as two hundred – for the safety of the townspeople, to the tunnels that vouch for the heartbeat of the clinics.

And a few tours to the underground as a metaphor for the cultural motion as well as two important consecutive film festivals in autumn, the programs of which explore this topic in one way or another.

If, after reading all the articles and interviews, you’ll want more, that is – to go deeper and darker – there is always the Kaunas Fortress, whose forts and other structures, laced with tunnels, surround Kaunas. Early autumn is a great time to look around

them, and luckily tours are becoming more frequent. And the easiest way to get to the tunnel is by going to Kaunas (or from it) from the capital by train.

You will pass the Kaunas railway tunnel, which, like the fortress itself, is reminiscent of the 19th century. It is one of two in Lithuania (the other is in Aukštieji Paneriai) and the only functioning one in the Baltic States.

By the way, while compiling the content of the issue, I had to debunk some myths for myself and others about the vaults of Kaunas.

Apparently, the philharmonic and municipality buildings are not connected by a tunnel, neither is St. Michael the Archangel’s Church and the Town Hall. But how can you be sure if you haven’t seen it with your own eyes?

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While walking to a meeting with Saulius Bajarūnas, the chief specialist at the Civil Protection Department of the Kaunas Fire and Rescue Board, I contemplated the idea of what I would do if an early morning would start not with a regular cup of tea but a forced escape from my home. Luckily for me, the negative thought was dispelled by Saulius, who met me with a smile on his face. He has been working in the Civil Protection Department since 1996. He mentioned that he still remembers “this and that” about the bomb shelters and can tell us about it because few people know that the situation is much better than it can sometimes seem.

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We can protect ourselves Monika Balčiauskaitė Photos by the interviewee and the author

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But let’s start from the beginning.

The bomb shelters came about around World War I when there was a threat of mass extermination.

Bombs were thrown from planes everywhere, so it was necessary to think about where to hide from the waves of explosions, for example, underground. Saulius had a booklet on the table titled What Everyone Should Know About Air-Defense, which he quoted throughout the conversation. It was published in 1934 by Jonas Pyragius, a pilot who dropped bombs himself.

Interestingly, the recommendations have remained relevant to this day, “He described what everyone should know about shelter protection and, I dare say, things are the same now,” the interviewee said. The construction of shelters in Kaunas became more active a little later, at the beginning of the Cold War when armed competition began and a nuclear war was expected. Everyone was in a hurry to build shelters, which continued until the collapse of the Soviet Union. “Eventually, people began to realize that shelters will not be able to protect anyone a hundred per cent. Of course, it all depends on how powerful is the bomb, but in the event of an explosion, no one within half a mile radius would survive. And even if you survive in the shelter under the ground, what will you do when you get to the top, which will be completely swept away?”

In addition to having prepared quotes from the aforementioned booklet, Saulius also visited one shelter – the name of which he couldn’t disclose – a few hours before the meeting. The photos show that everything was prepared for sheltering people – heaps of masks, a classroom to accommodate citizens if necessary, control panels

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to communicate with those left above ground and many other vital items. At that time, there were active preparations for civil defence, but in the long run, everything slowed down. “The Cold War ended, people began to think about floods, hurricanes and realized that those shelters were not needed because nothing will explode. So that is how it all remained.”

According to the data collected in 2008, after the Cold War, as many as 200 shelters were built in Kaunas, which would have accommodated only 37,691 people. One hundred seventy-one of them were among the most serious, which could protect against chemicals, radiation and explosion and the remaining 29 only from destruction and radiation. Today, all of them are privatized because it has become too expensive for the municipality to maintain them, “A decision was made to rent the shelters because maintaining them was far too expensive. Some began to set up warehouses, others studios or bars.

The only rule was that in the event of unrest, the premises would have had to be returned to their original condition within 72 hours.”

The shelter under the former household service provider Juzė in Savanorių Avenue remained untouched for the longest time.

In a case of emergency, the city leaders and the heads of special councils would have lived here.

The shelter even had an office for a mayor, cabinets with gas masks and other installed necessities, so the work could continue. In time, the situation was rapidly improving; therefore it was decided to give the shelters into the hands of the people through the property fund and auctions. And the new owners used the premises for other purposes.

marked with the international civil defence label, which was approved in 1949 by the Geneva Convention.

You can stay in the building marked with this sign with other civilians, as each city must have buildings of this type that can accommodate 10 per cent of the residents.�

There are no official tangible maps showing all the hiding places that have existed in Kaunas so far and their current owners, but there is an innovative alternative. You can visit www.lt72.lt and get acquainted with all the emergency accommodation places found throughout Lithuania.

I myself was very surprised to see that one of them is just a few steps from my own home.

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As the conversation with Saulius gained momentum, I shared a disturbing thought that all the shelters in Kaunas have been privatized, which means that we have nowhere to hide. He just laughed, “We don’t really need shelters, you know. It is better to stay in your home with your family with food and water. Upon learning that a cloud of reactive materials is coming from the Astravets nuclear plant, we can, in turn, close the doors and windows, seal the ventilation and thus protect ourselves. Even in the basement of a house, where there are no protections, the radiation level is reduced to 200-400 times. If this is not possible, there are collective protection structures

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In Vilijampolė, in the former Aidas factory, or more precisely, seven meters below it, an era of the past opens up. A bomb shelter belonging to a factory that used to produce children’s furniture, prams, musical instruments, and flashlights is currently a museum called the Atomic Bunker (with a KGB bunker inside).

As you arrive, the first thing you notice – planted near the entrance of the museum – is the foreign body of these times. Rescued from a scrapyard, there lie cast iron, half-a-ton–weighing Soviet decorations of the Vytautas the Great Bridge. And this is only the beginning!

Atomic ambitions: from Vilijampolė to Manhattan Julija Račiūnaitė Photos by Arvydas Čiukšys

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According to the fonds keeper, 200 people could have survived for three days in the Aidas’ factory hideout.

The premises could be accessed through two metal, sealed doors; there were two stair entrances and one exit through a 70-meter-long underground tunnel. The shelter is divided into the main room with plankbeds, ventilation, gas masks, food storage rooms, and toilets. Radiation measurement equipment and protective suits for outdoor use in hazardous conditions were also stored here.

Before After the collapse of the occupation regime, most of the Soviet bomb shelters were privatized and looted.

According to J. Urbaitis, there were over 200 of them in Kaunas alone and about 300 in Vilnius. The collector says the bunkers were installed at every major factory, as well as in residential areas, sometimes under churches or hospitals (they cannot be bombed under international agreements). Some of the hiding places were command posts; the rest were for civilians. However, Rimas Urbaitis, who works as a Cold War fonds keeper at Atomic Bunker remembers a visitor, who claimed the hideouts were not for everyone, “Interestingly, although the larger factories employed thousands of people, the shelter was able to accommodate only 200.

It would seem that they were only for the management, as confirmed by a story recently told by a former Aidas’ employee, who claimed to have worked there all his life but knew nothing about the hideout.”

When resurrecting the former Soviet civil defence bunker to a new life, the founders had to work hard. The acquired shelter was not only looted but also seriously flooded (according to the museum’s founder, as many as eight sewage pumping machines had to be pumped out).

It all started with the dance The story of the Atomic Bunker starter relatively recently, in 2013.

A. Urbaitytė, a dancer at the Kaunas Dance Theatre Aura, together with her father, opened a dance and movement studio called Dance Bunker. The studio hosted contemporary dance, ballet, yoga, and fitness training classes for children and adults.

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The collection of Atomic Bunker surprises with impressive Cold War artefacts, weapons, unique equipment of KGB, NKVD, and even independent Lithuanian agents, authentically equipped interrogation rooms, schemes and stories revealing how the oppressive system functioned, as well as various household or luxury items from different decades of the 20th century. In addition to that, this museum in Kaunas, which was opened in 2014, soon moved across the Atlantic.

Most of the collection is currently on display in the museum’s New York department. The new KGB Spy Museum that opened its doors in Manhattan in 2019 and its founders – a businessman Julius Urbaitis and his Daughter Agnė Urbaitytė – immediately received a lot of public and media attention. The exclusive museum was mentioned in Vice, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and New Yorker.

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After the establishment of the dance studio, the specific atmosphere of the place dictated the theme. In order to create an authentic shelter atmosphere, J. Urbaitis acquired the first Soviet gas masks, which were used to decorate the walls of the dance hall. Such were the origins of the collection.

J. Urbaitis says that since he was a kid, he liked to collect various things, and would dedicate time and meticulous work to the hobby. Before taking an interest in the topic of the Cold War and secret agencies, he used to collect motorcycles, paintings, cars, adjustable keys, and so on.

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The largest collection in the world In 2018, a book The Secret History of KGB Spy Cameras was published in the US, and Julius Urbaitis made a significant contribution to it.

The book contains photographs of exhibits belonging to the collector; the authors used his expert opinion and consultations. According to J. Urbaitis, the author of the book H. Keith Melton, who is also one of the owners of the most McDonald’s franchises, intelligence historian and collector of intelligence equipment, together with other authors and experts who worked on the book, acknowledged that the Atomic Bunker collection is the largest collection of KGB intelligence equipment in the world.

The museum’s collection is not only recognized by international experts but was also featured in the famous HBO Chernobyl series, to which J. Urbaitis sold or rented out part of the authentic exhibits of that time. At the end of the series, the production team visited the KGB Spy Museum in New York.

Small-calibre ballpoint pens Perhaps the most surprising thing in the museum is the ingenuity of

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the special services equipment seen only in the old films about Agent 007.

According to Julius Urbaitis, spy equipment was manufactured for specific situations, which is why almost all devices are unique and especially difficult to obtain.

Among the weapons exhibited in Kaunas, you can see firing small-calibre pen guns and lipstick pistols (and in the New York department you can find a Bulgarian “killer” umbrella, which was able to fire a dose of poison).

As eccentric is the range of tracking devices displayed in the museum: miniature film cameras mounted on a jacket button, on a handle of a handbag, a belt buckle or a pack of cigarettes; containers for transferring photographic films, cameras or other information that the agent hid in a shoe brush (the brush would open up with a needle or safety pin pressed into a miniature hole hidden between the bristles), the heel of the shoe, cuffs or even in the rectum. Bugs would also be placed in the most unexpected spots, for example, when a fridge would be returned

Here you can also find the equipment that helped agents pull out the letter without opening the envelope, unlock all doors, unobtrusively remove the seals from the door, or even detect a person hiding based on a heartbeat.

Brezhnev’s projector The museum is full of interesting things and significant historical artefacts. One of the most subtle ones is a miniature depicting a thoughtful grim reaper sitting next to M. K. Čiurlionis painting Tranquility and looking at a truck carrying an atomic bomb.

And one of the spookiest exhibits is a little room that contains a heap of mannequins (made during the cold war) with various injuries caused by a lethal level of radiation.

The museum contains separate rooms dedicated to a huge collection of various gas masks, a dental office

with a scary treadle drill, and an ancient photo laboratory with spine-chilling photos. There is also an impressive collection of military radio stations, including a huge single piece of Latvian radio made of Karelian birch to reward Stalin (yet never delivered) and next to it stands an even larger projector with three red stars, which, according to the museum fonds’ keeper Rimas Urbaitis, stood in Brezhnev’s villa in Palanga resort.

Breaking away from the Soviet era, we will find the first telephone (still working) of Lithuanian president Antanas Smetona.

This story is only a small part of the experiences and impressions that you will take away with you after visiting Lithuanian or American museums, filled with incredible objects and stories marking the dark time of our history. By the way, the founders of the museum present the museum as an apolitical institution whose mission is education and preservation of authentic history. Therefore, we wish this transatlantic atomic idea a successful implementation!

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to you after repairs, all your kitchen conversations could be heard through the microphone and transmitter built into the refrigerator condenser.

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I have always been fascinated by mysterious places, which create a special feeling with their unique appearance, legends or perhaps an incredibly rich history. Kaunas Old Town can be proud of at least a few of such places; however, some of the enigmatic and dark spaces are hidden deep under popular landmarks. I have no doubt that many people feel a certain fascination, excitement or curiosity (that are hard to explain) about the places that are hidden from sunlight with several layers of soil.

Hundreds of tourists eagerly visit the huge catacombs of Paris or go on excursions around the London Underground tunnels, but Kaunas is also full of centuries-old underground spaces and curious people who want to enter them.

The tour by Kaunas IN Tourism Information Center called The Spirit of Kaunas Catacombs, which each year attracts a number of Kaunas residents and guests (and the first such themed tour took place at the end of the last century!), also points to the attraction of these places.

Under the old Kaunas Justė Vyšniauskaitė Photos by the author

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Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum. Devil’s Lair

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According to the tour guide Dalia Leonavičienė, the ample underground heritage of Kaunas can be attributed to the fact that a strong class of merchants emerged here shortly after the founding of the city.

Perhaps the tradition to build huge basements, the size of which in merchants’ houses sometimes exceeded even the entire area of the house, was also encouraged by the fact that Kaunas cooperated with the cities of the Hanseatic League. Maybe it also influenced the specific structure of the house with workshops or shops on the ground floor, living quarters on the first floor, and refrigerator-storage room in the basement (meanwhile in neighbouring Latvia, goods and other items were stored in attics).

The main goods – beeswax, wood, food, salt, clothing, and fur – sold and bought – were usually stored in such underground storage facilities. Of course, the cellars were not useful for merchants only. Nobles liked to store various things there, including wine and beer, into which they were first in Europe to start adding honey. However, the catacombs of the Old Town seen during the tour, today, function more as collages of historic signs for the eyes of tourists than functional storage facilities.

The walls of Kaunas Castle catacombs are characterized by a particularly colourful mixture of historical stylistic elements. As emphasized by the tour guide, the castle has retained some of its original materials – mostly stones that have survived since the 14th century, because instead of grandiose reconstructions, the building was constantly being fortified. Today, Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque bricks, aged white plaster, and newer fortifications can be found in these walls. However, although the mosaic of bricks makes it possible to get to know the history of the castle at least a little bit better, a considerable number of underground passages with

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Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum. Devil’s Lair

their veil of mystery, remain undiscovered. D. Leonavičienė said that the builders found one secret tunnel during the reconstruction of the castle. The beginning of this passage can be seen in the spaces open to visitors today, but the stairs leading down are covered. Unfortunately, the tunnel has collapsed and is impassable; therefore, it is not clear where it actually leads. According to some legends, several hundred years ago, the tunnels connected Kaunas Castle with the Bernardine monastery that was being newly established then and Vaidotas – brother of Vytautas the Great – who was responsible for the castle’s defence, would be able to use the secret passage during the siege. However, he did not manage to find the passage. Now, one can only speculate as to whether the impassible underground spaces were the unused escape passages.

Kaunas Town Hall also hides its stories in the underground halls. Here you can see the 16th-century quoin of the building, temporary exhibitions, and permanent expositions of ceramics and brassware. A beautiful collection of tiles for stove decoration and pages of old traditional recipes await the visitors. The former jail cell probably gets the most attention from visitors.

A ceramic tile in Kaunas Town Hall

Ghost stories can also be heard from another, somewhat unexpected, place of interest – Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum. Much before the poet bought the building, it belonged to a family of merchants and, as usual, contained underground premises – two basements. Now, these spaces are symbolically called the Devil’s Lair and the Shelter of Angels. The first is related to painful events when, after the uprising of 1863-1864, its initiators, including the priest Antanas Mackevičius, were brutally tortured here, and the metal chains hanging in the cellar remind us of that. The space of neg-

ative energy, in which five rebels lost their lives, is counterbalanced by the Shelter of Angels filled with positivity.

Various cultural events – workshops, exhibitions, anniversaries of artists, concerts – are actively being held here.

In addition, the underground spaces of the museum have charming architecture elements: wide vaults, arches marking the already bricked passages, a variety of bricks and stones used for construction.

Although D. Leonavičienė is not inclined to believe the rumours that once underground tunnels connected even Pažaislis and Carmelite monasteries in Kaunas, the guide has no doubt that a large number of old underground spaces remain undiscovered. Along with the collapsed passages, they are probably hiding a set of stories that are still waiting to be discovered, or perhaps will remain buried underground forever. Still, adrenaline-chasing curious people will still be able to hear unexplained ghost stories. Lovers of history and architecture will also discover interesting things under the pavement of Kaunas Old Town. Just make sure you don’t get lost.

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The guide did not recommend staying here for a long time because the space is depressing. And indeed, a half-meter lower ceiling and a small dark room evoke unpleasant, even claustrophobic feelings. Prisoners with death sentences would spend their last days here without sunlight. Many strange events are related to this jail cell. D. Leonavičienė assures that employees usually associate inexplicable sounds, shadows and other ghostly things with this room. However, it is said that in order to feel, hear or see the ghosts of the old inhabitants of the Town Hall or Kaunas Castle, one needs to be completely alone in the catacombs.

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This year’s Kaunas International Film Festival Videograms (September 17-27) is expanding and focusing on various formats – films, contemporary video art, discussions, and art installations. The main themes of the Videograms program are people’s relationships with their bodies, society, health systems and institutions, the natural environment, technology, and the diversity, variety, and fragility of these relationships.

Underground economics and other video communications Eglė Trimailovaitė Still from Shirin Sabahi’s film “Mouthful”

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A large part of the festival’s events consists of curated film programs presenting unique themes and film formats. One of them is the reviews about the ecology of materials, their connections with technologies, and the geopolitical issues generated by the relations between matter and technologies.

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Why were you interested these particular topics?

in

At first, I was interested in smart spaces, the history of their emergence, and the promises of a better future based on them: from smart homes to smart cities.

What does it mean when the home space registers and responds to the habits and needs of the resident?

What kind of communication is it?

That is how I discovered a book by anthropologist Shannon Mattern Dirt and Data. Code and Clay.

She kind of urges to rethink the concept of intelligence and after reviewing the diverse history of urbanism since the Sumerian times, argues that such materials like clay, paper, steel, and so on, has formed the basis of urban information systems since ancient times. I think this focus on materiality, a look back at the smartness of traditional architecture and art technologies is very interesting. It perhaps can offer a critical approach to the latest technologies that is so lacking. I wonder what technologies, stories, and political connections are enabled by various materials and resources, what informational potential they have.

On the other hand, geographer Kathryn Yusoff argues that geology as a science that knows and explores various inorganic materials and their properties is inseparable from the history of colonialism and the understanding of the colonial

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world. Understanding the properties of materials, their cataloguing, is inseparable from the colonial understanding of property (in English, property refers to both private property and a property of a certain material). It also established the distinction between organic and inorganic between humanity and inhumanity. According to Yusoff, this distinction between living and non-living, human and non-human is also inseparable from the establishment of slavery and racism, when forced black labour was categorized as “non-human”, someone’s property.

It is no coincidence, therefore, that much of the work in this program is about the history of colonialism.

Shirin Sabahi’s film Mouthful tells the story of the life of the artist Noriyuki Haraguchi’s work Matter and Mind, which was created in 1977 and included in the permanent exposition of the Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art. Matter and Mind installation is a rectangular metal pool filled with used engine oil. Over time, this work became a wishing well, where visitors would throw coins and other things. The film seems to explore the themes of natural resources, politics, and art.

How do you think all of these elements change over time, given that the piece was created in 1977 and the film shows its renovation in 2018?

One can, of course, consider the development of Iran’s oil economy in the second half of the twentieth century (the film shows that it was the Iranian oil used for the artwork) and all the political changes; the establishment of a global contemporary art sphere with exhibitions such as Documenta (because Noriyuki Haraguchi’s

Quantum Creole by Filipa César also explores the topic of colonialism. It tells how Creoles in West Africa sensed the encrypted messages of social and political resistance woven into textiles, thus opposing the language and technology of the colonists. Do you think you could find and name similar examples in current underground movements?

In one of the conversations, the artist has mentioned that Noriyuki Haraguchi chose oil as the material for his work precisely because it, unlike standing water, does not “spoil”. So, it is interesting that she discovered that dimension of time in the artwork that was supposed to exist as a constant.

I’m not sure what would be considered “underground” in a political sense today. Unless we understand underground as an encrypted practice that cannot be read by power structures. As for the film itself, I would speculate that it points again to the potential of “recoding” and “rewriting” that our relationship with materials has.

The film speaks not only about weaving patterns as a resistance technology but also about the continuity of local long-standing cotton-growing traditions that also partly empowered this resistance.

Film Tellurian Drama explores the concepts of decolonization, geocentric technology, and communication when, in 2020, Indonesia came up with the idea of reviving the radio station founded in 1923, as a new historical tourist attraction. How do you think today’s tourists would “read” the colonial charge of the old geoengineering technologies?

I think this work is interesting because the artist chooses the specific period, from the Dutch departure from Indonesia to the idea that arose today to restore this techno-natural object as a tourist destination, for his speculation. I think this film poses a question: is the synthesis of “the ruins of colonialism as an apparatus of geoengineering technology,” as the artist puts it, and the traditional way of using mountainous areas as communication technology is possible or is it like a utopia of the past?

And going back to the idea of the underground, I remember that art critic and activist Lucy Lippard also writes about the power relations lurking in the underground in the literal sense of the word. She talks about cases where underground areas are sold to shale mining companies regardless of what can be found “on” the ground. Many of the ways in which resources are extracted, and the huge corporations and state structures behind them, form a kind of “underground economy,” as Lippard calls it. There will also be a screening of the Karrabing film collective, about the consequences of this underground economy in Australia and the continuing colonialist policy, to which I would also like to invite all Kaunas residents.

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works were acquired by the Tehran Museum after his presentation at Documenta), the politics of modern art museums, and finally, oil as the absolute economic and political foundation of our last decades. But I think that Shirin, following the history of the work of this Japanese artist, deliberately does not draw didactic conclusions and these questions are really left open to the audience.

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Ongoing military conflicts and political crises in the context of cinema are becoming something similar to the latest fashion in clothing. For some time, they become the obvious objects of attraction. Still, they are soon forgotten and give way to something else because they simply no longer retain their shock value. Such market laws have unfortunately affected documentary films about the crisis in Ukraine or refugees, and today they are affecting the Syrian war cinema.

Invisible victims of the war Vladas Rožėnas Stills from “The Cave”

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And this is not at all strange – the similar nature of the material leads to a similar form of films, which increasingly becomes less enticing as an artistic project. The director Fer Fayyad may have gotten into a similar situation. His documentary debut Last Men in Aleppo won him dozens of awards (it was even nominated for Oscar), including the winning title of the Inconvenient Film festival’s competition program in 2017.

Having become one of the most famous films about the Syrian war and showing what the everyday life of White Helmets looks like on the battlefield, the work posed a significant task for the director – how to continue telling about what is relevant without showing the same things and without desensitizing the viewers who are already insensible to the images of war?

The Cave was a successful answer, once again nominated for an Oscar.

Most of the film, literally, takes place under the ground. While the war continues above, in the city that has been bombed and gassed for 5 years, the underground hospital is saving the lives of people who 2 4

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have not yet escaped. Many doctors, by the way, have also left, so the injured are cared for mostly by medical students who have decided to stay voluntarily.

The battlefield is the first but definitely not the last front line. Meanwhile, someone needs to take care of injuries and illnesses. And to do that in deplorable conditions, as the underground hospital is located under the ground while realizing that it is only a matter of time before the bombs will wipe out everything that is above it.

And it is only the first layer of the film. The Lithuanian title Vault emphasizes the second layer better than an English Cave. The hospital is run by Dr Amani Ballour. A woman in such a position in Syria is so unusual that even parents who bring their injured children do not hesitate to explain that only men have the right to work in hospitals.

Thus, before saving lives, one must prove that women are “allowed” to save them.

The broader political situation regarding The Cave remains an important but unnecessary context – the

F. Fayyad’s film occasionally and slightly comically captures the adaptation to a new life. For example, the hospital chef, while laughing, explains why she was unable to cook a delicious lunch: because she had to run away and hide from the bombs, moving away from the pots for too long, the dish came out bland. And the surgeon in the operating room – with constant power outages – at least puts on some classical music on his phone to cheer himself up.

The contribution of women (and all other) physicians to the preservation of a civilized state are only highlighted, not created by extreme conditions. This time, we clearly see those without whom no resistance is possible – those who, even when they are being expelled, choose to remain in danger in order to save others from it. For the world on earth, survival is possible only because of what is happening beneath it, and it is not only true for one city in Syria (although only in Syria this metaphor acts as a redistribution of space).

The history of film, especially the part which is closely related to tragic events, contains plenty of manipulation of the viewer’s emotions when showing the suf-

fering children. There is simply no easier way to shock the audience.

In the films, images straight from the war zone easily turn into an attack of the viewer, when they are challenged to say something negative about a film that captures such incomprehensible horror.

Most patients in The Cave are also children, but the film presents pain not just as an emotion that demands a reaction from us but as something that has already become commonplace. In one scene, a bloody boy asks doctors to tell him sincerely whether he will he die or not. Answering this question with hope is one of the essential tasks of underground doctors. To convince that explosions cannot destroy everything around us and that it is worth moving forward through coercion, violence, and sexism. There is more than just pain – there is a belief that it can be overcome.

So, the phrase, “At some point, the war will be forgotten but you – never”, dedicated to doctor Ballour, heard at the end of the film, leaves us with an unusual feeling of hope in the context of tragedy.

This year’s Inconvenient Film festival has dedicated One Voice program to the topic of resistance. In an election year, it is more important than ever to talk about protesters around the world demanding their voices to be heard: from the Philippines suffering from an authoritarian regime to terribly polluted North America. The 14th International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival will travel across the country on October 7–18.

All Lithuania will be able to meet in a virtual cinema hall, where they will remain to share their impressions after the screenings.

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public may not know who is fighting in Syria and why, and may not be aware of how long the brutal civilian attacks have lasted. The closed context of the film is perfectly sufficient to capture how fundamentally different the conditions of war are from safe everyday life and how radically they force people to rewrite their lives. War destroys reality. War forces people to live underground. The usual logic – just like the parents’ silly talks about female doctors – appears as the biggest absurd.

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This summer Kaunas Artists’ House invited people to Nemigos salonas – Insomnia Salon – a series of events with an intriguing name, and a Twin Peaks vibe (perhaps due to geography, leading back to the 90s).

The aim of the salon’s events is to expand the context of insomnia and to analyze various cultural phenomena related to insomnia and sleep disorders.

To what extent, today, insomnia is associated with creative processes, and to what extent with anxiety, insecurity, nightmares, exhaustion, or general boredom?

All issues related to insomnia, sleep disorders and their symptoms are discussed in the salon – a room where a group of people usually gathers to discuss politics, art, literature. Agnė Bagdžiūnaitė, the curator of the series, told us about what has already been done and how deep it goes.

Underground as a boost Daina Dubauskaitė Photo by Agnė Bagdžiūnaitė

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What other research, perhaps artworks or events exploring those decades in Lithuania, inspired the Insomnia Salon?

The Insomnia Salon was prompted by many things but, first and foremost, I was inspired by graffiti on the so-called Šilelis stairs, next to the Kaunas Artists’ House. The writing on the wall is still there – Kaunas: the city that never sleeps – and the word “never” is crossed out, at least that is how it was before the quarantine. I started to think that this is really the case, probably Kaunas is a sleeping city and it is difficult to wake it up, and the well-paved streets hardly do anything to help wake it up from lethargic sleep. However, it turned out that a major turning point in the city, related to both migration processes and the emergence of the Akropolis shopping centre near Laisvės Avenue, came about only at the beginning of the 21st century. That’s why I was curious and still am curious about how the city has changed throughout the 1990s, during which I myself grew up, and which doesn’t seem to have been a quiet phase in every sense.

Insomnia Salon is a continuous project born out of anxiety during the quarantine. What moods surround it at the end of the summer, when again, we are in the dark about safety, masks, and events? How would you evaluate the events that have already taken place and the geometry of their participants?

I remember listening to one radio show during the quarantine. In it, a philosopher spoke about human existence during the quarantine. He tried to refute the prevailing view at the time that people would finally have a chance to breathe and reflect on true values. In his view, anxiety about the future, about survival, only distracts people further and constantly scroll through everything, not just the phone.

I think that the state of the majority has not changed, we are still very worried. So, I wanted to analyze that anxiety and its various forms of expression in the cultural field, which I plan to do at other events of the Insomnia Salon.

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I can confidently say that the events about nightlife culture, its history in Kaunas, and elsewhere received the most attention. And I really believe that Kaunas of the 90s has not been sufficiently explored yet, just like Kaunas in the Soviet times. I am convinced that the disregard for these periods is related to the anxiety that it was something foreign or not Western enough, contrary to, say, interwar Kaunas.

Why insomnia and night, as well as events that take place at their confluence, are associated with mystery, some sort of illegality, and underground? To some, maybe even with insecurity. Are these things biological or psychological?

Historically, both in the West and, I believe, in other countries as well, there has always been an attempt to “clean up” the nightspots; to eradicate them, so that people would be vigilant obedient, and efficient at work. Meanwhile, night owls were always demonized since those who don’t sleep at night are the ones who don’t work, who don’t care about the separation of day and night. Therefore, I believe that these fears are not determined by biological or psychological factors, they are socially and culturally constructed beliefs and myths.

In the context of the events, readings, and tours that have already taken place in the Salon, it would be interesting to hear what the underground brings to the popular culture, established by institutions and budgets? That is, what modern Kaunas wouldn’t have, if not for the underground movements of the previous decades?

I don’t think that popular culture is established by cultural institutions and their budgets. They, optimistically, perhaps decentralize the popular culture scene by focusing on marginalized subcultures or marginalized communities. It might sound very ambiguous, but the degree of decentralization is highly dependent on funding for culture. If the funding is not sufficient, then we will rarely hear the

What previous movements have given to Kaunas, is perhaps a certain strangeness.

Kaunas has very unique characters that you cannot find anywhere else. In most cases, they themselves also feel very special and are still opposed to popular culture.

However, they treat popular culture as something that is absolutely everywhere except a gnarled basement or an abandoned ghost building. Kaunas is special in that it is still trying to follow the paradigm of modernism, to distinguish what is popular culture and what is authentic, but this also creates a certain uniqueness of the city’s culture, if one does not fall into the trap of conservatism.

When everything is great and extremely interesting, you often forget to take pictures or otherwise document.

So, is there enough archival material for Insomnia Salon or you often have to use modern folklore, oral history?

What unexpected documents were discovered during the “construction” of the salon?

I built the Salon and continue to do so by using various event formats, so I require not only archival material but also various theoretical, philosophical academic texts. My approach to the curation of this program is very interdisciplinary. I imagine myself as creating a board game: I throw the dice and wonder where that number could take me. I am glad that I discovered the Kaunas Department of Kaunas County Public Library, where I can study various phenomena that took place in Kaunas, including the first rave parties in the city. I think one of my best discoveries was the group of women painters called Keturios. I knew about them, but I am very glad that I was able to persuade them all to talk about “those times” at the first event of the Insomnia Salon. Through that, I was able to better understand what was happening in the Kaunas art scene in the 1990s from their perspective, what was the attitude towards female artists back then.

So, for me, oral history is as important as archival material.

How much space do social networks and the fusion of subcultures into a seamless 21st-century philosophy of post-everything leave? Is everyone now equal before god-consumer, or are there spaces in Kaunas for independent, non-commercial experiments that may become the object of researchers in 40 years?

I myself am not a fan of subcultures, I do not belong to any subculture, I prefer your so-called “post-everything” philosophy. I don’t feel any nostalgia for those wonderful times of punks and metalheads and I don’t romanticize them in any way. But I often dream of the city, its culture, both of the night and day, accessible to all social groups, open and non-conservative, where you wouldn’t have to be afraid to use the bathroom of the nightclub or that they will not let you in because of your skin tone or will kick you out because you don’t buy anything. There are only several such places in Kaunas, and that makes me sad.

The description of the last summer season of Insomnia Salon says, “Next, as we are moving towards colder seasons, we will analyze how much time of day belongs to us and how we can retrieve as much of that time as possible.”: In the time of our correspondence, the event hasn’t taken place yet, but I am already wondering what awaits in the fall.

Give us a preview.

In the autumn, I will try out different formats again. I will try to look at anxiety as a psychosocial phenomenon, analyze the consequences of severe anxiety, in other words, the last events of this year’s “Insomnia Salon” will be about mental health. I will invite people to discussions, conversations; we will test the workshop format, together with professional psychotherapists talk about the potential of art, whether, for example, selfies can help us or how contemporary artists deal with anxiety.

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voices of those who engage in unusual activities, research social, cultural phenomena in a modern way or collaborate and work in various communities.

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If in the last couple of decades, you were running errands in Kaunas centre and later the Old Town, then perhaps you walked and used the pedestrian tunnel located under Birštono Street (the arterial road of Kaunas). This time, we have that central underpass in mind, the one connecting Vilnius Street. In short, if you did pass through it, you definitely had the opportunity to purchase one or more roses or some seasonal flowers from Ramūnas.

Or maybe his brother-in-law? According to one of the urban legends of Kaunas, flowers are sold in this pedestrian tunnel by brothers. But they are not brothers! This was made clear in the first minute of the short conversation.

Any colour but yellow Kotryna Lingienė Photos by Arvydas Čiukšys

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Ramūnas, a true Kaunas resident, has been with flowers all his life.

Back in 1975, his father was a flower salesman. Now, in the pedestrian tunnel, you can buy flowers grown both in the Netherlands and here in Kaunas. For yourself, a loved one, a respected artist – on any occasion.

Having worked here for 23 years (it so happened that the rent was good, and still is) a flower salesman, who does not complain about the oppressive nature of the underground, gave away that the worst days for him as a businessman are the “official” ones: Valentine’s and Women’s day. Then each flower needs to be wrapped and handed separately... It takes so much time! But it’s still better than quarantine, during which, he literally had to bury flowers and their bulbs and stay on the forced “vacation” for two months. If you haven’t seen what was going on in the Netherlands in Spring – google it.

By the way, women are much pickier buyers than men. The latter usually buy a bunch or at least five and never negotiate or examine things.

They are in a hurry to make someone happy, to please or maybe apologize.

And women – they inspect every leaf.

But perhaps Ramūnas categorizes too much. While we were standing nearby, two really unobtrusive girls simply bought orange roses. For a friend’s birthday, without checking anything with a magnifying glass.

Orange ones are OK, the yellow ones – not so much. Apparently, they symbolize separation; thus they are not in high demand. But maybe it is better to return your former partner’s belongings after separation rather than give flowers? Although...

In general, as Ramūnas and his highly experienced friend, who did not introduce himself, told us that romance in Kaunas collapsed with the introduction of the euro. While litas reigned in wallets and banks, people were nicer

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to each other – that is, they bought more flowers. And the best years, not only in terms of business but also in terms of the beauty of people, were around the time of Reform Movement of Lithuania. Here’s a question worth debating: did we start saving for our feelings after joining the eurozone?

Regular customers, of course, are not intimidated by any change of currency. When asked if there were any people who buy a rose every morning, the men burst into laughter and asked whether the correspondent is seven months, since she is so naive. No, there are no such people. But there are those who periodically update the contents of vases in their homes or offices. These customers are the sweetest. You want to believe that they also come when it rains; when there are fewest people in the underpass. After all, the vases can’t stay empty.

Not only the contents of vases are renewed but the underpass as well.

A good five years ago, it was possible to experience a range of different sensations there, and you really didn’t feel like standing in the pedestrian tunnel for long. In 2016 Kaunas Highlights competition was won

by Karolis Nekrošius with his work Transition. The artist implemented his project when the city started maintenance works.

In his application, K. Nekrošius stated, “The underpass seems to be connecting the New City with the Old Town, dividing them into two distinct zones based on architecture, history, and lifestyle. I wanted to highlight that and emphasize this transition.

About 20 exceptional city centre objects with distances from the crossing will be marked on the ceiling. Part of the ceiling will be specular, which will give an interesting effect that will expand the space of the tunnel.

Every pedestrian, who will descent to the underpass, will be able to see the unique drawing and experience

surprise and a deep impression.”

And he wasn’t lying. Our interviewee Ramūnas says that the flows might not have changed, but there has been an increase in the number of people who, after descending to the underpass, look up and take photos.

And what about foreigners? Are they generous when it comes to feelings?

The Westerners see the rose stall, which operates seven days a week, all year round, from early morning, as something exotic. They try to capture it with their cameras but never buy. Where would they put it? However, guests from Slavic countries sometimes do shop.

We really wanted to hear about at least one truly Kaunas-specific tradition, which would not apply in another flower market or a different city. And here it is – flowers before the theatre premieres. Perhaps we will give away something intimate, but Ramūnas says that actors buy a flower for each other before the performance. And not everyone is still happy with this tradition. After all, if

something is being done too often, it might turn into a burden, right?

Well, and the last detail in the fragmented conversation (you need to serve customers!) – street musicians.

After the renovation of the underpass, their number increased, more precisely, the concerts became more frequent. Ramūnas says that he knows everyone and is on friendly terms with them. Finally, I ask one more infantile, or perhaps a hopelessly romantic question, “Does it happen so that the passersby get so fascinated by music and purchase a rose for the performer?” “What does he need that rose for?

Money is better” Ramūnas answers.

So, if you will be moving from the centre to the Old Town until 3 pm say hi to Ramūnas. Choose more than one rose. Without any occasion, since flowers are already an occasion, after all, they have already been picked, already sacrificed. And after 3 pm you can meet his brother-in-law at the stand.

If you hear any more stories, share them with us!

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In Vileišio Square, behind the railway bridge, across the Nemunas in Freda, Vilijampolė, Ąžuolynas – what is now officially called the Hospital of Lithuanian University of Health Sciences Kaunas Clinics could have emerged in any of the aforementioned places. In the mid-1930s there was finally a rush to build a large modern hospital, which was first spoken of in 1919. Everything related to this has been discussed in society and offices for a relatively long time. The clinics were opened in 1940, although Professor Vladas Lašas, who had the position of the dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Vytautas Magnus University from 1924 to 1940, immediately had a very clear vision of the University clinics. It was supposed to be a multi-profile hospital that would accommodate therapeutic, pedagogical, and scientific work. And that is how it functions to this day.

Under the clinics Kotryna Lingienė Photos by Arvydas Čiukšys

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Today the campus of the clinics covers an area of about 36 hectares, but we are interested in something that was about a kilometre in the interwar period, and now – covers five and a half. That something is underground and helps maintain the optimal functioning of the clinics.

This system of tunnels, passages, and parts of buildings – cellars – varying in levels, is the largest in Lithuania.

Povilas Ruginis, the project manager of Kaunas clinics, who has a degree in engineering and his job is to manage the construction processes that take place in the campus, accompanied us to a shorter than you might think tour.

We agreed to meet with Povilas in the central and oldest building of the clinics. It is a monument of Lithuanian culture and something for the interwar architecture lovers to admire. Of course, it is rare for someone to stumble upon this object for their own pleasure: health is a serious thing, and it is better to not end up here. However, probably almost every Kaunas resident has visited this place at some point in their lives. If this happens to you, we recommend putting your phone away so you could admire the curved shapes, texture combinations, and other modernist or modernized historicistic solutions.

And well, it is time for us to go under the ground.

The competition announced in 1936 was won by a French architect Urbain Cassan, who already had experience in designing hospitals. There are more traces of Francophonie in the history of the complex. Back then, the engineering tunnels were installed with the help of specialists who designed the vaults under the Seine and could ensure that moisture would not get in. There you have it – Kaunas as little Paris. As far as P. Ruginis knows, the vaults of the clinics have never really been flooded.

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It is interesting to analyze the development of the clinics by comparing the wall textures of tunnels and floor covering materials.

The tunnels equipped in 1939 are the narrowest. Some are purely to do with engineering, inaccessible to casual visitors, others are quite old but beautiful. The floors are made out of chess tiles an interwar aesthetic.

The vaults that were excavated later, mark the period of Soviet occupation with the large-sized rectangular tiles decorated in patterns that we all know by heart. In some places, the pipes meandering along the walls are covered with wooden panels, which is also a solution common to the aforementioned epoch. In other tunnels, no communications are visible. They are nearby, in the already mentioned engineering tunnels. The colours used to paint the walls of the tunnels also differ. For the time being, the colour has no purpose and is more reminiscent of the historical periods, but in the future, it is planned to put together a colour scheme and other design-related decisions to help orientation. The new, most recently repaired tunnels dazzle with white and bright light as if straight from a TV series about the ER. People, despite the fact that there are signs everywhere and, whether the light is bright or dimmed, get lost in the tunnels – be it new residents or other employees, visitors, or patients.

“It took me a couple of years to finally understand this system,” our guide smiles. He adds that it is often up to new colleagues or casual passersby to help find the most direct path from one block to another. But usually, people who get under the clinics do not complain. It is quite exotic (although P. Ruginis says that there is nothing special here – maybe only for those who pass through these tunnels every day) and very convenient especially during the cold season.

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And do regular tunnel visitors try to reduce travel time? Yes, they do.

Here are two residents whooshing by with scooters. Although this form of transportation is not encouraged because not all the tunnels are wide enough, no one forbids its use, especially if one has to cover a kilometre. There are doctors who cycle underground and some who jog in the morning before work. What else can you do when it rains? There are also little trains underground that carry laundry and food which is prepared centrally, however, above the ground. The tunnel also provides easy access to the chapel on the third floor, above the recently modernized canteen. By the way,

there are several intersections under the clinics, reminiscent of urban underground passages. Only the press or flower kiosks are missing.

The only difference is that when you descend into the pedestrian tunnel, you know that there is a street above you. Here, however, there is always a pending question: how many meters underground am I? Is there another tunnel at the top or a ward? Maybe the ER? It is difficult to calculate exactly how many people per day descend into the vaults of the complex. But in general, Kaunas clinics employ over 7 thousand people, over 2 thousand patients are being treated at the same time, plus the visitors and so on; therefore, around 10 thousand people visit the complex every day, and part of them definitely descend under the ground. For example, to the locker-room. We visited two giant ones: one had almost 3 thousand lockers and the other – 1 thousand.

There are no people working here and no hangers – everyone has a key now. To put it simply, a life that’s taking place under the clinics could easily be compared to an anthill – the photographer had to wait, for people to move away from the frame. Our guide said that the most ideal time for architectural photo shoots is around 7-8 pm or 5-6 am because the work here starts early. Next time we’ll know!

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Although the history of the clinics’ underground system dates back more than 80 years, it is not finished, and it is written, one might say, that every day there is always some kind of renovation work going on, and a really great innovation is periodically introduced. For example, an innovation reminiscent of The Jetsons cartoon – an air-driven mail system installed in spring last year. Samples, documents, and other objects travel through it at a speed of 3-6 meters per second. This saves the employees’ time and energy: 120 stations send 1600 parcels per day. By the way, the route of pneumatic tubes is almost twice as long as the clinics’ underground system itself – almost 9 km long.

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Can you hear it snoring?

Gunars Bakšejevs Photos from the archive of Kaunas 2022

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It is still being debated whether Wikipedia is a reliable source of knowledge. But we shouldn’t doubt legends. If someone somewhere heard something and uploaded it on the internet, it automatically becomes a legend. So, we begin the story with one of these, published in an online encyclopedia about Kaunas Castle, “In ancient times, people said that at night the conversations between soldiers, rattling weapons and the neighing of horses can be heard from underground.” And now, Kaunas residents say that snoring can be heard when you get close to the south-western tower of the castle. And it’s no fable. The beast of Kaunas, the new legend of the city, is currently sleeping in the vault of the castle.

Sometimes it does wake up but first, let’s learn why the beast is asleep there and now.

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The mythical beast of Kaunas is one of the jolliest programs of 2022, and it is much more important than it seems.

The first “move” of the program, a book Tales of the Beast of Kaunas compiled by Rytis Zemkauskas and illustrated by Darius Petreikis, was presented this February at the Vilnius Book Fair. The story of our city and the mission of Kaunas 2022, told by the beast, is not only for kids.

“Underground Kaunas is proof that there is much more of our city than it can seem at first glance. Kaunas residents always had a sense of another city present underground – a mysterious, magical one, guarding the memory of the past times and the people who lived back then. That is where the legends about tunnels, dungeons, and mysterious rooms stem from. So, we made an attempt to put all these favourite stories of Kaunas residents into one big and beautiful world of Sunny and Underground Kaunas. In the Underground Kaunas, you can find things that the Sunny Kaunas (where we are currently located) no longer has: a horse-drawn tram, famous Kaunas residents of the past, there are streets and houses that no longer exist, you can find long-lost things there, meet our childhood pets… I should get to that place... One day, we all will,” Indrė Aleksandravičiūtė, the handler of the beast, tells us why Kaunas 2022 undertook the mission of the Mythical Beast. According to her, this metaphor reflects us, our city, history, and legends – a peculiar body of the city. “There’s a reason for calling a city a living organism. We called that living organism the Beast.

Every Kaunas resident is him, and we are a part of the city.”

In the above-mentioned book of fairy tales, the beast of Kaunas spends its time in many places. Of course, it is not an easy job to take care of

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the Sunny and the Underground Kaunas. There aren’t that many places through which he could get from one Kaunas to another. “To our knowledge, the main gate, or in modern terms – a portal – leading to the Underground Kaunas, is in Kaunas Castle. Like some of us who sometimes nap at work, the beast of Kaunas has its bedroom under the castle,” I. Aleksandravičiūtė says. “We are still looking for other portals, but we believe that our team will find them by 2022.”

The third picnic near the Kaunas Castle planned to take place on September 12, has already happened twice in August. During these picnics, Kaunas 2022 invites everyone to listen and also read the stories from the Tales of the Beast of Kaunas. The age of the listeners varies from a few months to about seventy – this proves, once again, that fairy tales, if well-written, and if they speak of familiar things, situations, and people can be interesting to many.

Readers are constantly changing, once this role was played by Dr Jonas Vaičenonis, a historian and the head of the Kaunas City Museum’s department of the Castle.

As a citizen and as a specialist, he is very pleased with such an initiative.

“Such new ideas inspire action; they contribute to bringing legends back into our lives. In this case, they also promote Kaunas Castle, interest in the city’s past,” says the historian, assuring that the snoring of the beast is heard from the oldest place in the city. “It is precisely in the south-west tower vault that the foundations of the first castle have survived. We do not see it physically, but the fragment is large enough. That is how through this sound installation, we can touch upon the 16th century.” J. Vaičenonis is convinced that it is here, at the confluence of the Nemunas and the

We have already revealed that snoring is created with the help of modern technology. The author of the sound installation is a multi-instrumentalist Paulius Kilbauskas, who once entered the history of Lithuanian music with such projects as Empti or Dublicate, and has recently released a new album. We had a laugh during the call, “Paulius, listen, congratulations with the new album but I didn’t call to talk about that, I rather want to talk about snoring.” It turns out the installation is much more natural than you might think. No guest actors or sound effects. “I sat in the studio for a few hours and snored,” the composer laughs. He liked the idea immediately after hearing about it and seeing the body of the mythical beast created by D. Petreikis. “I am on the funny side, so it is easiest to enter such characters myself. Less work than to invite someone and then

explain...” Perhaps due to working on his new album, P. Kilbauskas hasn’t managed to read the book to his children. I guess we should invite him to the picnic near the Kaunas Castle on September 12.

The last question is for Indrė, a member of the Kaunas 2022 team. What awaits the beast next: will it snore in the castle dungeons until 2022, or will we be able to see it, hear it, or otherwise feel it until then? “I heard that the Beast is now getting settled in Kaunas district, the 1st fort.

It may be that his living room, or dining room, will appear there. And to feel the beast of Kaunas, as I said, is best at night ... Fishermen sometimes see it, long-distance drivers meet it at the approaches of the city; sometimes it pops up in Santaka after midnight and startles a couple...

And for your information – if you see or photograph something similar, a strange movement in the bushes or a shadow on a building wall, send it to our office of Kaunas 2022. ...And if, after circling around the south-western tower of Kaunas Castle, you won’t hear any snoring, it means that the beast has woken up and went out to inspect its estates.

Make sure you come again!

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Neris, that the beast has the right to sleep. And the book of fairy tales which has already been read by the director’s daughter was also to his liking. “The character contains many stories of the city, its most important events. It is interesting that they also convey a certain way and feel of our current society.”

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Calendar STAGE Saturday, 09 12, 6 pm Sunday, 09 13, 6 pm

Premiere. Theatre performance “Elektra” [Electra]

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National Kaunas Drama Theatre, Laisvės al. 71 The performance was created by the Slovenian creative team and the company of actors of the National Kaunas Drama Theatre. When moulding the dramatic texture, the director and dramatist Jaša Koceli employed texts of ancient Greek authors (Sophocles, Euripides, Aeschylus) reflecting the myth of Electra. Director Jaša Koceli created an original interpretation of the myth, focusing it on a waitingwoman. Electra, daughter of Agamemnon, the hero of Trojan War, and Queen Clytemnestra, is mourning her murdered father and waiting for the return of her brother to avenge for her father’s death. Depression, abuse, lack of possibilities, childhood, and broken dreams are confined in her waiting. Electra is not only a character of ancient Greek drama but also a symbol of a modern fighting woman. With English surtitles.

More events visit.kaunas.lt

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09 15 – 09 27

Youth theatre festival “Išeities taškas” [Out-point] Various locations

Initiated by the Kaunas City Chamber Theatre, the festival is back for the fifth time. It’s meant to be a young festival for a young audience – this year, it invites to talk about what’s usually not told out loud. You’re welcome to see sketches of future performances and participate in various creative workshops all around the city.

In Lithuanian.

Wednesday, 09 16, 6 pm Thursday, 09 17, 6 pm

Premiere. Musical “Mano puikioji ledi” [My fair lady] Kaunas State Musical Theatre, Laisvės al. 91 “My Fair Lady” is a musical based on George Bernard Shaw’s “Pygmalion”, with book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner and music by Frederick Loewe.

The story concerns Eliza Doolittle, a Cockney flower girl who takes speech lessons from professor Henry Higgins, a phoneticist, so that she may pass as a lady. The musical’s 1956 Broadway production was a notable critical and popular success and was followed by numerous productions worldwide. Currently, the Kaunas State Musical Theatre is working on its fourth version of “My Fair Lady”.

September Saturday, 09 18, 6 pm Sunday, 09 19, 6 pm

Festival “Stage 10×10”.

“Beating At The Stables Of The Manor”

Thursday, 09 24, 6 pm

Premiere. Performance “Pirmeiviai” [The Originals] National Kaunas Drama Theatre, Laisvės al. 71

National Kaunas Drama Theatre, Laisvės al. 71

Photo by D. Stankevičius

Photo from the archive of “Must Kaas”

“Stage 10×10” is a new international theatre festival initiated by the National Kaunas Drama Theatre. It’ll bring ten performances from both Lithuania and abroad that will satisfy both fans of classical theatre and those looking for new directions. The first guests come from Estonia – meet “Must Kaas”, a company bringing a performance directed by Birgit Landberg. She, with the help of music, humour and the narrative of suffering, investigates the identity of the Estonian nation. Is the habit of suffering inert, or can we call it cultural heritage? In Estonian with Lithuanian surtitles.

National Kaunas Drama Theatre, the oldest professional theatre in Lithuania, is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Probably only a few of us know how everything happened 100 years ago: who were those people that vowed their lives to the establishment of the theatre, in what conditions had they worked, how did they live and what were they dreaming about? Let’s go back to the interwar period in Kaunas and to the apartment of director Juozas Vaičkus at the Kęstutis street, where people, for whom the idea of an upcoming theatre was the main aim and essence of their lives, gathered. The first actors, directors, playwrights, and set designers lived in deprivation and poverty; however, they had endless devotion and eagerness when rehearsing their first play: Sudermann’s Fires of St. John.

Our originals are living people that create, feel love, hate, and envy; without them, we would not

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Calendar be here. “The Originals” is a play of Gytis Padegimas about those that have been the first ones to step onto the undiscovered theatrical land, settle there, cherish this land, and leave it for us to continue living there.

In Lithuanian.

09 30 – 10 03

International Dance Festival AURA30 Various locations

from Italy that will present their best works on the facade of M. Žilinskas Gallery of Art, as well as Italian “EgriBiancoDanza”, a Lithuanian premiere by Šeiko dance company, a Hungarian dancer and choreographer Ferenc Fehér with his ambitious piece “Schiele” and many more. The closing night will be held at National Kaunas Drama Theatre, and its biggest stars will be Sasha Waltz & Guests GmbH” (Germany).

MUSIC 09 04 – 09 05 A

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The 30th festival was supposed to be one of the biggest events this spring; you know where all the plans went. There’s still a chance to meet up and share the sentiments of the past festivals, surrounded by fantastic music. On the first night, the stage will be given to swing queens “The Ditties’ and Kaunas Big Band; on Saturday, Vienybės square will welcome the Estonian singer Sofia Rubina with her band and the crowd’s favourites “Saulės kliošas”.

Ferenc Fehér. Photo by György Jokuti

Kaunas dance theatre “Aura” will kick off the jubilee festival at the brand new House of Basketball, together with Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra. The Dutch designer Guda Koster prepared unique costume installations for the grand opening. Also in the programme is the vertical dance company “Il Posto”

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More events visit.kaunas.lt

September 09 05 – 09 06

4th International Kaunas Carillon Music Festival

Garden of Vytautas the Great War Museum, K. Donelaičio g. 64

Sunday, 09 20, 2 pm

Family afternoon “Džiazolendas” [“Jazzland”] Kaunas State Philharmonic, L. Sapiegos g. 5

Composed by Jievaras Jasinskas, the jazzy musical fairytale for kids and teenagers is a continuation of the educational traditions of the concert company “Kaunas Santaka”.

Friday, 09 25, 6 pm

Live: “Aidi Ataidi” Photo by I. Navickaitė

This year’s program is special because, like most cultural events, it faced the challenges of a global pandemic, during which, not only acquired a variety of themes and forms but also led to the strengthening of partnerships with neighbouring countries. The programme will feature two carillonists from Gdansk (Poland): Monika Kaźmierczak and Anna Kasprzycka. Their modern and conceptual programs played in the carillon tower of Gdansk will be presented in video format to the listeners in Kaunas.

The President of Carillion Guild, carillonist of many years from Kaunas Julius Vilnonis will deliver a special festival programme consisting of classical and contemporary compositions by himself and other Lithuanian and foreign composers.

His concert will be crowned with the Preludium in memoriam M.K.Čiurlionis

by Giedrius Kuprevičius. Also on the list – Stanislovas Žilevičius, a carillonist from Klaipėda.

Kaunas Municipal Vincas Kudirka Public Library Youth, Art and Music Department, A. Mapu g. 18

Photo from the band’s archive

The folk music band from Vilnius is young and likes to share their visions of ethnic music with the audience. You’ll hear both original Lithuanian songs and their creative interpretations – and, yes, you’ll be invited to sing along. The concert is the final event of the library’s project “Etnosodas”.

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Calendar Tuesday, 09 29, 6 pm

CINEMA

Kaunas State Philharmonic, L. Sapiegos g. 5

“Advokatas” [The Lawyer]

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Concert “Edvard Grieg’s sonatas”

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Photo from the archive of the artists

Violinist Raimondas Butvila and pianist Alexander Paley, colleagues and study mates at the P. Tchaikovsky Conservatory in Moscow, have shared the stage numerous times.

Continuing the creative cooperation, the colleagues present Lithuanian listeners their new programme featuring Edvard Grieg’s sonatas for violin and piano. “It’s a monographic programme that allows one to penetrate deeply into the composer’s style and heart to understand better what inspired the creator.

Grieg’s sonatas are rarely performed together. They were written at different periods, and that allows one to see how the musical language changed and became richer”, say the performers.

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From August 28

Various cinemas

The story, penned by the director Romas Zabarauskas himself, revolves around Marius, a corporate lawyer living in Vilnius (Eimutis Kvoščiauskas), who spends his days teasing friends and chasing young lovers. The death of Marius’s estranged father shakes the protagonist, who finds himself striking up an unexpected relationship with a sex-cam worker, Ali (Doğaç Yıldız), a Syrian man stuck in the Krnjaca refugee camp in Belgrade.

09 02 – 04

“Mondo Bizarro” film fest Kaunas Artists’ House, V. Putvinskio g. 56

“Mondo Bizarro” is a cinematic event dedicated to cult, horror and fantasy cinema which is giving a space to the ridiculous, the provocative, the thoughtful and the forgotten. Inspired by cult cinema principles emerging out of underground fan cultures, the event will invite viewers to read between the lines and will encourage not to ‘forgive’ a film’s faults, but start loving them. “Mondo Bizarro” will visit Kaunas Artists’ House for three evenings and will present four films from the main programme.

September From September 11

Film “Pilis” [The Castle]

“Romuva” cinema, Kęstučio g. 62A

contemporary video cultures become an extension of our visual thinking and what place this reciprocal process takes in our imagination.

The screenings and other events will take place in the Romuva cinema, Kaunas Artists’ House etc.

09 25 – 09 27

Early film festival “First Wave”

“Romuva” cinema, Kęstučio g. 62 Film still

The coming of age film directed

by Lina Lužytė follows Monika, a thirteen-year-old Lithuanian girl, after her arrival to live in Dublin. A passionate teenage singer Monika has come along with her mother Jolanta, a professional pianist, who had to take a job in a local fish factory alongside many others in the neighbourhood and her heavily demented Granny who requires 24/7 care. Monika, however, keeps pushing her mum to continue music with her, convinced they would make it big until one day they indeed get an invitation to play in “The Castle”, one of the best music venues in Ireland.

09 17 – 09 27

13th International Kaunas Film Festival “Videograms”

Still from L’Âge d’Or

When planning the festival repertoire, the organisers always focus on cinematographic works that are significant for the history and development of cinema in general, rarely or never shown in Lithuania or even in the entire Baltic region. This year, the programme brings some completely forgotten, unrestored movies, including some cult classics, such as L’Âge d’Or by Luis Buñuel, also a selection of early US animation.

Various locations

“Videograms” is the title of this year’s International Kaunas Film Festival, a curated programme of films, contemporary video art and artists’ films that explore the impact of images and media as active makers of history.

One of the themes of the festival is how

More events visit.kaunas.lt

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Calendar EXHIBITIONS 08 14 – 10 18

Exhibition “And the Word Became a Sight: Visual Narratives in Lithuanian Wood Carvings and Linocuts of the 18th – 20th Centuries” National M. K. Čiurlionis Museum of Art, V. Putvinskio g. 55

printed on a sheet of paper, the image was sometimes coloured with paint.

Works of larger dimensions were composed of several fragments printed separately. When going to religious festivities, carvers used to take with them clichés and paint so that they could print more images on the spot in case they ran out of them. Thus, a self-educated Lithuanian engraver has combined the ancient Lithuanian worldview and peasant folklore with canonised Christian representations and deep-rooted European culture.

08 14 – 12 31

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

Photo by the museum

The exhibition presents carvings and linocuts by Lithuanian folk and professional authors from the collections of the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art. All the carvings on display combine a word, a story, a narrative composing an integral whole.

In folk carvings, these are the word of God, religious stories, narratives of the saints, carved and ‘enlivened’ on the planks of branchless trees by known and anonymous folk masters. Usually, both sides of a plank were carved by means of blades and chisels. The compositions were printed manually by applying paint on a plank and pressing paper to it with a roller. When

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Photo by the museum

Lithuanian crosses are a unique phenomenon. In 2001, UNESCO included Lithuanian cross-crafting in the representative list of masterpieces of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. They are a synthesis of faith, tradition, artistry and craftsmanship. Lithuanians built crosses in memory of the dead or as symbols of spiritual protection.

It is believed that, in pagan times, wooden pillars (the forerunners of crosses) marked significant places at homesteads and burial sites.

September Christianity did not take hold easily in Lithuania. The cross was associated with invasions by the crusaders and the Livonian Brothers of the Sword. Nevertheless, the second wave of Christianization, successfully started by the Jesuit monks in the 17th century, won villagers over by imparting a new Christian meaning to the old customs and symbols: the signs of the sun and the moon used by the Balts were treated as a symbols of the virgin birth of Jesus.

Slowly, chapels and crosses were being erected everywhere – in the fields, by homesteads, near roads and at crossroads as protection for travellers, in forests, cemeteries and as an adornment of sacred sites. Their abundance is unique.

08 14 – 12 31

Exhibition “The Archaics: Lithuanian Folk Art of the 18th – 20th Centuries”

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

Photo by the museum

The exposition aims to unfold our nation’s cultural heritage of the 18th – 20th centuries through the M. K. Čiurlionis National Museum of

Art’s collection of Lithuanian folk art which is comprised of 12,000 ethnocultural objects.

The title of the exhibition clearly defines the selection criteria: ancient articles that have remained unchanged for centuries, unaffected by urban culture and industrial influences. They are ritual or household objects that amaze with the complexity of forms, techniques and creative details, even though the decorative elements have retained the simplicity of prehistoric times (a dash and a dot – the starting point for the most ancient of symbols and signs are known almost worldwide, eg., a swastika, a cross, a grass-snake, a string). On display are handmade items of local raw materials (clay, wood, linen, wool) and meant for everyday use: ceramic tableware, weaving and spinning tools, fabrics and clothing details. Almost all of them have sacral, ritual meaning.

This is why the oldest surviving headdress of a married woman, a rare ceremonial wedding cup, distaffs and spindles (the patterns and ornaments of which encode the signs of fortune, fertility and fecundity) have become the keynotes of the exhibition.

Until the early 20th century, territorial isolation was a characteristic feature of Lithuanian peasants’ lives – it predetermined their personal traits, artistic expression and ethnic specificity. As a result, the formation of traditions developed naturally by passing them from generation to generation.

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Calendar 09 10 – 01 10

09 03 – 10 02

Kaunas Picture Gallery, K. Donelaičio g. 16

Gallery “Meno parkas”, Rotušės a. 27

Exhibition “Elephants and Chameleons. Visual Art of 1978 – 1985”

Exhibition by Marko Mäetamm “Sex, Death and Holy Moly”

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Marko Mäetamm. “Raw Power” (1/3, 2020, acrylic, canvas, 80x300)

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Photo from the archive of the gallery

In this exhibition, the observations on Soviet dependence delve within a short period of 1978–1985. That was the time when the visions of socialist reality were still alive. Loyalty to the Soviet government mattered – in exchange, artists were provided with workshops, commissions, invitations to Plein airs, creative trips; they, too, were granted bonuses, and household privileges. The review of the period winds up with the creation of the then young generation of artists, which coincided with the commence of the “perestroika” that involved political and economic reforms initiated by a new leader of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev. A group of young artists from Kaunas had changed the current perception of the tradition and led to the introduction into art studies a term ‘a new worldview’. That was also the time when usual state commissions began to disappear, the creation of monuments ceased; instead, smaller, individualised forms took shape in painting and sculpture.

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It is the second time that the gallery is representing the Estonian artist’s artworks – more profoundly this time – physically it occupies all gallery space, and thematically its range is wide as a horizon – from sex to death – opposite poles, and everything in between – all this desperate, perhaps directionless, wandering of everything vibrant above-ground. In the world represented here by Marko Mäetamm (still it is left unknown whether it is flat or round) nobody is in a hurry to save you, any unattended luggage will definitely explode and opposite sex is as much attractive as scary (just like an open space). All this is (not) funny.

This abundant reality is perceived by one subjective consciousness, its attention is distant – emotionless and without any will or possibility to interrupt the process – just allowing this funny, tragic or provocative world turn at its own pace. Texts in the minimalist artworks are fragments of dialogues and stories – broken as a dotted line, leaving the situation behind undisclosed, allowing the

September spectator to finish it upon ones will or to measure it on oneself. At times the author seems painfully open. In those moments, his feelings and situations unexpectedly mirror as a pinch of truth in the soul of the viewer.

MORE

Tuesday, 09 08, 18:30

Kaunas district

Exhibition of virtual gallery IRGI

08 29 – 09 26

Final celebrations of “Contemporary Elderships” project

Kaunas Artists’ House, V. Putvinskio g. 56

This is an exhibition that does not fit a standard format. There will be no paintings on the white walls, no sculptures on display, and it will be available for people from all over the world. Gallery IRGI (www.irgigalerija.lt) is a virtual and nomadic gallery, which hosts exhibitions exclusively in a virtual space, but for its events and openings it takes over cultural spaces of the city.

Although the full exhibition will be available online only, its opening event will take place live at Kaunas Artists’ House. The opening night will invite to review digital artworks and interact with them at your own pace, followed by live discussions with curators and artists. This unique experience will merge currently relevant virtual form with a sincere local community event.

Artists featured: Donata Griciutė-Jutkienė, Ieva Stankutė, Karolina Latvytė-Bibiano, Medeinė Revuckaitė, Samanta Augutė, Sandra Kvilytė, Vaporwave Kaunas, Vytautas Paplauskas.

Photo by “Kaunas 2022”

“Kaunas 2022” project “Contemporary Elderships”, which unites Kaunas districts’ communities and strengthens the whole cultural sector, presents the most significant events that will last for a month in different areas of Kaunas district.

The project includes the entire Kaunas district and is based on an in-depth understanding of local stories and traditions, creations of new myths, strong cooperation and values, as the entire “Kaunas 2022” itself. The participants of the project “Contemporary Elderships” sought to give meaning and preserve a unique historical memory by creating contemporary elderships’ identities and the future European Capital of Culture as a whole.

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Calendar 09 03 – 10 31

Festival “Kaunas Photo 2020” Various locations

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Photo by the Historical Presidential Palace Mikhail Lebedev (Russia).

“Restaurateurs by chance”

The 17th edition of the festival was planned to celebrate the periphery, the province, the outback, l’arrière-pays.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the fight against it imposed new rules and conceptions, and the festival invited photographers to present works on the topic “Peripheral Visions”, expecting art aiming to look at what is on the margin, just across the window or the border that we can or cannot cross. Numerous exhibitions will pop up all around the city, both inside and outside, presenting works from Lithuania and many countries abroad. The exhibition of the winner of “Kaunas Photo Star 2020” will be exhibited in the Kaunas Gallery.

Saturday, 09 05, 1 pm

Festival of Communities of National Minorities “Kultūrų sodas“

Garden of the Historical Presidential Palace, Vilniaus g. 33

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The collectives of the local communities of national minorities present their musical performances, dances, poetry readings, games and even delicacies in this annual festivity held in a historical garden.

Trečiadienis, 09 09, 6 pm

Festival “Padžiauk sofą” [Let Your Sofa Rest] Kaukas stairs

The festival held by the historic Ateitininkai federation is dedicated to students and those young in heart. It used to be held in Vytautas park, but is now moving to the reconstructed stairs of Kaunas connecting Žaliakalnis and downtown Kaunas.

Expect music and beyond!

Friday, 09 11, 6 pm

30th birthday of Lithuanian Aviation Museum Lithuanian Aviation Museum, Veiverių g. 132

September Tuesday, 09 22, 4 pm

Creative workshop with artist Saulė Noreikaitė Kaunas Artists’ House, V. Putvinskio g. 56

Photo by M. Kavaliauskas

The museum, located in a historical arrivals/departures hall of Kaunas S. Darius and S. Girėnas aerodrome, invites you to a birthday party full of planes – but not only! The programme also includes a swing band “The Ditties”, performance by Kaunas dance theatre “Aura”, an exhibition and an astrophysics workshop.

Friday, 09 11, 7 pm

Presentation of “SSSResidency (Saulė and Sara Summer Residency)” Kaunas Artists’ House, V. Putvinskio g. 56

SSSResidency is an all-summer-long virtual residency self-initiated by the artists Saulė Noreikaitė (LT) and Sara Ceruti (IT). Due to the pandemic, the artists decided to work together via distance instead of meeting in Perugia (Italy) as planned. The event in Kaunas Artist’s House will be a moment to share intimate insights of this residency’s creative process, which was a wish by the artists to give attention to exploring the flow of time and the synchronised bodily presence while being thousands of miles away. During the event, the artists will not only present visual material but also talk about the residency’s working process by adding performative elements, as well as invite visitors to discuss and talk about being together while being apart. In English.

During the workshop, we will look at the everyday life around us from a different perspective: we will explore the sounds, smells, rhythms, colors and textures of the city. We will listen to what our environment wants to tell us and what messages are encoded right in front of our eyes. After a brief exploration, we will combine our individual experiences into one larger polyphonic piece. In Lithuanian, with English translation upon request. For registration and questions contact asta@kmn.lt.

Monday, 09 28, 7 pm

Slam #35

Kaunas Artists’ House, V. Putvinskio g. 56

Photo from the archive of Kaunas Artists’ House

If the weather permits, the kaunastic poetry slam will take place in the backyard of the art villa for the 35th time already. The stage is open for both beginners and veterans, speakers of all languages. Register at asta@kmn.lt.

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pilnas.kaunas.lt fb.com/kaunaspilnaskulturos @kaunaspilnaskulturos pilnas@kaunas.lt

“They entered an ornate room lit by black candles, all furnished with silver devil statuettes. Large red flowers grew in the cracked marble pots, and small devils walked around and watered them with tar. Meanwhile in the middle of the room in a soft bed, lay Beelzebub with a rusty crown on his head, moaning loudly.”

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Kaunas Artists’ House, V. Putvinskio g. 56

Editorial office:

Julius Kaupas. Doctor Kripštukas in hell and other interesting tales written in secret chronicles of Kaunas city. Povilas Abelkis Lithuanian book publishing house. Freiburg, 1948.

KAUNAS FULL OF CULTURE Monthly magazine about personalities and events in Kaunas (free of charge)

Autors: Artūras Bulota, Arvydas Čiukšys, Austėja Banytė, Daina Dubauskaitė, Eglė Trimailovaitė, Emilija Visockaitė, Gunars Bakšejevs, Julija Račiūnaitė, Justė Vyšniauskaitė, Kotryna Lingienė, Kęstutis Lingys, Mitya Pisliak, Monika Balčiauskaitė, Rita Dočkuvienė, Vladas Rožėnas.

Patrons:

KAUNO MIESTO SAVIVALDYBĖ

RUN 500 EGZ. TIRAŽAS 10 000 EGZ.

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

ISSN 2424-4465

Leidžia: Publisher:

2020 (61) 2017 Nr. 9 2 (18)