KAUNAS FULL OF CULTURE 2020 10

KAUNAS FULL OF CULTURE

Projections

2020 OCTOBER Illustration by Mantas Bardauskas

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Challenges might inspire. Read more about the contemporary sauna built during the quarantine in this issue. Photo by Ignas MaldĹžiĹŤnas.

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While it might seem quite silly to start planning this fall where we’ll go on vacation next year or what kind of gig we’ll attend in December, it is difficult to not think about the future. In fact, even if we take one day at a time and continue to check what kind of new restriction will ruin our plans (or, perhaps, protects us from a greater tragedy), we grow more curious: is this how things will always be from now on? And what does “tomorrow” mean – challenges, difficulties, crisis, light?

Tomorrow is right here Let’s look beyond the next year. It is estimated that in 2050 the population of the planet will have increased by a third. Out of 9.2 billion, 70 per cent will settle down in the cities. As the population grows and cities become denser, answers are increasingly being sought for what the cities of the future will look like, how they need to be planned today so that we can live sustainably and in harmony tomorrow, what should life in a community look like, how digitalization changes our way of life, how will our physical living environment look like and will we preserve personal space?

This means that the present is about the future. This is the leitmotif of the first Kaunas Design Festival initiated

by Kaunas 2022. The festival will take place at the end of October and now, in September, while we are writing these lines, it is the time of Design Week, which was moved from spring, and the first Landscape Design festival.

Such a full calendar, like a hot crowded sauna, proves that we must not only talk but start designing as well.

In this issue, we also write about the sauna that was designed and built during the quarantine. We are also looking for other innovative design solutions that allow us to be safer and more comfortable. We talk about possible future scenarios that need to be written down, with the host of the well-known show Videokaukas.

Once he greeted sci-fi fans, and what about now? We also travel to Canada, Montreal, an exemplary UNESCO Design City. Kaunas is also a part of this network. We talk about how over decades, design, from an aesthetic dimension, turned into a lifestyle. We remember why Parodos (en. exhibition) Hill has this specific name and in the context of one more important October event – CityTelling festival – we program our possible future in a land of eternal frost.

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The UNESCO Creative Cities Network was first established in 2004. In essence, the goal of this network can be defined as the promotion of cooperation between cities that seek to harness and develop creativity as an engine for sustainable urban development, social inclusion, and vitality. Having said that, it’s always more interesting to explore grand missions through the tangible results they’ve delivered. Montreal – the largest city in the province of Quebec, joined the program back in 2006 when the network had only nine members.

As of today, however, the project has grown to include as many as 246 cities from all around the world. Every location operates with different creative directives in mind, and the program encourages to cultivate the potential of that field by actively involving it in urban development. Music, film, craft and folk art, gastronomy, literature, media arts, and design – the last one, in particular, has been assigned to Montreal (and since 2016, to Kaunas as well). Today, as one of the forty UNESCO Design Cities, Montreal can undoubtedly be called a veteran of the program.

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Meaningful design as a powerful tool Justė Vyšniauskaitė

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A new public market called Bleu Tomate popped up in Adam Street in 2020.

Designed by Design par Judith Portie and Dupont Blouin Architectes.

Photo courtesy of Olivier Blouin ir and MĂŠlanie Dusseaul.

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Fewer resources, higher creativity Montreal has a long tradition of crafts, do it yourself culture, repairing objects, and finding new life for old things. “Historically, french-speaking Quebec people weren’t so rich; hence they had to be extremely ingenious.

I think that this is where Montreal’s design uniqueness comes from,” said the head of Montreal’s Bureau of Design Marie-Josée Lacroix. Quebec based designers were among the first who implemented the ideas of recuperation, reusing, and being aware of environmental issues in their work. One of the possible reasons for such an approach might have been the rarity of architects or designers who had the opportunities to work with luxurious materials or projects “I do think that this is a plus as it has pushed Montreal’s architects and designers to look for creative solutions,” explained M. J. Lacroix.

Today there’s around 25 000 active professionals working in the field of design in Montreal. One of the main challenges for the Bureau of Design is to make sure that each and every one of them will fully contribute to the wellbeing of Montreal’s citizens.

M. J. Lacroix emphasizes that the bureau is constantly looking for and seeking to create jobs for local designers in local projects. Doing this is ever so important today, given that the export and import of goods have slowed down considerably during the pandemic. This difficult period has only highlighted the important role that designers and architects play when finding ways to reinvent our cities and the way we live and consume.

Design and public spaces Montreal’s Bureau of Design sees its participation in the UNESCO program as a commitment to officially and publicly promote original, new, and 6

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quality design as well as spread the word about its benefits. Furthermore, it strives to ensure sufficient human and financial resources for the design field at all times. Guided by these aspirations, the Bureau of Design has implemented a number of initiatives. One of them is an ongoing project, launched ten years ago, which focuses on building better public libraries. The success of this project was largely determined by the approach to public spaces – the designers worked very closely with future visitors, librarians and other staff who will spend a considerable amount of time in these buildings.

In Montreal, these new types of libraries have been named “Third Locations” as their function and popularity have surpassed those of regular libraries. They have become places for young people to spend their free time or meet up in – the crime rate has dropped in the neighbouring areas as a result of this as well.

Design solutions in Montreal have also been applied to urban construction, reconstruction, and renovation sites. According to M. J. Lacroix, the need to repair the dated water and gas infrastructure has long been ignored by the city’s officials, eventually forcing them to drastically rework the underground structures. As a result, the city was soon full of numerous construction sites that are dusty, noisy, dangerous, unattractive, and unpleasant. The design has made these places safer, helped direct people and traffic around them, as well as inform citizens about the intentions of the construction projects. After thorough testing, having made sure that the toolkit would be suitable for people with visual or mobility impairments, special, easily recognizable graphic information stands were created. They are incredibly easy

This picture shows the road surface marking on pedestrian Ontario street. Part of the Libres Cours concept developed by NIPpaysage + Paprika + Signature Design Communication + ATOMIC3.

Photo courtesy of Mathieu Rivard.

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to reconstruct and adapt to the different sizes of construction sites.

This solution reduced the amount of finances and time required to finish the work. “I think it’s a great example of meaningful design being a powerful tool for efficiency and productivity, and it can improve residents’ daily experience of the city,” stated M. J. Lacroix.

Design professionals are also actively working with the problems that have arisen in the face of the pandemic. In line with health safety requirements, various public spaces in Montreal have been reoriented: entire streets have been closed and designated for pedestrians, catering and shopping facilities have been restructured, and temporary structures have been installed. In the summer, a few Covid-19 laboratories of design worked in the city. Not only did these allow designers to test out various ideas, but also helped to form a multidisciplinary design team that observed and evaluated people’s reactions to the changes in public spaces. Speaking about recent developments, M. J. Lacroix explained that thanks to designers, the city was able to adapt very quickly in these difficult times, and design itself brought Montreal and its residents joy, pleasure, and beauty.

From Montreal to Nagoya

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Detroit

Let’s not forget that every City of Design is part of the network, and Montreal is happy to share its accomplishments and ideas with other members of the program.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, members of the UNESCO program have organized a series of webinars and conferences. M. J. Lacroix thinks that the opportunity to share experiences with colleagues from around the world is invaluable and believes that the importance of the network 8

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will only grow in the future as countries must face global challenges more and more often. Each of the forty Design Cities can offer something unique and meaningful to the network as well as gain from it.

As Montreal has been involved in the network for a long time and the Bureau of Design is in its second decade of operation, the Canadian city has already had quite some opportunities to test a number of successful and unsuccessful projects. This is why Montreal often undertakes the position of a mentor in the program.

The Commerce Design Montreal Awards, developed over many years in the city, have helped improve the quality of shops, hair salons, restaurants and other retail and service businesses. Detroit and Kortrijk are now continuing this tradition in their cities. Another successful design project – a special souvenir catalogue with products, which help to reveal the spirit of the city and were created by professional designers.

Montreal is now helping the cities of Nagoya, Saint-Etienne and Dundee to implement them. Of course, there’s plenty to learn even for a veteran

of the network – M. J. Lacroix mentioned being particularly inspired by the example of Helsinki, where designers are actively involved in the development of the city and design is valued and viewed by politicians as a crucial element of the urban identity.

“We hope to one day reach this level of design inclusion on the municipal agenda,” said the head of the Bureau of Design. Montreal sees the name of the UNESCO City of Design not as a title but as a task and aspiration, and the network of program members is a wonderful resource on this path.

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A new public market called Bleu Tomate popped up in Adam Street in 2020. Designed by Design par Judith Portie and Dupont Blouin Architectes.Photo courtesy of Olivier Blouin ir and Mélanie Dusseaul.

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On October 23 Kaunas Design Festival will feature creative workshops that will invite visionaries of various fields and professions to create versions of Kaunas’ future using the resources accumulated by the genre of science fiction. The workshop will be led by specialists in this field: professor Vic Callaghan, dr. Ping Zheng, and Rolandas Maskoliūnas, a doctor of biological sciences, science popularizer, and cinema expert with whom we talked about the upcoming event and, often unexpected, points of tangency between science fiction and reality.

The search for Kaunas’ future Julija Račiūnaitė Photos by Arvydas Čiukšys Photographed in the Children Literature Museum

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You are preparing for creative workshops at Kaunas Design Festival. Tell us more about the content and goals of these workshops.

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We are organizing a science fiction prototyping seminar under the working title Kaunas Futures. It will be a one-day seminar with theoretical and practical parts. The event is designed to imagine the alternative futures of Kaunas. The training will be attended by two specialists in the field from the United Kingdom who use the method of science fiction prototyping in their work. With this event, we aim to make people understand the method and learn to apply it. Next year we plan to organize an international literary-visual competition, where we will invite participants to write, draw, or otherwise model one of the future versions of Kaunas partly based on those trends and competencies that are already being developed in Kaunas in the fields of economics, politics, culture, science and other areas.

In terms of context, the science fiction prototyping method is quite popular and used all over the world. The great powers invest heavily in the creation of their visions of the future and the development of trends, sometimes with the help of sci-fi writers or directors by using their work. Already during World War II, the allies hired science fiction authors to generate original ideas. In 2011 the US Homeland Security commissioned writers and sci-fi authors to create possible attack versions. Big companies like Microsoft or Google do the same. Not only are they recruiting futurists who suggest what products should be developed in the future or try to predict the public reaction to them, but they also create collections of short stories. I have one example here [shows a book he brought with him]: The Massachusetts K AU N A S F U L L O F CU LT U R E

Institute of Technology’s annual collection of short stories. Not only short stories, as you can see, there are also comics. Various topics are examined – from artificial intelligence to a smart home, trends in implant development, and consequences of their application, touching upon anti-utopian and dystopian topics. In other words, it is a way for fantasts to show negative versions of the future, to warn us to avoid it and to create something optimistic and acceptable to society. There are also such special projects as Hieroglyph. It is a collection of texts whose authors were tasked with imagining positive versions of the future. As for the practical significance of prototyping or fantasts’ visions – perhaps you have seen a film Gattaca released in 1997? Scientifically, this film is not accurate, but its artistic-philosophical eloquence was so significant that in 2008, the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act was passed in America, restricting an employer’s or insurer’s access to personal genetic information. For example, after learning that a person has a genetic defect, the insurer has no right to increase insurance payments. Thus, artistic or literary ideas can have an impact on legislation, science, and technology.

How is design science fiction?

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There are certain methodologies for creativity development and applied fantasizing. For example, Vytautas Magnus University has an Entrepreneurship Academy, whose specialists work in the field of socalled “design thinking.” It is basically a separate trend designed to understand that the design around us is not only capable of performing an aesthetic function, but can also educate people, bring them together to generate ideas, inspire and so on.

Various companies use this design

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method when, say, a newly developed product or technology needs to be adjusted and adapted in society. The design must be human-friendly, and it also plays an important role in making the consumer comfortable with innovation, so they could understand how and where it could be used.

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You told us of a case when law-making was influenced by certain science fiction plots. I wonder what other things from the field of science fiction, we could say, have been at least partially fulfilled these days?

There are some interesting examples.

A classic of the genre, writer Arthur C. Clarke was the first to come up with the idea of a geostationary-satellite system that is now used for communication systems. Later, he half-jokingly, half-seriously regretted that he didn’t patent the idea. Sergei Brin was inspired by the virtual reality described in Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash. PayPal founder Peter Thiel was inspired by cryptocurrency schemes in another novel of the same author – Cryptonomicon. Elon Musk also relies on the work of sci-fi authors in his rocket program. One of the offshore rocket landing platforms is called Of Course I Still Love You (OCISLY). These are words said by one character in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. In other words, the new generation of entrepreneurs and businessmen are strongly inspired by science fiction. They grew up with those books.

Most often, when thinking about the vision of the city of the future, the image of a megapolis, a giant anthill first comes to mind.

In your opinion, what are the possible projections for the future of Kaunas – a relatively small, sparsely populated, green city?

What could be the bad and good scenarios for this city?

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We should pose this question to the participants of the upcoming seminar, who, I hope will be representatives of various fields – artists, scientists, architects, municipality representatives. The topic is truly relevant. As for Kaunas, we could use the case of America. There is Washington, a non-traditional capital, a rather green city that does not give the impression of an “anthill” like New York and apparently does not compete with the latter as well. We have Vilnius and Kaunas. We can think of how to share some functions, how to specialize, to strengthen the state and society. Not by competing where it is not worthwhile (although competition is certainly a good thing) but by developing the existing trends or inventing something new. The first example that comes to mind is the development of medical tourism in Kaunas. I mean plastic surgery, but not just it. This area has become like a nucleus (cluster) of medical technologies, as Vilnius becomes a centre of biotechnology (Thermofisher, TEVA, Biotechpharma, etc.). This transformation was driven by a few people with imagination, who saw the vision and were able to invest properly, retain professionals, attract more investors and etc. That’s how it all begins – sometimes you just need one or two visionaries, and sometimes they need to be supported by the city as well. If the townspeople, business, and cultural policymakers will have a stronger imagination, we will be able to move forward even faster and more purposefully.

Of course, that is if we really need faster progress because in some cases, we actually need to slow down a bit, enjoy the environment, promote sustainability and reduce the level of stress in society.

How can science fiction or visions of a very distant future help us on a daily basis?

drugs that boost brain activity and can even connect individuals’ brains, Paolo Bacigalupi’s novel The Windup Girl about future climate change and energy shortages, the consequences of rising ocean levels, epidemics; also one of the most interesting authors at the moment is Ted Chiang, who only writes short stories. He doesn’t write much but creates extremely original visions. As for the movies, I liked the idea behind Spike Jonze’s Her. It’s a story about a man who falls in love with his artificial intelligence assistant, like Siri or Cortana that we use. I would also recommend the film Circle, which tells us how social networking technologies tempt us and what the consequences might be. Both the film and D. Eggers’ book (which, by the way, is also very compelling) state that there will always be people who will offer you virtually free use of one technology or another, but will actually use you and your data. This is what big corporations are doing now.

What texts, artworks, and films would you recommend to the current audience of fantasts or a beginner in this field?

What cities around the world, in your opinion, could claim the title of the city of the future?

Well, of course, there are the so-called classics which really had a lot of ideas. The aforementioned Arthur C. Clarke, Robert Sheckley, Isaac Asimov, Stanislav Lem, who were very innovative and original in their time.

Of course, in the 21st century, the prose style and the narration pace are changing. Also, sequels and series currently dominate the market, and I don’t really like that because that is how good ideas get lost in the plethora of action. However, I would recommend several contemporary authors, in particular, Peter Watts and his novel Blindsight about the nature of consciousness and the unique properties of our brains; Ramez Naam’s trilogy ( The Nexus Trilogy) about

I like Zurich. I think, a few years ago it was recognized as the best city to live in the world. The lists of the best cities are made quite objectively, considering a wide variety of factors. But as a Kaunas native, I like my city. It’s getting tidier and tidier, so it’s more and more fun to live here, at least for me. I think that the direction of our city is right, it is good that there will be a concert hall and other cultural and academic objects. Perhaps we should only refine development ideas and priorities, to balance it more. And of course, to demolish the multi-story car park next to the Akropolis mall [laughs].

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Half-jokingly, but I often say that the more I learn about technology, the more cautiously I use it. In other words, knowledge of both science and science fiction broadens horizons and allows for a better assessment of the opportunities and threats of various phenomena. It happens that people start using new, attractively presented products or technologies very quickly and carelessly, but over time, it turns out that this can be abused.

They are not safe enough. If you are not prepared after considering the range of consequences, you will not have the skills to behave and protect yourself – you will suffer. I recently spoke to the head of the Lithuanian Cyber Security Center, and he mentioned how much money is being lost and how people can suffer, for example, when using untested third-party technologies – the extent is massive.

I think knowledge, along with imagination, helps to anticipate future trends a little bit, to imagine threats, and then protect yourself from them.

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Let’s dream. You’re walking down Laisvės Avenue and, suddenly, somewhere near the fountain, you see smoke coming out, steam emerging, discussions flowing from a little wooden structure.

Philosophers’ sauna would be a genuinely bold invitation to expose not only arguments but also bodies. It is difficult to predict whether this will happen during the debut design event in Kaunas. That is why we’re dreaming. One thing is clear – a modern, genuinely Lithuanian, and even kaunastic sauna of exceptional design inspired by a pandemic-overturned world already exists. Its authors are Jurgis Garmus, designer of furniture that was recognized by several “Oscars” of design and head of jot.jot and his partner and a Cousin Aleksandras Lukėnas, a hardcore aesthete and engineer. Maybe a conception refined with their minds and hands will become a new phase in cousins’ lives? For now, sitting down in one of the autumnal courtyards on A. Mickevičiaus Street, we are talking about the sauna prototype, which is currently located near Žiežmariai.

Quarantine sauna Kotryna and Kęstutis Lingiai Photo by Arvydas Čiukšys and Ignas Maldžiūnas

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Kadras iš Shirin Sabahi filmo „Mouthful“ 2020 OCTOBER

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Jurgis started the conversation with a story about international projects that were put on pause in spring and then gave away that at the beginning of the quarantine he started catching salmon in the Neris, which was one of his old dreams. “I have always liked to escape into nature. The first weeks of quarantine passed like a vacation, but then I wanted to do something. It so happened that during the quarantine, the jobs on the oil platforms – where the cousin works – also stopped. When having coffee one day, we decided to build that something and then see if we would use it ourselves or sell it. We wanted a challenge, both in terms of design solutions and the structural puzzle. We immediately decided not to take the traditional path.”

What makes this sauna special from a structural point of view?

It is a solid wood building, not a frame one and it is movable. We wanted for the construction type to also serve as decoration, both on the inside and the outside. And the principle of our structure is like the one of log cabins. We used the CE24 certified wood for the construction of a frame house, which is usually installed every 60 cm vertically, but we laid it down and stacked it. Since the structure is movable, a strong frame was needed. Aleksandras knows how to weld well, so we bought metal, brought it to the location, put the poles into concrete, made a rack, and welded the frame on it. We stacked the wood and smelted the roof. We didn’t hire other people, did it all by ourselves.

We spent a total of thirty working days. The word “work” is important here because we spent a lot of time simply pondering if we can achieve what we have in our minds. We knew right away that it had to be a mobile structure, which could travel K AU N A S F U L L O F CU LT U R E

from place to place, so we couldn’t help but think of the vibrations that happen during the transit. In addition, another important nuance is temperature fluctuations. It can be very hot, and when it is not used, perhaps even below zero? So not all materials and standard solutions were right for us. We were looking for something elastic and moistureresistant, insensitive to transport vibrations, and that takes time. So even though my hands were itching to get to work as fast as possible, we needed to do some thinking as well.

After building the walls, we first... set them on fire. Most often burned wood is used for decoration, for aesthetic reasons. It is burned before mounting it on the facade.

But our construction allowed us to do it on-site, efficiently, burning a large area at once. This process was quite fast.

What kind of wood did you use?

The whole construction is made of pine. However, this wood is not suitable for the sauna area because resin might leak out. So, we used linden there, which is a deciduous tree with no resin and suitable for the sauna. We used a darker material – black alder – for the benches. It is also an aesthetic choice; we wanted contrast.

What other atypical solutions have you come up with for the Lithuanian sauna?

I would single out the benches.

Usually, something like stairs is constructed in saunas. Visually, it is a pretty rough object. Also, if you want to properly thrash a person lying on the top bench, it is difficult to approach them – the lower steps are an obstacle. So, we designed a more user-friendly bottom step that is also easy on the eyes, which moves on rails, like a drawer. In

general, we paid a lot of attention to what is not noticeable at first glance, especially when the sauna is full of steam. We looked at the Lithuanian woodworking traditions and found and interesting type of mortise called “the swallow’s tail.” So even if you lie down on the floor of the sauna, under the benches, there are still things to admire. We didn’t want to work just to finish it faster and then sell it. As people say, we fiddled around until something came out of it. We wanted it to be visually striking. Three days here or there didn’t matter.

How many people can fit in your sauna?

The area of the structure is 16 square meters, equally divided between the sauna’s anteroom and the sauna itself. I believe around eight people can feel comfortable in it. We have already tried everything ourselves.

My cousin has a friend who is a professional thrasher. Personally, I have never been a huge fan of the sauna until now. So, I discovered something new – a person really knows what he’s doing. The process was slow, the first time quite calm.

The man told us that the sauna was the place where the ancestors not only washed after work but also gave birth and washed the dead. I immediately realized that it isn’t a party. Experiences that came with the increasing heat were almost sacred. When you would feel like you cannot take it anymore, he would let some fresh air in or poured cold water on the forehead to maintain the balance. I am glad that our experiment was evaluated by a professional, including the correctly installed ventilation. By the way, he refers to ordinary saunas that are very hot as ovens.

So, you learned how to go to the sauna. And what else did you learn (perhaps about yourself) during the construction process that coincided with the quarantine?

At every stage of life, you discover something new about yourself. The quarantine only amplified and made everything more sensitive. I realized I had missed people. Before the quarantine, I was heavily involved in the professional cycle: you fly, drive, 2020 OCTOBER

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run around, and rush believing so deeply in your idea, to the point of fanaticism... You don’t have time for old friends, even relatives. During the quarantine, I started calling my mother more, would bring food to my parents. I didn’t have to do it, just wanted to.

It wasn’t so scary when things started to slow down. And even if jot.jot, my baby, would disappear altogether – so what? No one will cut my head off. I would do something else, perhaps not very far from what I’ve done so far. Maybe the scale would change? Maybe I would make souvenirs or construct buildings? I feel attracted to the search for proportion in life, and no one will take it away from me. The sauna is also a reflection of both of our thoughts. Aleksas’ and my sense of aesthetics is very similar, so there weren’t many disputes. We simply shared suggestions.

We heard about the sauna as a possible Kaunas Design Festival’s event, that is, it could appear in the city centre, and people sitting in it would discuss important topics. Do you think it would fit in an urban setting, not necessarily in some homestead?

I believe that we have found a design solution that is not typical for the concept of the sauna, so the object would fit both in the city square – it wouldn’t mess with the context – and in nature. So, it would be really interesting to see someone steamy coming out of the sauna in Laisvės Avenue and pouring water over themselves.

What is the future of the sauna?

I posted a photo on Facebook. I was happy with the news and simply suggested it was available for purchase if anyone was interested.

There were quite a few of them – I have received around 40 messages, we are discussing it now. By the way, in my view, that post received phenomenal attention, even more than the congratulations we received for jot. jot works receiving international awards. So as a quarantine project, I think it really paid off. We had a great time. Due to everyday work, we had become distant – me and my cousin – we rarely communicated, so now it was very interesting to solve technical riddles, laugh, and engage in hard work together. Also, working in nature is a big plus.

Have you thought about the mass production of such objects?

As I said, there is interest. Some care about the price, others about technical solutions. In addition, it must be said that the structure we have created does not necessarily have to be used for a sauna. The volume would also be suitable for a small “escape” cottage with a kitchenette and a bed.

Or maybe a stylish storage room?

So, we are thinking about possible modifications to the prototype and maybe even a future collection. In fact, we are already talking to a possible representative in Sweden.

Won’t it be a pity to sell the first product? After all, you created it as if for yourselves.

Even more than that! We squeezed out of ourselves everything we could.

It was a great pleasure to do that with our own hands. But no, I will not feel bad handing it over to others.

There will be others, and they will be easier to produce because there are already plans, 3D models. And I doubt we will be making it with our own hands. We will better think about how to arrange the production, for everything to go as smoothly as possible, or perhaps we will create a new object.

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For the May issue of the magazine, when the world had pushed the pause button, I spoke to Tomas Šinkūnas, the head of Jonas ir Jokūbas publishing house that publishes only philosophical books. When sharing his thoughts on the limitations imposed at the time, the respondent noticed that today’s enlightened society could consciously understand the principle of the spread of the virus and react responsibly. The memories of this conversation returned as soon as I heard about the creative workshops initiated by the Kaunas branch of the Architects’ Association of Lithuania together with the Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022 program Designing Happiness, during which, participants will generate ideas for a design object – an adaptive capsule. We talked more about the project and workshop plans with the curator of the design program Jūratė Tutlytė.

Restaurant for two Monika Balčiauskaitė

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Akshat Bhatt-led design studio in Delhi has proposed a sustainable vehicle that offers physical distancing and rapid mobility while commuting in the post-pandemic world. Photo courtesy of Architecture Discipline. „Architecture Discipline“ archyvo nuotr.

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Tell us about the adaptive capsules project.

connected into a never-ending chain.

For example, a campus of capsules.

It is a project dictated and inspired by a pandemic situation. We faced an unprecedented situation that has profoundly touched our daily lives and relationships. Today, we constantly hear about social distancing as a panacea for preventing the spread of the virus. Yet, we, basically, always have the physical distance between people in mind. This is the only condition for working, communicating, and safely organizing events. Eventually, questions have come up: how to maintain a safe distance in public spaces outside or how to survive crises of emotional and physical social distance, which are a strong side effect of a viral pandemic on society.

It may sound a little utopian, but I am inclined to believe that it is worth embarking on this experimental journey that may benefit society not only during a pandemic but also a little later when certain forms of behaviour become the norm. At times, we seem to tend to ignore the fact that the world is changing and may never return to the way it was, but each of us can participate in this change and contribute to it.

Of course, today, we can still enjoy the warmth of the sun, but soon, when the unpleasant autumn winds start, we will be isolated again and driven into our cells. So, what can we do? That is how the idea was born to create an object that would be like an adaptive capsule – smart and acting as a person’s second skin, with an adequate ventilation and heating system, transparent and allowing people to enjoy outdoor events in adverse weather conditions. The inspiration came from working with UNESCO design cities. This year in July, we organized a virtual sharing of good practices and examples in response to the situation.

Inspiring experiences.

What is an adaptive capsule?

Imagine, you have the cold season of the year outside your window when you usually don’t want to spend time outdoors at all, but an alternative emerges, which, with the help of simple forms of small architecture, allows you to enjoy being together with others outside. These could be the most unexpected forms – easy to assemble, transport, and, if necessary,

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I think we need to learn to adapt to the current situation gradually.

I totally agree with that. Although, in fact, I must note that we see a lot of scepticism on this issue in the immediate environment and among creators. Many still expect everything to be as it was; therefore, we shouldn’t be doing anything special about it.

People, frankly, are a little tired of the pandemic topic, but, in my eyes, a common solution is being sought.

Every crisis brings opportunities, but it is particularly important to be able to identify them on time and take the initiative. I allow myself to think that this idea is quite real and has a chance to be implemented, prototyped, and perhaps even replicated. You want to become active in generating not only a functional but also a good and sustainable design solution.

What different fields will be able to contribute to creative workshop activities?

Currently, we have involved four different academic institutions in the project: Vilnius Academy of Arts, Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas University of Technology, and Kaunas College. Four mentors will curate the workshops from these academic institutions. Everyone who wants to participate in the workshop

Egyptian architect Mohamed Radwan has conceived a beehive-shaped office pod system for workspaces that are functioning during the coronavirus pandemic. Photo courtesy of Mohamed Radwan.

will have the opportunity to choose the mentor they want to work with or to form an independent team. During the workshop, we will involve different professionals – from engineers to biomedical scientists – who will share their experience. Interdisciplinarity and a holistic approach are particularly important in this project, so we hope to get the attention of architects, designers, engineers, technologists and other representatives of science and creativity.

How do you envision the creative workshop process?

We hope that participants will view the mentor as someone who will guide the group throughout the creative process.

During the workshop, the first, ideological, phase of this project will be implemented. We will generate ideas, then choose the best, which in the long run, based on the opportunities, we will try to realize by creating prototypes and manufacturing the product itself. Of course, today, it is difficult to predict what ideas will come up and what this idea of the adaptive capsule will transform into, but we hope that the solutions will exceed our expectations. That is why the competition of creative ideas is exciting and intriguing. I urge you to keep in mind that the best idea projects

of the first Kaunas design event will be presented on October 30.

Why should this be important for Kaunas residents?

I do not think that this should be important only for Kaunas residents.

The idea of an adaptive capsule originated as a universal solution that could be used very widely both in Kaunas and throughout Lithuania or even abroad.

Scientists signal that today the whole world is going through a threefold crisis: COVID-19, economic and emotional. This is probably the biggest difference of this pandemic, given that it has affected all corners of the world. It seems that solutions can be universalized. Of course, there are always cultural differences dictated by a particular place, but I have no doubt that the possibility of increasing physical distance while reducing social distance and ensuring the possibility of social interaction is a universal goal.

More information about adaptive capsule creative workshops can be found here: www.laskaunas.lt

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Vitrum festival, which, this year, on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary, spruced up using the code word “pulse”, is the largest glass art festival in the Baltic States. Exhibitions, workshops, and seminars presented during the triennial seek to rethink the relevance of the material and its influence on today’s culture and look innovatively at the concept of materiality in contemporary art. This year, the festival will spread over several spaces of Kaunas and Kaunas district and invite not only to exhibitions but also to educational programs.

Two festival participants tell us about their relationship with glass – its manager and artist Julija Pociūtė and the representative of Estonia Eeva Käsper. The works of both creators will be exhibited in the Kaunas District Museum.

Transparent and fragile Kotryna Lingienė

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Julija Pociūtė. Between the Sight. Coutesy of the author 2020 OCTOBER

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This year the festival celebrates its 20th anniversary. Because it takes place every three years, it is probably easier to divide it into specific stages if we want to evaluate it. Julija, would you say that Vitrum resembles the first festivals, or has it changed altogether?

Julija: I would say it doesn’t, but this year we are trying to bring back a community that is defined by one field: glass art. The first festival started in Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

Its pioneer was art critic Raimonda Simanaitienė. A group of people went to Denmark, visited a major European exhibition, and decided that artists in our region could get together as well. So, it was an initiative of artists and art critics – to periodically meet, communicate, and see who is doing what. Now we are not focused on the Baltic countries, only this year we wanted to touch upon the retrospective, so we announced an open call exhibition for the artists from the Baltic States of all ages. Of course, the number of participants has been affected by recent events. Several artists had to face the unknown. Especially if you want to create an artwork for a specific exhibition, your motivation for it, if you are not sure that the exhibition will definitely take place, is not that great. However, it will take place, and it is called Clear Space. You can visit it from October 9 to December 13 at the Kaunas District Museum in Raudondvaris.

What do Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian glass schools have in common?

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closer, and Estonians are closer to Scandinavians. They also use different technology.

Eeva, it is time to hear about your relationship with glass. Is it changing?

Eeva: As I like to say, glass is the material of endless possibilities. I haven´t found an idea I could not express in glass. I love to work with my hands. I enjoy the technical challenges what glass as a material offers and the long processes, it encourages to work with ideas simultaneously. A large share of my work is in one way or another related to the issue of perception, and so is the pair of glass sculptures I show in Kaunas, called “On the Other Side”. In recent years I have been working on so-called origami-series. I am starting the process with paper folding. It is time-consuming and offers meditating atmosphere. After that, I take a plaster mould from paper relief which will become a mould for glass. The model, made in paper folding, is transformed into glass, giving a new dimension to the object – optics. New perspectives and transformations offer the viewer unexpected perceptions of space.

My works are based on personal experience and are influenced by intermediate states of consciousness.

Fascinated to discover and record the states of mind that have originated in emotional memory, my works of glass often describe a fragile contemplative environment of perception.

Julija, you are teaching at the Kaunas Faculty of Vilnius Academy of Arts, which you graduated from. How do students’ visions and expectations change when choosing this profession?

Julija: Those who find glass interesting as a material join the program.

We have design-related specialities in

the academy that seemed unaffected by quarantine because you can use your computer anywhere. Glass is different. You need a base; you must get your hands dirty, get physically immersed. The number of students is decreasing, but perhaps it is similar everywhere. Although there have been no major reforms in Latvia, they have the same Riga Academy that people cannot wait to get into. In Estonia, as in our country, there are fewer students. But I don’t see it as a major problem. The speciality is very interesting, but it has to be taught in a broader context. When studying material, you should not limit yourself to it. Of course, then you can ask who needs a glass art festival; after all, it uses the previous times as a starting point and maintains limitation of materiality.

Probably none of us imagines life without glass. However, when does it turn from building material, say, a window, a decorative object, into a declaration, and encodes something more than a protective function or a sense of admiration? That “more” can be a message and a function.

Julija: You say “window”, but it’s also an old-fashioned approach – after all, the phone screen we constantly touch is made of glass. In the industry, glass material goes hand in hand with the world and new technologies. In the art world glass has certain specifics that distinguish it from other fields: jewellery, textiles, ceramics. The difference is that glass is quite a complex material if you want to create something really large on your own.

Artists often work in groups. In the 1950s the so-called “studio movement” began when the material went beyond the industry. Artists started gathering in studios and using glass for themselves, freely, not for reproduction, not for clients. As for these times, I don’t think specialization is

that important – an artist no longer must be able to work with their hands. They can be a sculptor who only designs, and their work is born in manufactories. In the same way as other types of artists use glass if they need it for their works – they go to the studio and place an order.

It is easy to get lost in the beauty of glass. When you know the rules of what and how it should be done in order to get a specific result, it can be very nice. Or you can take a more conceptual path. There are those who work in the field of effect, and those who have a broader understanding.

At the festival this year, we aim for an extremely wide range. We also take the viewer into account. In the exhibition The Sharp Edge of Glass – which will take place in the gallery Meno Parkas – curated by Alba Folgado, we will examine the material philosophically. And the gathering of the community, as I mentioned, will take place in Raudondvaris. There we will see more of the so-called craft combined with the idea of ​​a specific artist.

This year, you chose “pulse” as the festival’s code word. It can be an imitation of a bodily function as well as a sense when facing uncomfortable situations when the established rules are challenged. What are these rules and situations?

Julija: That’s A. Folgado’s thought.

She used the properties of glass – transparency and opacity – as a starting point, and she wants to speak about these features in our society. That is why the artists, who face social barriers, were chosen.

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are replaced by anger and resistance. Can these negative feelings become a catalyst for creativity?

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Julija: I think so. After all, observing and interpreting social injustice is not a new thing in the art world. A problem, a personal encounter with something negative, can turn into an artist’s observation. We discuss with curator A. Fulgado, how much real impact can art have? If you really want to make a difference, is art the right form? In my opinion, art can only draw attention.

Eeva: In general, I think and feel, negative emotions are destructive.

But I do have an example from my own career when creating a series of works with “broken heart” did lead me to a new level, I would say. I would not call this “a negative emotion”, it was more “an open soul” experience. I called the series “Slowly Sinking”.

Do artists draw inspiration from new technological solutions, or they themselves dictate something that can become an innovation?

Julija: In each case, when an idea is born, you have to think about the way to its implementation. Not always such a path will be well-trodden by someone else.

You must be the first, to figure out how to get around something that seems impossible. I can share my own student example when I decided to transfer a photograph or a drawing on glass. There exists a glass sintering technology: you put several sheets together, put them in the oven, and at high temperatures, they fuse with each other. And there are appropriate materials that are not affected by heat. One of them is graphite. And the glass itself can be turned opaque or fluffed up by the sandblaster, and then you can draw 3 2

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on it, and the drawing will remain after the furnace. That technology was interesting to me at the time, but I did not develop it further. And when it comes to inspiration from technology then, let’s say, glass cutting – now it can be done with water – opens up new possibilities for artists.

Eeva: My new works (both commissions and free art) come from an intuitive mind, not so much from thinking: “I should do something innovative”. Later, looking back, I may have understood, yes, that was something new, a new ap-

proach to forms, to combining materials or other visual aspects. But one interesting experience comes to my mind. When Tallinn was the European Capital of Culture, I was involved in a beautiful project of making glass music instruments.

A symbiosis of music and glass in which I participated as an artist, project manager and supervisor of students, was realized in cooperation with the Capital of Culture and Norwegian musicians Arve Henriksen, a trumpeter, and Terje Isungset, a percussionist. Musicians performed concerts in Tallinn with the glass instruments made by

Estonian glass artists and students.

Within two years, five students of glass at the Estonian Academy of Arts and five well-known glass artists in Estonia were searching for exciting forms in which glass could create sounds suitable for musicians. Since the musicians did not suggest any drawings or visual solutions, the artists were free in their work. These concerts received a lot of public and media interest.

One of the journalists then wrote, “Glass and music together seem like a match made in heaven – one cannot imagine anything sounding more fragile.�

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Arve Henriksen perfoming World of Glass. Photo courtesy of All That Jazz.

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For many years, Parodos Hill has been an important reference for almost everyone travelling to, from, or through the central part of Kaunas. As one of the main connections between the lower and upper parts of the city, it has become a kind of symbol, often marking the threshold between work and home for Kaunas residents. Even those whose daily routes do not include Parodos Street should have likely admired the emerging silhouettes of the city when returning from other towns or perhaps when going for a walk under the shade of the oaks or scorching the clutch in natural disasterlike traffic jams that used to form here before a basketball match in Kaunas sports hall. However, something that many are no longer thinking about today – why is it called Parodos? (en. exhibition) – is slowly sinking into oblivion.

Parodos Square metamorphoses Paulius Tautvydas Laurinaitis

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A horse showcased in the exhibition in 1928. Photo courtesy of Vytautas the Great War Museum.

Exhibition poster. Photo courtesy of Šiauliai Aušra Museum.

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Entrance from downtown Kaunas. Photo courtesy of Kaunas City Museum.

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After the proclamation of Lithuania’s independence, there was a need for a place where the achievements of the country’s agriculture and industry could be showcased – a territory where special exhibitions could take place. After a small exhibition in 1921, held near the recently opened War Museum, it became apparent that there is a need for a much larger space. The area, both meeting this criterion as well as easily accessible from the city centre, appeared on a hill, in a place that was often called the small oak grove. The formation of Parodos Square started in 1922, in the same place where the Kaunas Country Public Library currently stands, and the road of Kaunas Fortress leading to it was named Parodos Street.

A total of eight exhibitions were held here – in 1922-1925, 1928, 1930, 1935, and 1936, in which the achievements of the country’s farmers and industrialists as well as other countries representatives (each year there were less and less of them) were showcased. If the first exhibition had 112 participants, by 1936 their number had almost tripled. The public interest also increased – 46 thousand people visited the first one, and the last three received over a hundred thousand visitors.

The pavilions were set up by both the organizers and the participants.

During the exhibition of 1936, the area contained 62 buildings of various sizes. As the number of participants increased, people started to compete with their pavilion designs in order to attract the attention of potential future customers. Since the exhibition would only take place several days a year, and later it also moved away from the annual format, some of the remaining buildings were used for various functions, for example, in 1932, some pavilions housed a kindergarten that promoted the Montessori system. It 3 8

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is worth mentioning one of the most impressive objects – a 19-meter-tall Vytautas the Great pavilion was opened for the exhibition of 1930, which was organized on the occasion of the year of Vytautas the Great. It was also one of the first brick buildings in the exhibition and was to serve both as an observation tower and a patriotic souvenir shop.

And yet Parodos Square has become a hostage to both its strategic location and the growing need for space as well as its sporadic use. Already in the early 1930s, Parodos Square became the subject of urban development discussions.

The municipality wanted to build the city’s main hospital there (which later turned into Kaunas Clinics), and the aviation representatives saw the location as a perfect spot for Darius and Girėnas monument. Both ideas were rejected by the Chamber of Agriculture, which owned the plot and organized the exhibitions. The limits of the place were, however, understood. Already in 1936, the exhibition barely fit there, and the next one was planned to be organized in a different, more spacious place.

What were the future plans of the Chamber of Agriculture? In 1934 – 1935 a very different type of permanent exhibition was being created – the so-called Motherland’s Museum or the early prototype of the future Rumšiškės Museum. A Samogitian homestead was brought with a traditional entryway, an exhibition of ethnographic items prepared in one of the pavilions and the building of Aukštaitija homesteads’ fragments started well before 1938. However, after other institutions joined this idea, it was decided to create a museum in Panemunė Pinewood. The little oak grove was to be donated to the country’s new administrative centre, the so-called State House, the competition for which was held in 1939.

Exhibition poster. Photo courtesy of Ĺ iauliai AuĹĄra Museum.

The last building of the exhibition, the pavilion of Vytautas the Great, which was already heavily abandoned at that time, was demolished during the Soviet occupation, and after the street was given the name of Yuri Gagarin the last symbolic sign of the exhibition disappeared for several decades. Before the emergence

of the fortress for books, the former territory of the Parodos Square was used mainly for recreational activities. From the observation wheel set up there, Kaunas residents enjoyed the panoramic view of the city and in the evenings, they gathered to dance at the dance pavilion.

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A mirror from eternal frost

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Life interrupted is the leitmotif of this year’s Kaunas CityTelling festival – only the second one, but apparently very much needed – which will take place on October 8–11. The initiative of the Kaunas 2022 Memory Office program both last year and this year – and, I hope, in the coming years – invites to explore vivid, intimate, and, at first glance, perhaps insignificant individual and common stories. Last year I was blown away by the music written in the ghetto here in Vilijampolė, which was solemnly played for the first time in Kaunas. Perhaps others were more struck by drawings that mottled the facades surrounding Ramybės Park, tours, photographs or augmented reality projects. This festival brings together storytellers: theatricals, artists, history enthusiasts, community activists and all others who wish to listen, speak or be heard.

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Photo courtesy of the authors.

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“This year, we invite partners, visitors and participants of the CityTelling festival to reflect on the personal experiences of recent years also looking back at the life stories of our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents during the war, occupation, exile, persecution and other difficult periods of history”, the invitation, which was distributed when 2020 was already marked by the pandemic, said. One of those who responded to the invitation is Gytis Dovydaitis, a lecturer at Vytautas Magnus University and a visual artist, who, together with his brother Ignas is developing a virtual generator of deportation stories. A mirror from eternal frost is such a great name that I also used it as the title for the article. And now, I am getting acquainted with Gytis, whose name has been flashing in the post-internet layers lately.

Why are you, as a researcher of contemporary and even future technologies, visions and ways of thinking, interested in the city’s past?

The whole past and future are here and now. From a perspective of time, at this stage of my thinking process, I see the present as a certain lens that focuses the eternal process of change to a single point and then launches it to the same infinitude of future potentials. Each object is a certain accumulation of time.

The past of the city, for me, in this case, is a living dimension in the present that can be sensed in the streets that crumble from walking, building walls affected by erosion, people’s stories and so on. I am interested in its existence – being here and now.

What can you learn about the history of our region and city as a specialist, a Kaunas resident, and, ultimately, a person?

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Visualisation by Matas Gumbinas

Probably the strongest realization is an insight into how important mythology, or more simply, historicity, is for people. It has tremendous power in tying the loose ends between the residents’ identities and the areas inhabited by them. Knowing the fragments of various stories puts a mythological garb on everyday life, allowing you to understand something about yourself, about others, and simply making ordinary residential settings more interesting.

You also participated in the first CityTelling festival. What do you think about this initiative? What other creators’ works stuck with you?

I think that CityTelling festival is an event that performs a very important function in the city.

It has great potential to erase unpleasant threads of alienation between residents and their living environments. The highlighting of the stories helps you understand

where you are, who you are and what you could be. For me, the most memorable object was Jen Kagan’s On the Breeze – a series of audiovisual installations exhibited in Ramybės Park, where I live.

This work stimulated the visitor of Ramybės Park with ghostly portraits hanging in the trees and various archival sounds important for the park’s identity, which were activated only when a person approached certain points. The work surprised

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How are you preparing for the new project – films, books, meetings with contemporaries, researchers of the era? What was the most helpful: a person, a meeting, an object or an image?

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with its atmosphere and allowed to very subtly grasp the ghostly and multicultural past of the park, at the same time avoiding boring descriptions that have no emotional impact.

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It should be emphasized that working with artificial intelligence is very technical, and I, personally, have only a very superficial knowledge of programming, and I understand this field only from a philosophical point of view.

So, the biggest help here came from my brother Ignas, who, very enthusiastically helped develop the technical side of the project, also adding another friend to that project. Films, books or meetings with contemporaries have very little effect on the quality of the algorithm – it needs a good programmer. Using the principle that we work with, the machine is simply fed huge amounts of sorted information and the algorithm that uses it tries to notice certain repetitions or structures in it. We can use that later to try to predict the future. To put it very simply, and arguably a little erroneously, it could be said that it is similar to meteorology, only, in this case, the algorithm is not trying to predict the weather but to write a paragraph of text based on texts it has read before. It should also be emphasized that the algorithm basically does not understand what it is reading. The text for it is simply a matrix of values.

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Did you face a moral dilemma when working with the tragedy of deportation that affected the absolute majority of the Lithuanian population?

Or maybe the pain, tears and losses – when perceived more closely – can become the key to understanding the subject and even the period?

We are tormented by the moral dilemma when we see the lack of commemoration and discussion on the trauma caused by deportations but not when working on this project. For us, it is precisely a moral liberation. My grandparents survived the deportation, and we heard their various stories from up close since we were children.

It is part of our family and has great importance in our own selfawareness. We could really say that it was the key that led us to the conceptual foundation of this project. Deportation has left a very deep mark on the socio-cultural landscape of Lithuania, which will remain with us for decades as culturally inherited trauma.

Nonetheless, there are very few adequate discussions and art projects exploring this important topic for all of us; therefore, we feel obligated to talk about it and are indescribably happy to have this opportunity.

Do you think the installation will be more interesting for young Kaunas residents or their parents and grandparents?

In other words, what will the person, directly associated with exile, be able to experience when they come to try out the generator?

The installation should be of interest to people of any age,

The development of artificial intelligence requires colossal amounts of data. The work starts with a few million words, and the dominant text algorithms in the market work after reading the entire English Wikipedia and millions of other books, so recording individual situations or stories is irrelevant in this context. It is difficult to define particular photos or stories that are used in the installation because their quantity is so colossal that it is impossible to grasp them in the final result. It’s hard to talk about it without using strong technical jargon.

Tell us about the technical part of the project. How long does it take to prepare such an installation?

What programming languages and other technologies are used?

How important and how evident will the aesthetic side of the project be?

What data, in addition to photography, will the installation ask for, and how will it be interpreted?

Technically, a visitor standing at the computer panel will have to introduce themselves in some way – we have not decided yet whether we will provide a blank space for text or other options – and then press the button that will take a photograph of the visitor. No further data will be required from the person. And after all, we want to encourage the visitor, who wants a real impact, to invest their time and especially imagination in reading the text generated for them because only in this way the installation will leave a mark.

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How did you select specific situations, photos to be used in the installation? Was it determined by people’s stories or by image, composition and other aesthetic factors?

I am not a programmer myself, my brother Ignas and his friend Matas are taking care of the development of artificial intelligence. They both are professional artificial intelligence engineers working for large companies. Ignas speciality is face recognition, and he is developing a photo modifier for the installation, while Matas is working with language algorithms and is developing the textual side of the project. Technically, the work takes place by training artificial intelligence according to certain databases, checking its results, and modifying a set of various parameters. It can take a lot, or a very, very long time, it all depends on the design and the equipment. In our case, work is from 1 to 2 months.

Everything functions in the Python programming language area.

Aesthetically, the work will be very minimal and will try not to distract the viewer from the texts and photos appearing on the computer screen.

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although it should have the greatest impact on young people. Despite the fact that the cultural legacy of deportations is always with us, a young person is especially distant from this past. After seeing himself in the mine and reading the brutal story of his parents dying in the cold, the visitor should prick up their ears and pay attention to his ancestors’ difficult struggle for survival that took place right here.

This installation will not make much sense to the people who experienced deportation because its aim is to put the visitor into the place of a person, who survived the deportation.

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Calendar STAGE

Saturday, 10 17, 6 pm

Thursday, 10 08, 6 pm

National Kaunas Drama Theatre, Laisvės al. 71

Premiere. Theatre performance “Elektra” [Electra]

Festival “Stage 10x10”: “Jaik”

National Kaunas Drama Theatre, Laisvės al. 71

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Photo from the archive of Von Krahl Theatre

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Photo by D. Stankevičius

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.

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Established in 1992, Von Krahl Theatre was the first non-state theatre company in newly independent Estonia. In the 1990s, avant-garde theatre Von Krahl was the birthplace of postmodern and contemporary Estonian theatre. The most voluminous piece in its history, where theatre meets film meets installation art meets event marketing meets service design, is coming to National Kaunas Drama Theatre for one night only.

Surtitled in English.

October MUSIC Wednesday, 10 07, 6 pm

Contemporary music concert “Aistmarės”

Saturday, 10 10, 21:00

Live: “Tempus” and “Nostra”

Club “Lemmy”, Girstupio g. 1

Kaunas State Philharmonic, L. Sapiegos g. 5

Photo from the archive of “Nostra”

J. Kubilienės nuotr.

“Aistmarės” is an innovative piece by the legendary state ensemble “Lietuva”, presenting the wide and colourful possibilities stretching from archaic sounds to baroque of Lithuanian folk instruments. In this concert, you will hear music by contemporary Lithuanian composers including Osvaldas Balakauskas, Algirdas Martinaitis, Giedrius Svilainis and Vaida Striaupaitė-Beinarienė, all rearranged for folk instruments.

Two bands from Latvia are coming to Kaunas together with their post-rock sounds.

Friday, 10 16, 6 pm

Concert for Ludwig van Beethoven

Kaunas State Philharmonic, L. Sapiegos g. 5 Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra is joining the world in celebrating the 250th birthday of composer Ludwig van Beethoven and invites you to a night dedicated to his work. The programme includes The Coriolan Overture and Symphony No. 5.

Thursday, 10 22, 6 pm

Acousmatic story “Kovas” Kaunas State Philharmonic, L. Sapiegos g. 5

Kaunas big band accompanied by electronic music trio and a “band” of video and 3D artists presents a piece dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Restoration of Independence of Lithuania. The texts used in the performance were written by

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Calendar Alfonsas Nyka-Niliūnas, Sigitas Geda, Gabrielius Macys and others. The musical part was born after stretching “Mono arba Stereo”, a cult piece by Andrius Mamontovas.

EXHIBITIONS

09 18 – 01 10

Exhibition “Daily life in Lithuanian photography.

1963 – 2013” Kaunas Picture Gallery, K. Donelaičio g. 16

09 10 – 01 10

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

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Kaunas Picture Gallery, K. Donelaičio g. 16

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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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Photo by Romualdas Rakauskas. 1965.

The exhibition presents a visual story about the daily life in Lithuania, which had accumulated various things and items of a different kind over the last 50 years, diverse topics and moods had appeared, altered, disappeared. During this period, three generations of photographers have emerged, introducing different themes and style, each of them featuring the topical issues of their time. In the exhibition, daily life seems to be transforming into history.

Artists Romualdas Augūnas, Mindaugas Ažušilis, Gintaras Česonis, Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, Algimantas Kunčius, Vitas Luckus, Aleksandras Macijauskas, Antanas Miežanskas, Vytautas Pletkus, Romualdas Požerskis, Romualdas Rakauskas, Vytautas V. Stanionis, Donatas Stankevičius, Antanas Sutkus, Algirdas Šeškus, Artūras Valiauga in their own way and distinctive

October manner observe and capture everyday signs that are constantly changing, or experience the devastation.

environment, causes and connections, the end or the presentiment of the continuation.

The daily life includes waking up in the morning, traffic jams, lessons, lectures, work, traffic jams again; a sad autumn routine when it’s raining cats and dogs, winters, unfortunately, often warm, rainy or cold; holidays – filled with blissful laziness. The daily life comprises small personal rituals, selected song lists and book pages read to yellow; the everyday life of a traveller is counted in thousands of steps, a writer’s day is focused on plentiful black letters, and the day of a photographer develops into the pictures of reality …

The International Watercolour Biennial “Baltic Bridges” is a selective-competitive exhibition organised every two years and comprises certain accompanying events: personal and group exhibitions, conferences, master classes, discussions, etc. Watercolourists and other professional artists from all countries around the Baltic Sea (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Germany and other Nordic countries – Norway, Iceland, Åland and the Faroe Islands, etc.) exhibit their works created in watercolour techniques, other creators present conceptual connections with watercolour. The works submitted for the selective-competitive exhibition have been evaluated by an international jury.

09 17 – 10 18

International watercolour biennial “Baltic bridges” Kaunas Picture Gallery, K. Donelaičio g. 16

10 07 – 11 18

“Vitrum 20 Pulse”. Exhibition “The Sharp Edge of Glass” Gallery “Meno parkas”, Rotušės a. 27

The theme of this year’s biennial is a Fabula. Though it is a literary term, the narrative is presented by means of watercolours or is focused on watercolour. In their works, the participants of the exhibition recreate a story – real or imagined, that has already happened or is about to happen, its characters and the

Curated by Alba Folgado, the exhibition of the international glass art festival takes as its starting point the concepts of “opacity” and “resistance”, characteristics that are on the one

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hand properties of glass and on the other hand refer to the challenge of social limitations. With this in mind, the exhibition aims to create a dialogue between practices for which disobedience and transgression are means of breaking with established canons. From various perspectives, Eglė Budvytytė and Bart Groenendaal, Eduardo Hurtado, Jamila JohnsonSmall, Mourad Kouri, and Claudia Pagès explore forms of resistance against situations of exclusion and control. Using creative expressions such as writing, dance, or storytelling, they embrace oddities and social divergences, an attitude that has also empowered their own work.

10 09 – 12 13

“Vitrum 2020 Pulse”.

Exhibition “Clear space” Kaunas district museum, Raudondvaris, Pilies g. 1

The community is connected not just by glass art, but often by camaraderie or even friendship. Thanks to this community, the project steadily grew, strengthened, and remained relevant in our geographical region. With the social and economic changes taking place in the world and the changes in glass materials’ meaning and pertinency, the community found itself in the new context of today, which invites us to think anew and define the community’s role within contemporary art. During the festival, when the members of this community come together, questions about people’s interrelationships and their relationship with the environment are asked, which arise from problems such as the lack of social transparency, the information-based society, and environmental concerns.

CINEMA From 10 02

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Film “Mama Weed” (La daronne)

Kaunas cinema centre “Romuva”, Kęstučio g. 62

The glass art exhibition seeks to feel the pulse of the Baltic countries’ glass art community, which has been influenced by the events of the last decade. The first Vitrum Balticum exhibition, held in the year 2000, brought together the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian glass art community. Similar creative situations, opportunities, close personal relationships, and contacts have always linked this circle of artists.

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Photo by Guy Ferrandis

Patience Portefeux is a French-Arabic police translator, specialised in phone tappings for the anti-narcotics unit.

The job is tough and low-paid, but the commander is charming. One day,

October whilst listening to wanted drug dealers, she discovers one of them is the son of the fantastic woman who takes care of her mother. She decides to protect him and is brought in the middle of a drug network. When she gets her hands on a huge load of hash, with the help of her new partner, the former police dog DNA, she seizes the opportunity and becomes Mama Weed, drug wholesaler, thanks to her field experience... and all the information she gets in her job!

Directed by Jean-Paul Salomé.

10 08 – 10 18

Human Rights Film Festival “Inconvenient Films” www.nepatoguskinas.lt

The annual documentary film festival established in 2007. The mission of this non-profit initiative is to raise awareness on human rights issues around the world and to connect them to those that are present in Lithuania.

By presenting documentaries on various human rights topics, inviting filmmakers and activists from all over the world, organisers hope to encourage public debates on human rights issues and ways to address them. Despite the project’s social mission and noncommercial character, “Inconvenient Films” is one of the most popular and most visited film festivals in Lithuania as well as the biggest documentary festival in the country. This year, the films that make you go hmmm go online.

From 10 16

Film “How to Be a Good Wife” (La bonne épouse) Kaunas cinema centre “Romuva”, Kęstučio g. 62

Film still

The French comedy-drama film was directed by Martin Provost. The film begins in 1967 in Alsace, France at a school made for good housekeeping, and stars Juliette Binoche as Paulette Van der Beck, a housewife who unexpectedly has to take over leadership of the school after the death of her husband.

MORE 10 02 – 10 04

Kaunas Art Book Fair Kaunas Gallery, Vilniaus g. 2

Book “Schizmatikai” by G. Palekaitė.

Photo by G. Grigėnaitė

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Calendar

Saturday, 10 03, 3 pm Sunday, 10 04, 3 pm

“Pulse”

The Memorial complex establishment of Kaunas Ninth Fort, Žemaičių pl. 73

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The event aims to create value for the content and design of an art book and promotes networking. The fair focuses exclusively on the culture of art publishing, building a new community, maintaining an existing one as well as initiating global trends in Lithuania.

The mission of this project is to grow and nurture the community of readers, viewers, publishers and creators of art books in Lithuania by providing a platform for meeting and dialogue with the general public. Kaunas Gallery organises kaunas Art Book Fair; its educational program is curated by Six Chairs Books bookstore.

Photo from the archive of organisers

Kaunas Artists’ House, Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum and project space Swallow invite you to the choreographic project by Romanian artist Alexandra Pirici. The project is dedicated to the enlivenment of the monument to the victims of Nazism of Kaunas Ninth Fort created by sculptor Alfonsas Vincentas Ambraziūnas (1933-2020). The act is choreographed for a group of up to 50 performers and will take place in the open-air area of the monument.

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Wednesday, 10 07 / 10 14, 7 pm

“Mocuments”

Kaunas Artists’ House, V. Putvinskio g. 56

Still from the movie “Talking hands”

The project “Mocuments” is a part of the extended Kaunas Artists’ House programme “Unlearning Eastern Europe”. In the course of the programme, the aim is to rethink the problems specific to the (Eastern European) region - from the traumas of the historical past, the possibilities of decolonisation to the strategies of memory politics or activism. The films of the “Mocuments” programme seek to problematise the concepts of artificial reality, film editing, technique and narratives, unmasking the illusions of objectivity and thus approaching the honest image of reality - as diverse, inconsistent, often disappointing and even disgusting.

The second cycle “Archive Administro” will delve even deeper into the methods of using archives and directly provide examples of how collective archives can become part of new ways of retelling history by finding a different relationship to historian macro narrative.

October On October 7, Berlin-based curator, Naomi Hennig will show a selected programme of two video art films.

Artist Shelly Silver’s “Former East / Former West” (1994, 62 min., German with English subtitles) and Anna Zett’s video art piece “Endarchiv” (2019, 18 min., German with English subtitles). The films will be followed by a discussion with curator Naomi Hennig and video artist and curator Gerda Paliušytė. The discussion will be held in English. On October 14, Swedish artist Emanuel Almborg’s film “Talking hands” (2016, 48 min., Russian, English with Lithuanian subtitles for deaf or hard of hearing) will be shown. A discussion with the artist will follow the film. The discussion will be held in English and translated to Lithuanian sign language.

10 08 – 10 11

City Telling Festival “Life Interrupted” Various locations

by “Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022” will invite the townspeople to reflect once more through sounds, images, and stories how this experience has affected our daily habits and relationships. It will re-invite you to go out to the city and see the backstage of your city and little towns with new eyes, listen to their stories. The programme of this year’s festival – tours, exhibitions, theatrical narratives, artistic meetings, and conversations will allow you to make the city, its streets, and walls speak and will bring up the stories that have been forgotten. More than 30 events are scheduled, and more than 20 partners are involved in the festival programme. Part of the events will be translated into English, and part will be speaking the language of art. The festival is one of the grand events of “Kaunas 2022”, which aims to remember the multi-ethnic past of Kaunas and Kaunas district, to promote pride in the place where we live, to strengthen dialogue openness and empathy.

Saturday, 10 10, 10:00

Birthday of Chaika M. Daukšos g. 27

Photo from the archive of “Kaunas 2022“

The pandemic that marked the beginning of 2020 has become a time of global upheavals: our future plans collapsed in an instant, and anxiety, uncertainty, and instability became the daily attendants of many.

Our life has become interrupted.

The City Telling Festival organised

Photo by Svetlana Batura

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Calendar Chaika has been a must-visit spot in Vilnius for years; thanks to two amazing women, we can enjoy the delicious vegan desserts and carefully prepared drinks in Kaunas, too. Visit the cosy cafe on Daukšos street for all of the above, as well as a very instagrammable decor and a generous flow of cultural press. Chaika Kaunas is celebrating its first birthday this October; this is yet another reason for a visit!

Tuesday, 10 13, 4 pm

Creative workshops with artist Vaida Tamoševičiūtė Kaunas Artists’ House, V. Putvinskio g. 56

10 12 – 10 18

Sugihara Week

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Visa signed by Sugihara

Sugihara Week aims to commemorate the achievement of Chiune Sugihara, who lived in Kaunas (Lithuania) in 1939-1940 and, together with Dutch Consul Jan Zvartendijk, issued the famous Visas for Life, thus saving thousands of Jewish refugees. Kaunas residents and city guests are all welcome to enjoy the various free events which are planned for Sugihara Week in different locations of the city. The program includes concerts, film screenings, public lectures, exhibitions, workshops, a symposium and other events.

How is my reality different from yours? What connects us? What language can we speak without understanding each other’s words?

Is your red the same as mine? What story does your body tell? Kaunas Artists’ House invites you to the second open creative workshop that will be led by artist and educator Vaida Tamoševičiūtė.

10 15 – 10 18

81st season opening Kaunas Cultural Centre Vytauto pr. 79

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October Yup, that’s right, the Kaunas Cultural Centre has been out there for 80 years now … The names and the eras have changed a few times, the vibe, too. It’s currently very contemporary but at the same time embracing the traditions of the modernist building. Come see for yourself and take part in workshops, educations and other activities.

10 23 – 10 31

Kaunas Design Festival Various locations

combine contemporary art, post-internet awareness, informal atmosphere, music, discussions, pleasant tastes, online video previews, academic thought and dis. art. The collage-like course of the event replicates a chaotic narrative of the internet and reflects on a shortened attention span of a contemporary spectator. This time, the event will examine the impact of the Internet and algorithms on modern politics in a broad sense.

The first-ever multidisciplinary design happening will be dedicated to the establishment of Kaunas as the UNESCO City of Design, as well as embracing the title on both local and international levels. The festival should reach its peak in 2022; it’s hoped to continue it after the year of European Capital of Culture is over. The first edition will also reflect various issues caused by the global pandemic. We touched a few statements of the festival organisers in this very issue.

Tuesday, 10 27, 7 pm

Wednesday, 10 21, 19:30

Photo from the archive of organisers

“INdisTERNET: vote for the code” Kaunas Artists’ House, V. Putvinskio g. 56

“INdisTERNET” combines education with entertainment. It consists of two main parts: active and passive, juxtaposing various workshops with videos and lectures. The “INdisTERNET” events are an attempt to publicly problematise the challenges posed by digitisation and to research the cultural impact of internet through unconventional educationentertainment events. The events

Slam #36

Kaunas Cultural Centre, Vytauto pr. 79

The iconic slam series established by Kaunas Artists’ House is relocating to Kaunas Cultural Centre for the cold season. This means more space and more participants, even with more significant pandemic-related restrictions.

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

“The key formula of Design for All is: 40% of passion for what you do, 40% empathy and 20% resources.”

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Kaunas Artists’ House, V. Putvinskio g. 56

Editorial office:

Alex Dobaño Graphic designer and member of the Design For All Foundation

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

Authors: Artūras Bulota, Arvydas Čiukšys, Austėja Banytė, Emilija Visockaitė, Julija Račiūnaitė, Justė Vyšniauskaitė, Kotryna Lingienė, Kęstutis Lingys, Mantas Bardauskas, Monika Balčiauskaitė, Rita Dočkuvienė

Patrons:

KAUNO MIESTO SAVIVALDYBĖ

RUN 500 COPIES 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 No. 2017 Nr.102 (62) (18)