The international performing arts festival ConTempo returns to Kaunas and Kaunas district and has good news for those who have missed culture – this year it presents two programmes. During the period of 5th – 9th August, the festival will travel to ten different locations in Kaunas city and district, and on 20th – 23th it will invite everyone to the main programme in Kaunas.
Although ConTempo, initiated by the project “Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022”, will take place in Kaunas for the second time, its director and programmer Gintarė Masteikaitė claims that this year it will be completely different from last year: „The festival programme has changed more than once this year, most of the international programme had to be moved to the next year for obvious reasons. The audience of the festival will have a unique opportunity to get find out more about Lithuanian artists and their performing art forms, which are still very little known in Kaunas and Kaunas district. We are very pleased that, despite all the logistical and organizational challenges, we will have not only a few premieres, but also international guests.”
“Although it is only the second time that contemporary performing arts festival ConTempo will take place in Kaunas and Kaunas dictrict, after touching it last year (or rather touched by it) we look forward to it and invite friends. Performances that take place mostly in public spaces, parks, and the urban landscape of the city, where the audience become part of the scenario. It touches all the participants emotionally and give inspiration for a long time. Thanks to such performances, the everyday environment in which we work or which we cross mechanically on a daily basis becomes special, almost miraculous. The festival will be grown until 2022, when it will become one of the main highlights of the European Capital of Culture summer programme. But more importantly, it will remain in Kaunas and Kaunas district, uniting all performing arts organizations and helping them to network on a European scale, for many years to come,” – says Virginija Vitkienė, head of “Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022”.
Street Theatre Trip Around Kaunas
ConTempo 2020 will start on August 5 with the street theater performance “Arrived”. The duo of Argentine-born Spanish actor, comedian, creator of street theater performances Adrian
Schvarzstein and dancer, choreographer Jūratė Širvytė-Rukštelė will visit as many as ten places in five days, eight of them in different cities and towns of Kaunas district. This journey is a actually a real reflection of the duo’s performance, because the characters of “Arrived” are also travelers arrived from the past, who see present-day world through somewhat different eyes. Each of their performances is unique, the process depends on the environment and the audience watching it. “Arrived” will visit Girionys, Vilkija, Kulautuva, Zapyškis, Linksmakalnis, Neveronys, Kačerginė, Sitkūnai and Kaunas city neighborhoods of Šančiai and Žaliakalnis. The starting points and times of the performances can be found at www.contempofestival.lt, all these performances are free of charge.
Performances on Traditional Stages and on Unexpected Ones
The largest programme of ConTempo festival will take place on August 20-23 and, like last year, will invite you to enjoy the last days of summer by watching some of the performances outdoors. The programme will feature Lithuanian and foreign artists who will present contemporary opera, contemporary dance and circus performances, theatre premieres, a show from the international project Circus Next. „Our goal is not only to show the most interesting pieces of performing arts, but also to reveal the unexpected potential of various locations and spaces of Kaunas city, so this year we will meet our audience both in traditional stages and in unusual ones such as an 800 square meter hangar, office or underground parking lot” – Gintarė Masteikaitė talks about the ConTempo programme.
Among the participants of ConTempo programme are Marta Kosieradzka, Kosmos Theater, Operomanija, Kaunas National Drama Theater, duo of Džiugas Kunsmanas and Adrian Carl Bibiano and others. Details of the program will be announced soon, all information can be followed at www.contempofestival.lt and on the festival’s Facebook page. Some of the events of the second programme will require tickets and some of them will be free of charge.
The festival is presented by Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022, organized by Kultūros Platforma and Lithuanian Dance Information Center, the festival is supported by the Lithuanian Council for Culture