I’ve met Julijana at the end of the summer. She is one of the heroes of stories we collect. We made a warm connection with her. We met at our friends’ house. Juliana went out of home further away than a pharmacy or shop for the first time after months of quarantine. We talked about how this pandemic affected humanity and ourselves, emotionally.

The year 2020 was marked by world events. In the time of the global pandemic, people from different countries and cultures were brought together by common experience and common story. The lives of many of us were simply interrupted… We began to feel as if we were falling into ignorance, and uncertainty and anxiety about the future had become our life’s companions.

This year CityTelling Festival invites us to think about how has this experience affected us? How has it affected our self-esteem and habits, our relationships with each other, and our environment, city, public spaces? Reflecting on these unexpected experiences, we realize that, from a historical point of view, they are not unique or exceptional. Wars, deportations, occupations, and persecutions – these are many interrupted lives and destinies of our parents, grandparents, fellow Kaunasians. Perhaps by remembering them, we can understand with greater empathy the experiences of the generations that lived before us.

We invite you to go out into the city and experience its stories, sounds and images, to look behind the scenes of your city and towns, listen to their stories. Thereby to remember the names and fates of those who were born in Kaunas, but time erased the traces of their lives. Guided tours, exhibitions, theatrical narratives, intimate artistic meetings will allow you to talk with the city, its streets, and walls, resurrect stories that have been forgotten.