(The group is full!) Presentation of the pavilion “Archi/textura” and workshops about audio description “ADed value”

The interactive pavilion “Archi/Textūra” will present three years of research on the topic of non-visual experiential architecture by architect Rasa Chmieliauskaitė and art theorist dr. Justinas Kalinauskas. This research, carried out together with the Lithuanian Union of the Blind and Visually Impaired community, sought a new grammar of the organization of architectural space, aimed at invisible dialogue with the environment around us and revealed through tactile, auditory and orientational relations with the architectural phenomenon. After the presentation of the Pavilion the topic of access and accessibility – especially in arts and architecture – will be continued with the workshop led by Impact Foundation team: Rafał Lis and Agata Etmanowicz. Looking for connections between the qualities (informational, artistic, or simply social) that generate objects and events through sight, hearing, touch (with different meanings), or even taste. The participants will have an opportunity to meet the specific of making an audio description and discuss the challenges of finding new solutions.

Curators: RASA CHMIELAISKAITĖ and JUSTINAS KALINAUSKAS

Workshop moderators: RAFAL LIS and AGATA ETMANOWICZ

More about the pavilion “Archi/Textūra”: https://architextura.lt/ | More about the "Impact Foundation": http://www.impactaudience.org/

3 h

Kaunas Central Post Office (Laisvės av. 102)

Exhibition: Haubitz + Zoche “Hybrid Modernism: Cinemas in South India”

Between the 1950s and the 1970s, numerous cinemas were built in towns and villages across South India. Their architecture is an unusual blend of indigenous and western architecture. The brightly coloured façades resemble stage sets and create a cinematic impression even before one enters the auditorium, marked by extravagant shapes and decorations, and the film begins. This architectural language could be called hybrid modernism. Many of these cinemas have retained their original state. However, in the country's major cities, they have already begun to be converted into large cinema centres. Haubitz Zoche has documented this cultural phenomenon of cinema, which has almost disappeared in Europe and the USA and is slowly receding from the Indian map due to commercial incentives.

An exhibition of photographs from these cinemas will be on show from 21-22 September. The exhibition will be on display at the "Daina" Cinema in Kaunas.

Visiting hours: 12:00–20:00.

Organisers: Kaunas Branch of the Lithuanian Union of Photographers.

8 h

"Daina" cinema, Savanoriu av. 74, Kaunas

Lunch

Lunch break.

1 h

(The group is full!) ICOMOS ISC20C regional seminar: „New Nation States Within the Twentieth-Century Historic Thematic Framework”

Turning the past into heritage is an act of cultural empowerment. An act that depends on our constantly changing political, social or emotional relationship with the physical artefact. David Lowenthal once said that “the past is a foreign country reshaped by today, its strangeness domesticated by our own modes of caring for its vestiges”. The reasoning behind the decision to declare the artefact of the past a cultural heritage is constantly being updated, rethought and refined. For our generation, heritage is no longer the most beautiful or oldest fragments of our past. Heritage now is instead a complex testimony of humans as a species.  ICOMOS ISC20C invites the world heritage community to a series of regional seminars on the “Twentieth-Century Historic Thematic Framework” as a tool for rethinking the global narratives associated with 20th-century heritage. Seminars aim not only to develop the knowledge and broad understanding of 20th century heritage but also to support opportunities to present, share and expand their new cases and ideas on the 20th century. The seminar in Kaunas will focus on the topic of “New Nation-states” as a phenomenon of modernizing world. Based on the experience of Kaunas European Capital of Culture, the seminar will debate the role of contemporary interpretations in the process of identifying, understanding and disseminating of this narrative.

Moderator: VAIDAS PETRULIS

Participants: RIIN ANTALU (EE, ICOMOS); MARIJA DRĖMAITĖ (LT); GRZEGORZ PIĄTEK (PL); EDWARD DENISON (UK)

For more: https://isc20c.icomos.org/seminar-1-new-nation-state/

1 h 30 min

Kaunas' Artist House (V. Putvinskio st. 56)

(The group is full!) Exhibition opening: “Kaunas Modernism, Interpreted”

"Interpreting Modernism through Design and Visual Arts", is a year-long project, commissioned by Kaunas 2022 to Laura Serra and Maxime Forest, co-founders of Kolektiv Cité Radieuse, based at the UNESCO-listed Le Corbusier Housing Unit in Marseille. Devoted to the relation of those disciplines to 20th century architecture, Kolektiv invited four international guests from the Czech Republic, Poland, and Ukraine, to share their inspiring practices around interpreting modernism with Lithuanian architects, designers, and artists. Selected through an open call, participants were encouraged to expand and challenge their own practices during a collective residency held at Villa Ilijinai in Kaunas in October 2021.

Based on an iterative process initiated with a co-design workshop held during the residency, participants developed their own, genuine interpretations of Kaunas interwar and post-war modernism. From textile design, through graphic works, (video) installations and furniture, the exhibition launched on XX of September 2022, reflects both the step-by-step process and the pluri-disciplinary standpoint adopted for the project. It argues that interpreting and preserving modernist heritage, and endorsing the complex, often contentious history that underpins it, require engaging with communities, to strengthen a sense of localness and belonging, while exploring contemporary issues such as sustainability or conflicting memories.

 

After the opening, exhibition will be open for visitors (September-October):

On Tuesdays and Thursdays – 5:00 p.m.–6:00 p.m.

On Saturdays – 12:00–1:00 p.m.

 

Curators: LAURA SERRA and MAXIME FOREST

More about the project: https://modernizmasateiciai.lt/en/portfolio-item/interpretations-of-modernism-through-design-and-visual-arts/

60 min

House of Iljinai family (K. Donelaičio st. 19)

(The group is full!) Exhibition: “ARNO FUNK[TIONALISM]”. Curatorial Tour and Presentation of the Book

Arno Funk was one of the most interesting and enigmatic architects of the interwar Kaunas. Little is known about his life, but the buildings he designed tell stories about the interwar Lithuania, modernisation of Kaunas, its architecture, its inhabitants, and daily life. Arno Funk’s architecture is characterised by a unique combination of elegance and functionality. He designed functional homes with beautiful facades and charming interiors. He added elegance to industrial plants and dignity to public buildings. An exhibition dedicated to the architect’s work is shown in the house he designed for Adelė and Paulius Galaunė (1932). The exhibition consists of four parts: The Galaunė house, the interior salon, the residential hall, and the public buildings study. Arno Funk’s unique attention to the beauty and functionality of everyday environments is revealed through photographs, designs, the personalities of the clients, and the sparse biographical material that has survived. The event will include a book of "ARNO FUNKtionalism. Life and works of architect Arno Funk (1898–1957)" launch.

Curator: MARIJA DRĖMAITĖ

More about the exhibition: https://ciurlionis.lt/veikla/padaliniai/a-ir-p-galauniu-namai-muziejus/parodos/arno-funk-cionalizmas-1898-1957/

60 min

House of Galaunės family (Vydūno av. 2, Kaunas)

(The group is full!) Premier “Klostės/Folds”

Directed by Aideen Barry, “Folds/Pleats”, presenting the modernist architecture of Kaunas, Lithuania and dedicated to the year of European Capital of Culture Year, is being premiered in Lithuania. The film will be screened for the first time in Kaunas.

The film was made through an unusual process. The artist’s creative practice is based on community involvement: the plot is based on the stories told by the citizens, and the residents of Kaunas become characters in the film. The surrealistic “Folds/Pleats” combines the city’s heritage, history, and its people’s fictional novels. 

The title of the architectural film is a metaphor for the recurring elements in interwar architecture and the creative process itself: the plot is folded from thousands of photographs. Stories fold between stories, buildings between buildings. The viewers, together with the characters, peek into the interiors of the buildings, marvel at the typical rounded windows of Kaunas and the elegant staircase doors, and gaze at the ceiling as if lying on a carpet with a cigar smouldering in between his fingers.

During the screening of the film, in the lobby of the Romuva Cinema Center, it will also be possible to see the experiential installation "Folds" and an exhibition presenting the process of making the film. Authors of the exhibition: AIDEEN BARRY, architect POVILAS VINCENTAS JANKŪNAS, technician MINDAUGAS BARNATAVIČIUS.

Director/writer AIDEEN BARRY 

Director of Photography MIKAS ZABULIONIS

Music Composers: ARŪNAS PERIOKAS, PATRIS ŽIDELEVIČIUS, IEVA RAUBYTĖ

Editor & Colourist  ALEKS RYDZKOWSKA

Foley Artist DOMINYKA ADOMAITYTĖ

Visual effects: ALEKSANDRAS POLEVOJUS, SIMONAS KORSAKAS, QI QIAN 

Production: KAUNAS 2022 / MODERNISM FOR THE FUTURE

More about the film: https://www.klostes.com/

1h 30 min

Movie theatre "Romuva" (Laisvės al. 54)

Evening of photographic projections: Alishia Farnan and Zacharie Gaudrillot Roy

Projections of specially created works by Alishia Farnan and Zacharie Gaudrillot-Roy, residents of Kaunas Photography Gallery's "Modernism for the Future" platform, and an exhibition of photographs by the participants of the photography workshops. The exhibition and projections of the residents' work will be on show from 21-22 September, 20:00-23:00. Venue: the event will take place at the bar "Vingiu Dubingiu", Donelaičio str. 41, Kaunas. Organisers: Kaunas Branch of the Lithuanian Union of Photographers.

3 h

Bar "Vingiu Dubingiu", K. Donelaičio Street 41, Kaunas