CAC - Contemporary Art Centre
Vokieciu 2
LT - 01130
Vilnius
Lithuania
Eastern Europe
T: +3705 212 1954
F: +3705 262 3954
M:
W: www.cac.lt
display of experimental furniture designed by Algimantas and Vytautas Nasvytis at international exhibition in Moscow „Art of Domesticity“, 1961 photograph from the archive of A. and V. Nasvytis
06 04 – 20 05 2012 Opening: Friday 6 April at 6 pm
Possible Modernism explores the limits of modern Lithuanian architecture of the Soviet period. The word ‘possible’ in the project’s title denotes questioning, as a principle for open and critical research, authorisation, since state commissioned, approved and run design practice is analysed, and power, since what is in focus is architecture, determined by the political climate. The research focuses on the most prominent Lithuanian architects of the first post-Second World War generation, Vytautas Bredikis, Nijole Buciute, Vytautas Edmundas Cekanauskas, Algimantas Maciulis, Algimantas and Vytautas Nasvytis, and Justinas Seibokas, as well as the context of their work. The start of their professional careers coincided with the beginning of the Khrushchev ‘thaw’ in cultural politics, and a rather unique situation in the field of architecture. The natural course of prewar Modernism at the time was forcibly discontinued, while the stylistics of Stalinist Neo-Historicism in architecture was suddenly at odds with the shifting aims of the system. Architects were in great demand during the postwar period of rapid urbanisation, and also due to the fact that many professionals had fled the country at the end of the war.
These circumstances opened up opportunities for younger architects who were eager to innovate, to design public buildings that would stand out against the background of the typical mass-built social housing. The work by the architects mentioned had a major influence on the development of Lithuanian architecture in the second half of the 20th century, and in particular on shaping the identity of national institutions of art and culture. Theatres, exhibition halls, palaces of culture, like the Art Exhibition Palace (now the CAC), the National Opera and Ballet Theatre and the National Drama Theatre, to name just a few, that were built during the Soviet period and are still functioning today, came to represent not only the highest achievements by their designers, but also distinctive forms of modern culture.
The exhibition explores aspects of innovation and the national identity in Lithuanian architecture of the Soviet period, and questions the role of architects in the totalitarian system and their relationship with political authority. It also looks at sources of information, influences and where the architects found their inspiration.
Both the whole context of architecture and the practice of individual architects are seen as multifold phenomena, fusing the real and the fictional, inside and outside, image and space, aesthetics and ideology.
Author of exhibition: Audrius Novickas Curators: Audrius Novickas and Julija Reklaite Supported by: Culture Support Foundation
Exhibition Partner: Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists‘ Association
Special thanks to Vytautas Bredikis, Nijole Buciute family, Vytautas E. Cekanauskas family, Algimantas Maciulis, Algimantas and Vytautas Nasvytis, and Justinas Seibokas for collaboration.
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Akram Zaatari. Composition for Two Wings
20 04 – 20 05 2012 Curated by Marianne Hultman and Mats Stjernstedt Opening: Friday 30 March at 18.00
The exhibition is organised on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the diplomatic relations between Lithuania and Lebanon
Lebanese artist Akram Zaatari (b. 1966 in Saida) examines the cultural and geo political condition of post-war Lebanon, a contemporary landscape marked by urban tensions, cultural mobility and territorial conflicts. With an archeologist's eye Akram Zaatari examines layers of human experiences combining his material into larger bodies of work.
Zaatari's work engages in research and the studying and interpreting of a wide range of documents; letters, photographs, testimonies and other recordings that communicate individual and personal positions within the larger social and political context. The material exposes hidden social, political, and geographic boundaries and conflicts as they challenge a specter of narratives; national, gender, historical and social.
Composition for Two Wings consists of a juxtaposition of two bodies of work: Earth of Endless Secrets and The Uneasy Subject. Earth of Endless Secrets is an ongoing research project, where Zaatari studies a wide range of documents that testify to the current cultural and political conditions in Lebanon. The work reveals the intimate layers of history contained in records of the everyday. The Uneasy Subject looks at the desire embedded in representations of the human body on YouTube, and in photographic documents collected by Zaatari during the years of his involvement with the Arab Image Foundation in Beirut. This is the first time Akram Zaatari presents two large installations side by side.
Akram Zaatari has been presented in solo exhibitions in at Museo del Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Oslo Kunstnernes Hus, Moderna Galerija Ljubljana 2011; Kunstverein München 2009; Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Hamburg 2007; Portikus, Frankfurt 2004; Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels 2002 and in group exhibitions at The Istanbul Biennial, Tate Modern, London 2011; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris 2008; 52. Biennale, Venice 2007; Sao Paulo Biennale, Gwangju Biennale, Korea, Sydney Biennale 2006.
The exhibition is organised by Kunstnernes Hus, Oslo, and the CAC, Vilnius
Sponsor: Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania Special thanks to the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Vilnius
Contemporary Art Centre Vokieciu 2, LT - 01130, Vilnius tel: +3705 2121954, fax: +3705 2623954 email: info@cac.lt
