- May 07, 2018
Concept of 12th Kaunas Biennial
12th Kaunas Biennial | June-September 2019 AFTER LEAVING | PRIEŠ ATVYKSTANT Traveling used to be romanticised. A long journey used to be compared to the symbolic journey through life. There are [...]
- May 04, 2018
OPEN CALL FOR EMERGING CURATORS TO PARTICIPATE IN KAUNAS BIENNIAL 2019
12th Kaunas Biennial / June-September 2019 AFTER LEAVING | PRIEŠ ATVYKSTANT Our lives are journeys: from naive and curious childhood, to a (possibly) wise and mature old age, from the house [...]
- May 04, 2018
A documentation of the site-specific exhibition THERE AND NOT THERE – (Im)possibility Of A Monument. 2017
When Lithuania broke free from Soviet rule a quarter of the century ago, it quickly removed all monuments that had anything to do with communist ideology or the Soviet occupation. Then, [...]
- Nov 30, 2017
Jenny Kagan
The abandoned building perched on the hill was once a Hassidic Jewish Synagogue. It was last used as a synagogue in 1940 when the Jewish population of Kaunas was 32,000 people, almost a quarter [...]
- Nov 24, 2017
Tatzu Nishi
The Freedom Monument in Kaunas – a symbol of independent Lithuania and one of the first monumental sculptures of the nation state – was commisioned by the Minister of Defence and [...]
- Nov 20, 2017
Kostas Bogdanas
300,000 is a number. It is also the number of Lithuanians uprooted and deported to Siberia by the Soviet regime. Statistical numbers are difficult to comprehend. The larger the number the [...]
- Nov 20, 2017
Paulina Pukytė
A memorial to Jan Zwartendijk has been unveiled on the façade of 29 Laisvės Avenue, Kaunas, Lithuania. Jan Zwartendijk, Acting Dutch Consul in Kaunas in 1940, worked in this building. In July of 1940 [...]
- Nov 20, 2017
Jonas Oškinis and Raimundas Krukonis
„Hope!“ the low echoes from the shore replied, The valleys and the forest Konrad woke, And laughing wildly, answered, “Where am I?” To hear in this place – hope? Wherefore this [...]
- Nov 20, 2017
Manca Bajec
A miniature [monument] does something that a gigantic one cannot: it offers the possibility of possession but at the same time it seeks and captures attention in a different way. In its unthreatening form, [...]
- Nov 20, 2017
Philip Miller
There were around 34,000 Jews in Kaunas before the Holocaust. The language of Yiddish, spoken by the Jewish people of Europe was then a vibrant part of the sound world in [...]
- Nov 20, 2017
Juozas Laivys
A grey dot on a grey surface in Kaunas is the reincarnation of a work by Juozas Laivys entitled White Puck – White Dot, created in Minsk in 2002. (The artist continues not [...]
- Nov 17, 2017
Dainius Liškevičius
Freedom Avenue (Lith. Laisvės alėja) is the most important artery of Kaunas’ city centre. In 1919, on the occasion of Lithuania’s declaration of independence, it acquired the name of Freedom. Its [...]
- Nov 11, 2017
Anton Lukoszevieze
This installation is a homage to the Kaunas-born Lithuanian-American artist and the co-founder of the Fluxus movement, George Maciunas (1931-1978). His Music for Everyman (1961) consists of a musical score as [...]
- Nov 11, 2017
Karolina Freino
Emma Goldman (1869-1940) – the iconic figure of the fight for women’s rights and social justice, as well as of the anarchist movement – was born in Kaunas, in a Jewish [...]
- Nov 10, 2017
Allard van Hoorn
„This modernist building was conceived in the 20’s not only as a church but also as a monument to Independence. During the Soviet occupation it was turned into a radio factory [...]
- Nov 10, 2017
Horst Hoheisel and Andreas Knitz
This is a very special place. This abandoned monument – to remember the young communist heroes, murdered before the first occupation. This place was also the Jewish ghetto. And at this [...]
- Oct 11, 2017
Oral Programme / Session III
Prof. Matthew Rampley (University of Birmingham) Blood Swept Lands: on the Difficulties of Remembering in Art Presentation (45 min.) Manca Bajec (Royal College of Art and Design) Monuments as Artworks, Monuments as Writers [...]
- Oct 11, 2017
Oral Programme / Session II
Horst Hoheisel and Andreas Knitz presentation and discussion with Dr. Rasa Antanavičiūtė (45 min.) Jochen Gerz presentation and discussion with Manca Bajec (Royal College of Art and Design) (45 min.) Discussion: Jochen Gerz, [...]
- Oct 11, 2017
Oral Programme / Session I
PROF. JAMES E. YOUNG (University of Massachusetts Amherst) The Stages of Memory: Reflections on Memorial Art, Loss, and the Spaces Between Presentation (45 min.), discussion with Prof. Dr. Giedrė Jankevičiūtė (Lithuanian Culture [...]
- Sep 04, 2017
Sound collages and music that tells stories
The well-known South African artist Philip Miller makes music for films, theatre and sound installations, and is famous for his experimental working techniques and musical collages. His music is extremely complex [...]
- Sep 03, 2017
A monument for conflict: a true reconciliation is possible only if all histories are equally presented
The Slovenian artist, curator and writer Manca Bajek focuses on different forms and possibilities of monuments and their meaning in post-conflict zones. She believes that monuments can have a very [...]
- Sep 03, 2017
Personal Jewish experience in a ‘box’: humour is about saying it’s all right to talk about it
A multidisciplinary artist from England, Jenny Kagan believes that art can be found in the strangest of places and that its primary goal is to elicit emotion. She’s not afraid to [...]
- Sep 02, 2017
OPENING PROGRAMME OF THE 11TH KAUNAS BIENNIAL / 15-17 SEPTEMBER
15 SEPTEMBER 2017 (Friday) 12 noon – 3 pm Guided tours for professionals around the main exhibition. Registration required 6 pm GRAND OPENING at Vienybės aikštė, Kaunas (Vienybės Square, Kaunas). Curator Paulina Pukytė. Artists: Adina, [...]
- Sep 02, 2017
TATZU NISHI: AN ARCHITECT OF IMAGINATIVE PLACES
The Japanese artist Tatzu Nishi is renowned for his exceptional public art projects in which he merges the boundaries between the public and the private. Paradoxically, he achieves this by constructing [...]
- Aug 23, 2017
Karolina Freino: art that shapes public spaces and social environment
The Polish contemporary artist Karolina Freino is one of many artists whose work will appear at the Kaunas Biennial 2017. Her original use of history in her site-specific and public art [...]
- Aug 23, 2017
An alternative map, or how do cities sound
Allard van Hoorn is a highly creative contemporary artist from the Netherlands who makes unusual musical city maps – Urban Songlines – all over the world. In his site-specific sound installations [...]