Lithuania’s second city wants to present itself as modern and European, with a lot of culture, history and self-confidence.
In 1985, the European Union implemented the project European Capital of Culture to annually highlight those cities considered centers of culture in the Old Continent. The first chosen were Athens, Florence, Amsterdam, Lisbon, Paris and Prague, although later lesser-known cities were selected, such as Turku (Finland), Graz (Austria) and Sibiu (Romania), which also met the condition of exhibiting a strong commitment to the arts, architecture and its identity.
This is how the beautiful came Kaunas to receive this honor in 2022. In addition to its fantastic exhibition centers – such as the National Museum of Art MK Ciurlionis or the Vytautas Museum of the Great War – and its creative university atmosphere, Kaunas is considered an open-air gallery due to the ease with which which the artists display their talent in the squares and sidewalks –with order and the permission of the authorities–.
Perhaps the most representative piece is the mural The Wise Old Man on the cover of our printed edition), which takes over a large wall of an old shoe factory that later functioned as a “ministry” of creativity for the Fluxus group. The image was created in 2013 by the artists Zygimantas Amelynas and Tadas Simkus as a tribute to George Maciunas, a founding member of that international community of artists, architects, composers and designers that brought together personalities such as Yoko Ono, Joseph Beuys, George Brecht and Dick Higgins.
Great opportunity
Lithuania’s second city wants to present itself as modern and European, with a lot of culture, history and self-confidence. This should help you come out of the long shadow of the capital Vilnius, which received a similar honor in 2009.
Kaunas has an “extraordinary, complex, changing history”, underlines the Lithuanian Minister of Culture, Simonas Kairys, when presenting the year’s program as the capital of European culture that will be formally inaugurated on January 22.
Kairys points out that the city, surrounded by hills and located at the confluence of two rivers, shows the entire “kaleidoscope of eras and political systems”. The central point of the program is the ‘Myths of Kaunas’ trilogy, a series of events that will take place over three weekends.
Artists from Lithuania and abroad will shape a new unifying legend that will give identity to the city of 300,000 inhabitants.
Concerts, exhibitions, fireworks and light shows and much more were planned. Not a few of them revolve around the recently created beast of Kaunas, a kind of pet.
The city of Kaunas will host more than 40 festivals, 60 exhibitions and more than 250 performing arts events and concerts this year, which are being adjusted to the necessary protocols in these times of COVID-19.
Among the milestones throughout the programming are the exhibitions of world-renowned artists, such as William Kentridge, Yoko Ono and Marina Abramovic, among others, as well as a stage production by Robert Wilson.
The main goal of the trilogy is change, as Kaunas aspires to change from being a city steeped in nostalgia to becoming an open and growing city that believes in itself.
This is also expressed in this year’s official motto as European Capital of Culture: From temporary to contemporary. With this, the city alludes to what was perhaps its best time, when Kaunas was the provisional capital of the newly founded Republic of Lithuania, from 1919 to 1940, after the First World War. But at that time the Baltic State was occupied by the then Soviet Union, and Vilnius became the national capital again.
weight of history
The dark history of the Second World War, the holocaust of the Lithuanian Jews and the Soviet occupation continue to weigh on the city today. These long-hidden traumas are to be addressed in the year of the capital of culture, some 30 years after Lithuania regained its independence.
“Kaunas lost its glory, its pride and became a very sad city,” says Virginija Vitkiene, director of the events as capital of culture. The city was never able to truly recover from the loss of its status as the national capital despite the fact that it is a remarkable place for many different reasons.
Kaunas was the only city in Lithuania directly related to the Hanseatic League, it had the first university to teach in Lithuanian and is the mecca par excellence of Lithuania’s second “religion”: basketball.
The Amodernist architecture of the city is also a special feature and will feature prominently in the programme. “We think it’s something all Europeans can relate to,” says show creator Vitkiene.
The city of Kaunas is home to some 6,000 modernist buildings from the interwar period, when the city experienced its heyday as a diplomatic and cultural center.
In 2009, the old and for decades national capital again obtained the title. But at that time there were long faces, because the financial crisis that had been unleashed with all its might left the coffers almost empty and the program had to be extensively cut.
In addition, the national airline went bankrupt and many visitors were unable to travel. Is Kaunas now facing a similar coronavirus debacle? Viktiene is confident, because she hopes that all the organized events can be carried out as planned, under the corresponding sanitary measures.
Two other cities in Europe were also designated capitals of culture 2022: Esch, the second largest city in Luxembourg; and Novi Sad, the second largest in Serbia.
capitals of culture
This annual designation means an applauded respite from the daily activities of Europe, where attention is usually focused on politics or the economy, especially in these times when the pandemic is relocating our priorities as a society.
Culture should be a vital piece in any list of preferences. That was the idea of Melina Mercouri y de Jack Lang (Ministers of Culture of Greece and France, respectively) when they laid the foundations for that initiative in 1985.
The European capitals of culture have been selected with four years in advance in national competitions, but following identical criteria firmly defined at European level. Carrying this title requires a diversity of obligations, such as organizing a series of events framed in a continental context.
Till the date more than 60 cities have been designated and this honor gave them the opportunity to obtain different benefits: increased tourism, greater appreciation of its inhabitants, strengthening of its international profile and increased citizens’ feeling of belonging to a common European space. (DPA and PM)
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
