KAUNAS PHOTO 2021. “I Often Forget”—artist talk by Jonas Kulikauskas (Lithuania/USA)

On September 12, 2021, KAUNAS PHOTO festival held an artist talk and meeting with Jonas Kulikauskas, a USA-based artist of Lithuanian origins. Kulikauskas presented his contemporary photography project “I Often Forget” layered with themes of the Holocaust, Soviet desecration, nationalism, and diaspora, that he was developing in Lithuania at the time. Son of Lithuanian refugees, Jonas Kulikauskas had fastened a World War 2 era lens to a newly constructed 8×10” camera loaded with black and white film, to capture life today in what used to be the Vilnius Ghetto. The event took place at the Kaunas Choral Synagogue.

Photos by Karolina Krinickaite.

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KAUNAS PHOTO is the longest running annual international photo art festival in Lithuania and the Baltic States. The festival founded by Mindaugas Kavaliauskas in 2004 is organized by the public institution “Šviesos raštas”. The artistic program of this year’s festival is curated by a joint team: Mindaugas Kavaliauskas, Kristina Juraitė, Donatas Stankevičius, Fred Boucher and Karolina Krinickaitė.

KAUNAS PHOTO is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture as one of the strategic international art events in Lithuania.