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2022 m. gruodžio 21 d., trečiadienį, 18 val. Vienybės aikštėje Kaune (prie K. Donelaičio g. 60) vyks turas „Pokalbiai apie Kauno Mitinio Žvėries buveines su… Liudu Mažyliu“ po parodą „Mitinio Žvėries buveinės Kauno modernizmo fotografiniuose pjūviuose“. Jį ves Vasario 16-osios Akto originalo atradėjas, Vytauto Didžiojo universiteto garbės profesorius, Europos Parlamento narys Liudas Mažylis. Tarp parodoje atvaizduotų Kauno modernistinių pastatų yra ir L. Mažylio vaikystės namas. Pokalbių metu sulauksime įdomių įžvalgų ir naujų eksponatų reikšmių. Renginys yra nemokamas ir atviras visai visuomenei, todėl kviečiame atvykti su šeima, draugėmis ir draugais.

Liudas Mažylis (g. 1954 m. gegužės 19 d. Kaune) – Europos Parlamento narys, Lietuvos politikos ir visuomenės veikėjas, mokslininkas, Vytauto Didžiojo universiteto (VDU) profesorius, Vasario 16-osios Lietuvos Nepriklausomybės Akto originalo atradėjas.

„Kaunas – mano gimtasis miestas, kiekviena gatvė čia puikiai žinoma: nuo vaikystės bėgiota, važiuota dviračiu, vaikščiota. Betgi kiek paslapčių tūno paslaptinguose Kauno rūsiuose! Džiugių ir tragiškų istorijų… Patys pastatai atspindi ir itin svarbius politinius, kultūrinius, socialinius, ekonominius Kauno miesto aspektus“, – teigia kaunietis prof. L. Mažylis.

Profesorius taip pat pasidalins asmeniniais pasakojimais ir apie kito profesoriaus, savo senelio prof. Prano Mažylio ligoninę-gimdymo namus bei ten glūdinčius tikrus istorinius ir gyvenimiškus įvykius. „Kviečiu kartu „pasivaikščioti“ po Kauno požemius, pabendrauti apie ten vykusį gyvenimą, kuris atvedė iki Europos šiuolaikinės kultūros sostinės. O Kaunas juk išties visada buvo ir yra labai svarbus miestas tiek Lietuvai, tiek visai Europai. Apie tai – pokalbiuose gyvai“, – į renginį kviečia profesorius. Tarp parodos-instaliacijos eksponatų yra ir daugiau L. Mažyliui asmeniškai įdomių pastatų. „,Man kaip filatelistui vienas unikalesnių Kauno modernistinių pastatų – tai Kauno centrinis paštas, o pasakojimų turo metu susirinkusiems atskleisiu ir daugiau detalių apie visus statinius“, – pasakoja prof. L. Mažylis.

Europos Parlamento narys taip pat džiaugiasi, kad prieš gražiausias metų šventes jis turės progą dar kartą susitikti su kauniečiais ir miesto svečiais. „Dėkoju organizatoriams už kvietimą vesti pokalbių turą po Kauno Mitinio Žvėries buveines. Tai unikali proga „pasivaikščioti“ po Kauno rūsius kitaip, – teigia L. Mažylis. – O dar ir labai gražus Advento laikotarpis, labai gera bus susitikti su renginio dalyviais savo gimtajame Kaune. Po įtemptų šiemetinių darbų Europos Parlamente, tokių progų pasitaiko ne taip ir dažnai. Tad visų maloniai lauksiu“.

KAUNAS PHOTO paroda-instaliacija „Mitinio žvėries buveinės Kauno modernizmo fotografiniuose pjūviuose“ yra „Kaunas – Europos kultūros sostinė 2022“ programos dalis.

Fotomeno festivalis KAUNAS PHOTO 2021 m. surengė meninę rezidenciją, kurios metu menininkas iš Naujosios Zelandijos Chirag Jindal žvelgė giliau į Kauno modernizmo ikoninius pastatus, į vieną atvaizdą sutalpindamas tiek jų matomąją dalį, tiek ir požemius.

Pasak idėjos autoriaus ir projekto meno vadovo Mindaugo Kavaliausko, paslaptimi išliks menininko kūrybinis metodas, tačiau kūriniai praskleidžia paslapties skraistę į tai, ko kauniečiai ir miesto svečiai, ko gero, niekada nepamatytų – požemius, ir jų lokaliai globalias istorijas, kuriuose galimai nuo seno slėpėsi mitinis Kauno žvėris.

Paroda rodoma iki sausio 8 d. Vienybės aikštėje po atviru dangumi ištisą parą ir yra skirta žiūrėti tamsos valandomis.

Iliustracija – Gintarės Žaltauskaitės nuotrauka.

Organizatoriai: KAUNAS 2022, VšĮ „Šviesos raštas“
Partneriai: Northpoint.lt, EPSON.

On 26 November 2022, at 3 pm, KAUNAS PHOTO festival will host the presentation of the exhibition “Hiding Places of the Mythical Beast in Photographic Cross-Sections of Kaunas Modernism” and a meeting with the project’s curator Mindaugas Kavaliauskas and the New Zealand artist Chirag Jindal, who will be in Kaunas for one day. During the event, the audience will be introduced to the uniquely created iconography of Kaunas modernism, with a new approach to the medium of photography and a night-time experience of the exhibition for the visitors. The event will start at 3 p.m. in the Stephenson Hall of the BLC Business Centre (K. Donelaičio Str. 60, Building A, 1st floor), and from there, the whole audience will go on a tour of the outdoor exhibition, which will be displayed in the form of lightboxes in the adjacent Vienybės Square. The exhibition “Hiding Places of the Mythical Beast in Photographic Cross-Sections of Kaunas Modernism” will run until January 8. The exhibition will be accompanied by events. The event is part of “Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022” official closing “Act III of the Trilogy: THE CONTRACT”. The event is free of charge and open to the public.

In 2019, Mindaugas Kavaliauskas travelled to the InterPhoto festival in Bialystok with his solo exhibition “A-Spot”. Visiting the exhibition of the InterPhoto 2019 Grand Prize Candidates, Kaunas-based photographer and curator made his prediction that the prize would be won by an artist from New Zealand, who surrealistically depicted Auckland’s cityscapes and volcanic caverns merging them in one image. The prediction was confirmed, and, instead of congratulations, the art director of the KAUNAS PHOTO festival made a creative suggestion—why wouldn’t the artist try to expose the icons of Kaunas modernist architecture in the same creative way?

In September 2021, invited by the NGO Šviesos raštas, the artist Chirag Jindal from New Zealand was already working in Lithuania. He took part in the art residency organised by the KAUNAS PHOTO festival, during which he looked deeper into the interwar architecture of Kaunas. Although the technological execution of the project was complex, it could be described in simple terms as a combination of the facades and underground spaces, invisible to the passers-by, created by 3D laser scanning technology.

According to Karolina Krinickaite, coordinator of KAUNAS PHOTO 2021, the work schedule of the creative process during the art residency was extremely challenging, not only due to the complexity of coordinating the access to historical buildings, but also due to the demanding nature of equipment. The three-dimensional laser scanner used for the project is a rare and hardly available device not only in Kaunas, but in the entire country as well, and at this stage the company Northpoint.lt was of particular help by agreeing to collaborate in the technical implementation of the project with its own 3D scanner.

In the final results, both the façade and the basement of the buildings can be seen in one single image. “Unlike photography, there is little out of frame—the section cut reveals all at once and we are presented with past and present paraphernalia as they exist in-situ“, says the artist Jindal. According to the curator of the project and the author of the idea Kavaliauskas, the artworks lift the veil of mystery and show what Kaunas residents and visitors would otherwise never see—the underworld, and its locally global stories, where the Mythical Beast of Kaunas may have been hiding since ancient times. The eleven-image exhibition, which is best seen after dark, will show a rich typology of subterranean constructions: water reservoir, engine room, prison cells, workshop, archives… And all these spaces are enveloped by the unique stories of Kaunas and Lithuania’s past.

Jindal says that architectural objects appeared to him like “time capsules collecting layers of history”. “For me the search for the ‘mythical beast’ was synonymous with the search for the story of Kaunas, remnants of which could be found in these buildings—not only the iconic facades and the overall typology—but also the artifacts inherited in their deepest recesses. Many of these basements are unchanged, either unintentionally or through museification. By making deliberate section cuts through the unseen, evidence of this layered history begin to emerge”, explains the artist.

Chirag Jindal (born 1993) is an artist-surveyor working at the intersection of documentary journalism, new media art and contemporary cartography. After graduating with his Master’s Degree in Architecture in 2016, Jindal began exploring the role of terrestrial LiDAR as an emerging medium for photographic documentation.

His developing practice seeks to document our relationship to marginalised landscapes, in order to “unravel the hidden effects, and unseen layers, of human presence.” His research-based approach brings him in collaboration with groups close to his subjects, including scientists, landowners, indigenous groups and local government. Jindal is best known for his debut project Into The Underworld – an ongoing series that has gained critical recognition, including the 2020 Royal Photographic Society Under 30’s Award and the Bialystok Interphoto Grand Prix.

Link to the Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/649680206867497/
The whole programme of the European Capital of Culture Closing Ceremony on 24-27 November in Kaunas and Kaunas district: https://kaunas2022.eu/en/contract/

Project is financed by Kaunas 2022. Art residence and KAUNAS PHOTO 2021 was financed by Lithuanian Council for Culture.
Partners: Northpoint.lt, EPSON.

On September 22, 2021, KAUNAS PHOTO festival held a tour on wheels of the 18th festival’s outdoor exhibitions to celebrate the World Car-Free Day. Four photography exhibitions installed under the open sky were visited during a 1h 30min and 12 km low difficulty tour. The excursions were conducted by the festival’s art director Mindaugas Kavaliauskas. Visited exhibitions: Alain Schroeder (Belgium) “Grandma Divers” (KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2021 Finalist); Adas Vasiliauskas (Lithuania) “Portraits of Quarantine”; Francesco Amorosino (Italy) “The third phase (Paola)”; Marna Clarke (USA) “Growing Old” (KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2021 Winner).

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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.

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.

On September 12, 2021, KAUNAS PHOTO festival held an artist talk and meeting with Grzegorz Jarmocewicz—Polish photographer born near Lithuanian border. The event was held at the Kaunas Cultural Centre of Various Nations where Jarmocewicz’s series “On both sides of the border. Why do I fall in love with Lithuania?” were being exhibited as a part of the 18th KAUNAS PHOTO festival’s programme.

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.

On September 10, 2021, the opening of the 18th KAUNAS PHOTO festival’s outdoor exhibition “Portrait of Early Generation Z” by Elena Krukonytė (Lithuania) took place at the Draugystės park in presence of the author. The opening followed by the artist talk “The relationship with time, the environment, and self through photography” by Elena Krukonytė at the Kaunas Municipal Vincas Kudirka Public Library’s Park Branch.

Photos by Karolina Krinickaitė.

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

On September 8, 2021, the opening of the 18th KAUNAS PHOTO festival’s outdoor exhibition “Portraits of Quarantine” by Adas Vasiliauskas (Lithuania) took place at the Square near A. Juozapavičiaus Ave. 57 in presence of the author. The opening followed by the artist talk “Backstage of the Portraits of Quarantine and other stories” by Adas Vasiliauskas at the nearby photo studio “No Name Studio”.

Photos by Karolina Krinickaitė.

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

Moments from the exhibitions and opening events of the 18th international photo art festival KAUNAS PHOTO. To see the Part I of the photo album — click here.

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

On 2 and 3 September 2021, the 18th international photo art festival KAUNAS PHOTO opened exhibitions in nine indoor venues and five open-air public spaces in Kaunas featuring fourteen authors from all over the world: “Do Not Forget, You Are Not In Lithuania” by Martha Thomas (USA) and “Open Wounds” by Younes Mohammad (Iraq) at the Kaunas City Museum Folk Music Branch, in presence of the author Martha Thomas (USA), “Belles Mômes” by Clelia Rochat (Belgium) at the Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum, “Memories of a man once there…” by Cristian Geelen (The Netherlands) at the Kaunas City Museum Kaunas Castle, “Grandma Divers” by Alain Schroeder (Belgium) at an open-air space near the Kaunas Castle, “On both sides of the border. Why do I fall in love with Lithuania?” by Grzegorz Jarmocewicz (Poland) at the Kaunas Cultural Centre of Various Nations, “±100” by Magdalena Stengel (Germany) at the Kaunas Municipal Vincas Kudirka Public Library – Department of Youth, Art and Music, “RENDEZ-VOUS” by Caroline Minjolle (Switzerland) at the Chechnya Square, “Cut It Short” by Michal Solarski & Tomasz Liboska (United Kingdom / Poland) at the Kaunas Municipal Vincas Kudirka Public Library – Park Branch, “2031” by Uta Genilke (Germany) at the Kalniečiai park, “The Suspended Youth” by Rosa Mariniello (Italy) at the KTU III Chamber, “The third phase (Paola)” by Francesco Amorosino (Italy) at the foot of  Žaliakalnis Funicular (this exhibition has been relocated to the Square near A. Juozapavičiaus Ave. 57 due to city’s works), “The Animal Within” by Fábio Cunha (Portugal) at VMU Multifunctional Center for Studies and Research and “Growing Old” by Marna Clarke (USA) at the Vienybės Square.

The evening programme at BLC “Otto” hall on September 2nd featured projections of the series submitted to the festival’s open call on the theme “Age” and a presentation by Chirag Jindal (New Zealand), an artist and topographer working at the intersection of documentary journalism and contemporary cartography. On September 3rd—a screening of the photographs from the series “Do Not Forget, You Are Not In Lithuania” by Martha Thomas (USA), accompanied by the readings of her aunt’s Daina Klimauskaitė’s memoirs of the youth spent in deportation in Siberia. The memoirs were interpreted by the Lithuanian theatre and cinema actress Olita Dautartaitė, in presence of Daina Klimauskaitė herself and the author Martha Thomas, who was currently visiting Lithuania. The evening continued with the screening of the festival’s competition KAUNAS PHOTO STAR Finalists’ series, many of the finalists greeted the audience via video conference call, and the evening culminated with the announcement of the Winner of the KAUNAS PHOTO STAR 2021 Award—Marna Clarke (USA) with her series “Growing Old”.

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