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In brief: Even a bat-eyed person will notice that Kaunas has changed remarkably during the last decade – old buildings are being restored, renovated and adapted to the present-day needs, new buildings of contemporary architecture are arising nearby. The face of Kaunas getting modern receives much criticism of specialists, especially regarding the intrusion of new architecture into the New Town and Old Town.
In brief: Kaunas State Musical Theatre started the 67th season in a rather unexpected manner. The collective of the theatre presented the sacral music piece by L.van Beethoven performed in the monumental Christ’s Resurrection Church on September 9. The Mass C major, the work encouraging spiritual concentration, sounded like a counterbalance of serious music for the promised merry premieres of the new season.
It was hot, the country roads looked white and dusty, the Lithuanian frontier was not far already. We turned to an old village. The graveyard appeared first, then – an old monumental pine in the middle of the village. Napoleon soldiers prayed at it once. The village was famous for its barn theatre.
I remember the painting “Old Hay and a Hoof” which I painted in Bikuškis estate of Dalia Gruodienė during the plein air in 2003. I could not understand why Arūnas kept saying to me that the work was like his: “You painted just like me here.”
“Such is the smell of life”. Sorrow clenches the throat. I feel Arūnas standing on the left during the mass – he is smiling and nodding at me. I know this smile: “That’s it, oms*.”
In brief: Kaunas Mykolas Žilinskas Art Gallery did not see such a flood of visitors for a long time, most probably, as on Sunday, August 19. All willing people could not get to the concert of the prominent performers – baritone Vytautas Juozapaitis and pianist Petras Geniušas. Such a duet makes one anticipate something unusual, original and of the highest quality.
In brief: The plein air of painters in memoriam of Antanas Samuolis is turning into the same vital tradition as Samuolis himself and his creative works. Painters have been gathering for fourteen years already to honour one of the first Lithuanian modernists. It is 55 years since the poverty-stricken and abandoned painter died in the hospital of poor people in Switzerland.
Arūnas had a barrow in the homestead. A simple barrow for carrying soil. However, he transported paints, the palette and canvases in it. It looked impressively – Arūnas used to load everything and then he went to draw from nature. The view reminded me of the painting by Van Gogh “Painter Travelling to Arl.”
Arūnas wrote in his notebook back on November 13, 1988: “What does painting give to a human-being? Does it help one free out from inferior forces? Evidently, art is closely related with religion. Contemporary secular art – is it some compensation after religion has been separated from public life?”
July 1 of 2007, Sunday. It is summer, but it feels like autumn would be coming soon. Time is a strange thing. It flows in the same manner as for others on the surface. The internal time is my past and present. It is even more strange that my past may turn into present.
In brief: Pažaislis Music Festival enlarges its geography every year. Therefore, the ones who were eager to enjoy Georgian traditional sacral music performed in an original manner on July 24 had to visit Žeimiai in Jonava region. As the acoustics of Žeimiai church is simply astounding, the festival uses this space rather often.
In brief: The Lithuanian artistic life dips into summer laziness little by little withdrawing to the silence of the province where various art plain-airs will start soon. Still, June presented several surprises – the exhibitions organised in Kaunas “From the Baltic to the Black Sea” and “Nijolė and Katalina”, which spoke unanimously about the rebirth of eternal art values.
In brief: Even though theoreticians of post-modernism assure that preconceived presumptions are usually harmful to the quality of interpretation, it is often hard to resist one’s expectations, the author writes. It is extremely hard to resist preconceived attitudes when confronting the texts of the “great authors” of the Lithuanian Writers’ Union. Taking a new book issued by the Publishing House of this Union into hands, a thought occurs inevitably – what has determined its publishing – the status, friendship or artistic quality? The shadow of the Union’s relations and connections falls on the newest book of Donaldas Kajokas – the first novel “Kazašas” - as well.
In brief: It is said that conductors may be distributed to three groups: the ones conducting for themselves, the ones conducting for the audience and the ones conducting the orchestra. Donald Chan who conducted Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra on June 9 could be called the conductor of the third category – it is not often that one may hear Kaunas collective playing with so much temperament and so harmoniously.
In brief: The international art project “KoViKaVi” occupied spaces of Kaunas galleries at the end of May and attracted attention of the audience by the tone reminding dada times. The ideas of Lithuanian, Danish and Estonian artists migrated round Europe for some time until they were embodied in the joint and rather eccentric exhibition. Its subtitle “PostBliaBlu” reflects the naughty mood of the participants and the post-art direction of creation.
In brief: Writing a historical novel is not the easiest task today. A writer who has chosen a historical theme may hardly limit himself/herself with a traditional historical novel today. The time demands to renew the traditional historical thinking models by contemporary language of literature, to adjust it to the changed identity, which is a work demanding great talent and efforts.
In brief: Germans have their genre of songs “lied”, Frenchmen admire their “chanson”. Russian music may not be imagined without a romance and a folk song. It was possible to hear such Russian songs at the hall of Kaunas Artists' House on June 7, when Kaunas Russian Cultural Centre “Science – Light” presented two young Russian singers Darja Zykova and Vladimir Avtomonov.
In brief: Traditionally the majority of theatrical people and spectators of the “serious” theatre look at the puppet theatre from above – different scale, not such deep dramaturgy, not so famous direction. Puppeteers live somewhere in the outskirts of the great theatrical world, and the puppet theatre is considered to be an attraction rather than serious stage art.
In brief: The exotic culture of Japan is revealed through the abundance of images which breathe with traditions and habits of several thousand years. The usual allegory of Japan is always theatrical – it may appear as geisha with a thirteen-stringed koto in hands; like an actor covered by No mask; o like a samurai with a sword. Meanwhile, the image of Japan of the 21st century is constructed using keywords of contemporary civilisation, such as robot, Sony, jakuza, Toyota or anime. New myths are created, but Japan remains in our conscience as a country of contracts and bright colours.
In brief: Our writers worry that serious literature is read less and less. The worry is grounded of course, but the strange thing is that the ones who express it are the creators of the serious literature. The situation of literature critics is also problematic – constant talks about its crisis and the commercial interest of critics often makes writers ignore the critics targeted at them and criticize the society instead that it is not capable of reading complicated texts any more.
In brief: The theatre is the most public from all arts; therefore, the audience is a necessary condition for its existence. Political theatre as a phenomenon is even more public as it deepens into social, political, economical problems refusing purely aesthetical artistic searches.
In brief: Every new work of the director Jonas Vaitkus arises big curiosity and interest, what should be expected from the performance this time, whether it will shock or say something important. Really, it may be stated that the director has surprised the audience with his newest performance “All My Sons” staged according to the play under the same name by Arthur Miller.
In brief: Who loves K.Navakas? The question is worth a million. One reviewer stated once that K. Navakas is most loved by K.Navakas. Also, K. Navakas and his texts are loved by other Lithuanian writers, especially poets, and this love is mutual. This love is openly shown in the first poem of the newest book of K. Navakas “From Mustard and Horseradish of Life” (V., LRS, 2007) called “A Song about the Writers’ Union”.
In brief: A large book would be needed for describing the activity of two musicians making Kaunas city famous. On last Wednesday of March, the soloist Sabina Martinaitytė and pianist Audronė Eitmanavičiūtė commemorated the twentieth anniversary of their joint concert activity. One could only wonder at the number of works done by the duet, organised concerts, prepared opera parts and gained awards reading the programme of the concert. However, how could a listener hearing the duet for the first time evaluate the performers?
In brief: The motto of the third concert of the festival of E.Grieg and M.K.Čiurlionis Music organised on March 16 at M.Žilinskas Art Gallery was “Nordic Meetings”. Scandinavian composers’ works were introduced to listeners by the singer A.Krikščiūnaitė, pianist A.Kisieliūtė and M.K.Čiurlionis Quartet. Music pieces of the Danish composer Carl Nielsen, Swedish composers Hug Alfven and Wilhelm Stenhammar, Finnish composer Jean Sibelius and Norwegian composer Edward Grieg sounded during the evening.
In brief: The old Žaliakalnis funicular of Kaunas has turned into a time machine and brings travellers to the past or present-day Russia. The exhibition of the British photographer Simon Roberts “Motherland Russia” is a cycle of photographs which has gained many responses abroad. It has been created during long trips in the far regions of Russia – along the Siberia, the Far East, Volga banks, Kaliningrad in search for places which have not been touched by modernisation.
In brief: Giving presents is pleasant. Accepting them is even more pleasant. Still, are gifts related with positive feelings only? Whether we are glad about a gift, depends on the taste and intentions of the giver of a present. Also, we should not interfere third persons into such a process, the National M. K. Čiurlionis Museum in this case.
In brief: What relates the Norwegian composer Edward Grieg and our composer Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis? An expert would start searching for relations in the feeling created by music, in studies or elsewhere. However, every music admirer of Kaunas may answer – they are related by the festival.
In brief: Meanwhile, announcements about events abroad in which our artists participate may not always be verified. Information is usually presented by artists themselves and usually the only thing left is to trust them. Still, Kaunas Chamber Theatre breached the limit of TRUST striving for its glory. From now on it will be necessary to prove the news about the triumph of our artists abroad by official documents.
In brief: The choir also has an important role in the oratory. Comments and inserts in ensembles sung by the choir, powerful finales help to reveal the drama of the music piece. Kaunas State Choir preserved the image of a professional choir and made an impression by the balanced sound and clear voice aesthetics. Nonetheless, forte prevailed during this performance. If more subtle nuances were searched for, more could be gained from the expression.
In brief: A pretentious and fanciful title does not always enlarge the value of a thing. The new performance of Kaunas Drama Theatre according to the play “I’ll Be Going” of Gintarė Adomaitytė presented in spring during the Drama Panorama interested by the changed title “White Cat in Black Alaska” first of all. Also, the director Arvydas Lebeliūnas has promised an exceptional story and untraditional theatre clothing of it.
In brief:Thus, several exhibits of the exhibition “So That Nobody Would Think” are most probably worth a luxurious interior wall about which the participants of the event dream about. Salon, commercial art also requires artistic mastery and fantasy – so that nobody would think that high prices of works may be justified by any offered commodity.
In brief: Gytis Ivanauskas Theatre, which was established not so long ago, presented the newest performance to Kaunas audience “I Love You Very Much” this weekend. The performance was described as a one-part performance without text. One is clear – the project encompasses aesthetics of dance, a drama performance or even a musical.
In brief: "The only concert in Lithuania", "the brightest jazz singer from the USA", "globally famous stars", Kaunas Philharmonic invited listeners to the concert “Classics in Jazz and Jazz in Classics” by such advertisement slogans last weekend. The Philharmonic, which was cast away from its house due to reconstruction work organised the concert at Vytautas Magnus University hall which is best associated with the spirit of Kaunas Jazz.
In brief: The exhibition of the best artwork of the year is not limited by any criteria. The traditional exhibition organised at M.K.Čiurlionis Art Museum is a live illustration what the endless artistic liberality means. Let admirers of art, who anticipate to see the best and most impressive artworks of the year, not be cheated. It is the most ironical continuous exhibition of art in Kaunas which is presented by organisers themselves with a slight smile on the face.
In brief: Thus, there were many contrasts in the concert of E.Ignatonis and A.Liutkutė organised by Kaunas Philharmonic which does not have its constant scene yet. Some impressions may serve as a lesson for future – all that shines like gold is not always gold, and the magic shortening Prof. does not always mean “professional”.
In brief: Kaunas State Drama Theatre presented the first premiere of this year – the performance directed by Gintaras Varnas, a research for young people “Hail of Stars”. The premiere marks the first step of the second course students of acting of the Academy of Music and Theatre headed by G.Varnas on the professional stage.
In brief: The international exhibition of collage organised in Vilnius for the third time (supervisor - Kęstutis Vasiliūnas) is presently exhibited in Kaunas at the Graphics Gallery. The smaller but the more valuable part of the exhibition, as it is stated, has been brought here. It consists of 60 rather small collage panels which split the walls of the gallery into multi-voiced diptychs. According to the requirements of the event, the artworks could not cross the three-dimensional space of assemblage.
In brief: The festival cycle of concerts of Kaunas State Philharmonic “From St. Christmas to the New Year”, which has already become traditional, gladdened Kaunas residents presenting programmes for listeners of various tastes. A free concert of Kaunas State Choir was offered to spiritual music admirers in the Garrison Church, marimba sounds of the guest from Russia Rostislav Sharajevski sounded for people who love exotics.
In brief: As the year is coming to an end, the gallery Meno Parkas presents the last important event of art of 2006 – the exhibition “Ultima Ratio”, the seventh event of the continuous international project “Art Today”, which reflects not only symptoms of contemporary art but also the amazing tolerance of the selection committee members.
In brief: As they say, the first pancake is always slightly burnt. Evidently, it is important what oil is used... The first "pancake" of the rather young collective Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra was presented on the eve of St. Christmas – the first compact disk is called by the intriguing name “Kaunas City Symphony Orchestra and Virgilijus Noreika”.
In brief: Bridges may join or part. This time bridges have joint separate artists from different places and with diverse interests, still striving for the same aim – to build a bridge which would be based on one idea. The bridge has united watercolourists whose brushes rise and fall, dip into a dense mass and stay for a moment in the air and then spill with colours to different sides.
In brief: The artistic thoughts of Eimutis Markūnas have been occupied by the primeval need of cognition, the craving to identify the essence of another person by scanning the body relief, to create a new identity for him. These ideas are fulfilled in the painter’s exhibition “Identifications”.
In brief: The poster of the known oboist Juozas Rimas who gave a concert at Kaunas Artists’ House was intriguing – it stated that the master of oboe will be singing Lithuanian folk and Neapolitan songs. The majority of people who came to the concert knew what they should expect.
In brief: Flair and surprise are most probably the main features that determine the birth of watercolour paintings. Intuition becomes the main instrument presenting the joy of creating an artwork to a watercolourist. The sixth sense did not disillusion either the authors of the new international watercolour exhibition “Baltic Bridges” or its organisers (supervisor Virginija Vitkienė).
In brief: The earlier staging of the operetta by Emmerich (Imrer) Kalman “Count's Daughter Mariza” (Gräfin Mariza) of 1984 is still alive in the memory of Kaunas residents. It was a merry, colourful performance full of emotional and easily remembered music, in which the best operetta performers of that time participated. All these epithets may be said about the newest staging of “Count's Daughter Mariza”.
In brief: What are jubilee evenings otherwise called commemoration evenings usually like? They are interesting, sometimes boring, sometimes very long and sometimes (in very rare cases) – too short. The solemn jubilee evening for commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Lithuanian Musicians’ Union and the 75th anniversary of the magazine Muzikos Barai, which took place at Kaunas Juozas Gruodis Conservatory on November 14, was exceptional by its contrasts.
In brief: As the Painting Studio of Kaunas Art Institute celebrated its tenth anniversary, the exhibition “10+1” was opened at the Picture Gallery in Kaunas. The participants are 15 artists who were conferred the Master’s degree at the Art Institute. Graduation works (since year 2002) are exhibited mostly in the exhibition; there are also some new artworks created after finishing the studies.
In brief: Music dedicated to sacral song and organ sounded at the monumental Kaunas Christ’s Resurrection Church last weekend. It is one more sign that the voice of professional music is getting stronger at churches.
In brief: The belief that scientific conferences may be attractive and useful only to a small circle of theoreticians does not always appear to be true. The content of the conference organised at the Art Institute of Vytautas Magnus University on October 26-27 could interest not only professional art critics and students but also other educated members of the society.
In brief: The idea to compare the art fields of Kaunas and Vilnius cherished by the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) for quite some time has been implemented finally. The title of the exhibition “101,3 km: Competition and Cooperation“ reveals the attempts of the supervisors (Linara Dovydaitytė, Kęstutis Kuizinas) to establish colleague-like relations and to provoke a kind of competition between the two cultural centres of Lithuania.
In brief: L.Oržekauskienė and V.Gelūnienė interpret the picturing of naked body in their tapestries in an original manner. G. Česonis presents psychological and meaningful photographs where moments of daily life of Kaunas residents on the eve of turning into Europeans are captured. P.Gilytė presents the plastic video work “Heat 360°“ – one of the most interesting works of 2005. The question why artworks breaking no limits or taboos were selected for the exhibition of a particular topic remains open.
Discussion in brief: The author of the letter Dalia Kuizinienė states that she has always considered writing about the creative works or activity of the family an erroneous practice and estimated people who behaved like this with light irony.
Discussion in brief: E-editors make a response to the letter of Dalia Kuizinienė thanking for the opinion on the review of the young and perspective art researcher Kotryna Džilavjanaitė, in the opinion of editors, about the exhibition “New Masks” in Kaunas organised by the husband of D.Kuizinienė, venerable Saulius Kuizinas.
In brief: International plain-airs dedicated to Antanas Samuolis were born as a necessity to creatively remind about the significance of this artist to the Lithuanian painting school. The annual event, which took place for the thirteenth time, marks the continuity which gradually turns into a tradition.
In brief: One day in August the art researcher Dr. Rasa Andriušytė was walking round the old town of Kaunas and dropped into the tourism information centre established in Kaunas Castle. She found out there that it was not possible to communicate in the Lithuanian language in the centre – as it became clear, two Latvian students participating in Leonardo da Vinci project were doing their internship at the centre.
In brief: The exhibition “New Masks” started from sound – loud advertisement, famous names, well-known exhibition space. Even the poster of the exhibition reflects the loudness by several levels of its perception. The sound has the quality to attract and to lull.
In brief: The exhibition of paintings of Sniegė Navickaitė-Prados called ”Personages” is open at Eglė’s Gallery. Sniegė is born in Kaunas and obtained her education in Lithuania; however, she has been living and studying in France, Bordo city for six years already. She is creating actively and organising personal exhibitions there.
In brief: Plain-air means the same for an artist as the sea to a mariner most probably. One starts getting intoxicated from the feeling of endless freedom. One the other hand, one risks to drop the direction. The plain-air which finished one day ago at Babtynas Žemaitkiemis estate may be realised as an experimental kitchen, a possibility to try out a new role.
In brief: Three hundred sunny days per year, white sands of Varadero, coral reefs, Havana cigars, carnivals, poor but always smiling people. A little bit of E. Hemingway, Che Guevara and, of course, Fidel Castro with his unforgettable utopia of communism. This is the image of Cuba created for tourists. Still, what Cuba is in reality?
In brief: The selection of stanzas of Kęstutis Navakas ”Chronicles of Good Life“ is a mosaic of moments experienced or created more than ten years ago. The author of the article presents the review of the selection. As the book of Bohemian essays is divided into three parts – the chronicles of white, red and green wine, each of them is reviewed in sequence.
In brief: The book of K.Navakas “Chronicles of Good Life“ is an attempt to cross the rather close distance of ten years and reveal the environment which existed a decade ago, to create a chronicle about it. The author of the book describes the genre of stories included into the “Chronicles” as Bohemian essays. Such a description makes one expect a playful text about the extravagance of Bohemian life and the quenchless passion of life.
In brief: Usually nobody regards young people, who try to judge about works of grown-up people, seriously. Therefore, the author stresses from the beginning that the remarks presented in the article are not critical works but notes about the poetry of Dovilė Zelčiūtė, Daiva Čepauskaitė and Donaldas Kajokas.
Thewebsitewww.kamane.lthasbeennoticedbyITprofessionals. The largest and most popular Lithuanian IT magazine Kompiuterija-PC World, the circulation of which reaches 50 000 items, has paid attention to the new website of Kaunas arts and art consumers www.kamane.lt opened in October in the last issue of the publication. The editor of the publication Bronislovas Burgis wrote a good word dedicated to Kamanė in the introduction of the catalogue of IT exhibition Infobalt'2005 of the magazine Kompiuterija-PC World which came out today. The attention of IT professionals is extremely important to us.
The 1st week’s statistics (October 3-10) of kamane.lt is joyful. We‘ve already got 1426 unique visitors.
Everything is fine with us in general; still, we fear for Your health. For it not to get worse than it has been till now. Nobody asked You insistently (perhaps even with importune) to announce Your work, ideas, the received awards and titles up till now. Most probably some rather big businessman who constantly finds himself between the millstones would become astounded after receiving such an offer for self-advertisement. However, artists are strong people. It is really difficult to baffle them by this question.
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