This exhibition illuminated Lithuania and its inhabitants, exploring history and memory, as well as selected motifs that have shaped Lithuanian identity. The show was wide-ranging: the oldest photographs included in the exhibition came from the nineteenth century, while the newest ones were from as recent as 2023. Apart from works that already belong to the canon – taken by renowned masters – the show also presented images by less obvious artists, including figures who emigrated from their homeland. Traditional prints were complemented by photobooks and other publications.

The exhibition was not a typical retrospective tied to a chronological framework. Rather, it focused on specific subjects and themes, as reflected in the titles of individual sections of the show: The Atelier, A Week in Vilnius, A Photographer’s Travels, Silence, Self-Portrait, Personal Acts of Memory, and Diverse Lithuania.

The Atelier provided insights into the artistic legacy of the pioneers of photography. It also juxtaposed pictures by 19th-century photographers with a recent work by Robert Kuśmirowski, executed using archival portraits of important Lithuanian writers and poets, insurgents, politicians, and emigrants. The section A Week in Vilnius concentrated on the city and its mythic status, with visual representations ranging from the beginning of the 20th century until current times. A Photographer’s Travels featured lyrical and contemplative shots of the Lithuanian countryside, often set in a mythological context. Silence endowed the quotidian with gravity, finding beauty in banal objects. The Self-Portrait section presented photographic documentation of performative projects, in which the point of departure was the artist’s body. Personal Acts of Memory explored the trauma of Lithuania’s post-war era and the country’s plight under the heel of murderous 20th-century totalitarian regimes. The last part of the exhibition – Diverse Lithuania – was dedicated to contemporary Lithuania; it showed a country that is steeped in tradition, yet simultaneously open to modernity.

Virgilijus Šonta, „Morning”, 1982.

The selected photographs were highly varied in terms of both content and form. However, they were united by the artists’ desire to find beauty in the mundane. Most of the images are marked by lyricism, peacefulness, and melancholy. The works were exhibited so as to reveal how each generation of artists was indebted to its predecessors. Eminent artists such as Józef Czechowicz, Stanisław Kazimierz Kossakowski, as well as established figures from the Lithuanian School of Photography like Antanas Sutkus, Romualdas Rakauskas and Romualdas Vikšraitis, were juxtaposed with the next generation of artists, including Tadas Kazakevičius, Indrė Šerpytytė, and Paulius Petraitis.

The photographs took up many themes that are in fact not unique to Lithuania. Rather, they relate to common experiences of Central Europeans. After all, Vilnius was an important city for Poles and Belarusians, and the ordeals connected with Soviet occupation affected the citizens of many states in this part of the continent.

Od lewej: Łukasz Galusek, Robert Kuśmirowski, Agata Wąsowska-Pawlik, Natalia Żak, Vilma Samulionytė, Adam Mazur.

Curators

Adam Mazur

Critic and art historian, curator of exhibitions of contemporary art

Vilma Samulionytė

Visual artist who focuses on photography and video art

Natalia Żak

Curator at the International Cultural Centre

Curators

Adam Mazur

Critic and art historian, curator of exhibitions of contemporary art

Since 2013, he has lectured at the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts in Poznań, in the Photography Department. He is the author of several books about Polish and Central European photography, including Okaleczony Świat: Historie fotografii Europy Środkowej 1838-2018 [Mutilated world: histories of photography in Central Europe], published by Universitas in 2019. He lives in Warsaw.

Vilma Samulionytė

Visual artist who focuses on photography and video art

She is a curator and project manager of the Lithuanian Photographers’ Association. She graduated from the prestigious Film and Television School of Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU). In 2013, she received a UNESCO/Aschburg Bursary for a residency at the Instituto Sacatar in Brazil. She lives in Vilnius.

Natalia Żak

Curator at the International Cultural Centre

Art historian, curator. She has worked with both domestic and foreign art galleries. For the International Cultural Centre, she has co-curated exhibitions such as Travelling Images: Małgorzata Mirga-Tas (2022), More Than Bauhaus: German Photography Between the Wars and Polish Parallels (2021), and Photobloc: Central Europe in Photobooks (Kraków 2019-2020, Olomouc 2020, Vilnius 2021).

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