Eight halls hold thousands of various everyday household and lifestyle items. What Lithuanian gene is encoded in them? What layers have we perpetuated and forgotten over time? What new can we discover in the past? From March 24 The storage-exhibition of ethnographic exhibits that is starting to operate in the House of Stories is the only one of its kind in Lithuania so far - it is open not only to researchers, but also to participants of special thematic excursions.
The branch of the Lithuanian National Museum opened its doors almost a year ago House of stories so far, it has organized three significant exhibitions and repeatedly invited visitors to various events with local and foreign guests. As museum director Rūta Kačkutė says, the House of Stories has already established itself among the capital's museums.
"After moving the ethnographic exhibits protected by the museum to the storage-exhibition, we completed the implementation of the conceived concept of the House of Stories. In the warehouse, we store and exhibit Lithuanian household items that were used in everyday life 200 years ago and more. Here - in one place - there is a unique opportunity not only for scientists, but also for visitors to see the whole of some collections of exhibits, to try to cover it with a glance and understand the scale and value", says R. Kačkutė.
"The exhibits stored in the repository speak of the way of life of Lithuanian peasants, which is inseparable from their worldview of that time. These are the relics that reflect the household and being, which built the Lithuanian identity, but disappeared in the natural change of time. Today, they deserve a new acquaintance to tell us what meaningful codes were encoded in them", says Dr. Miglė Lebednykaitė.
During special tours led by the museum's ethnographers, visitors will see the entire collection of spindles and spindle whorls, spinning wheels, and traditional furniture stored in the National Museum of Lithuania. Today, they acquire meaning not as work tools or household items, but as decorative interior details, whose shapes and ornaments it is worth studying and analyzing not only from an artistic point of view: often men gave the most beautifully decorated spinning tool - a spindle or a spindle - to women, seeking their submissiveness and showing love. And some exhibits, such as a spindle decorated by an eleven-year-old shepherd, a well-known diviner, or the girl herself, offer a new point of view, layers of less explored and undiscussed topics and contexts.
The home interior set in the storage room consists of a group of furniture - chests, cupboards, wardrobes, sideboards, towels, clocks, cabinets and other daily household artifacts of a peasant. Furniture colors, color combinations, ornamentation highlight not only the Lithuanian concept of beauty or the aesthetic taste developed by observing nature, but also the differences between ethnographic regions. In the warehouse, among the details of the interior, there are also many elements of architectural decoration and construction of houses.
A rich collection of tools used by various craftsmen attracts the eye, which seems to explain by itself that without them all these items would not exist.
"The exhibits stored here reflect the social life of a Lithuanian peasant. And that life, of course, was not without influences from the outside world. For example, brown painted in the XNUMXth century. the end chest testifies to the fact that this color pigment reached Lithuania at that time from Sweden, and orange pigment from Holland. Peasants decorated their houses as much as they could, which is why human industriousness and creativity were valued the most. However, today we look at the exhibits under study from a different perspective: the decoration of household items and architectural details represents the Lithuanian peasant's desire to emphasize his social status, to perpetuate the understanding of cherished values, to maintain and pass on traditions," says M. Lebednykaitė.
The symbolic path towards the storage of ethnographic exhibits is marked by the XNUMXth century paintings decorating the exhibition spaces of the History House. at the beginning of the XNUMXth century in the middle, metal and earthenware used in the household - pots, coffee grinders, bowls, jugs. Next to them are various baskets, children's toys, sticks to lean on while traveling.
The storage facility was designed by architect Alfredas Trimonis and furnished by artist Eimantas Ludavičius and museum ethnographers.
Special tours of the new storage facility for visitors throughout the spring - from March 24. until May 26 - on Thursdays will be led by the museum's ethnographers, who have been researching the collections of exhibits for many decades.
