"Rethinking the transformations of urban spaces" - this is how Mantautas Šulskus, Linas Tranas and Milda Laužikaitė present their "Kuriu Vilnių" work. A bench-sculpture has been installed in the Pelėda Square in Lazdynai for confessing from interconnected stylized listening rooms.
"The idea was born while thinking about the transformations of urban spaces. Tsar destroyed St. The "Klausyklos" installed on the site of Joozap Sužadētinis church represents the Catholic heritage of Vilnius and reminds us of the constantly ongoing drastic changes in cities and the people who experience them. Sections of the bench-sculpture, separated by a mesh wall, will allow acquaintances or strangers to enter into a conversation in a new, unexperienced way - with someone or something, themselves, a different culture," say the artists.
According to them, the transfer of the auditorium to the public space manifests the message of Vilnius as an open and constantly changing city, and invites dialogue about the changes in the city's public spaces and will allow Vilnius residents to experience the border between public and intimate, religious and secular, between open and closed, between the city's past, present and future.
Having already built the sculpture, the authors realized that from the bench-sculpture, Vilnius residents and city guests will be able to look at the Vilnius Cathedral. The towers of the Trinity Greek Rite Catholic (Unitarian) Church, where mass is held exclusively in Ukrainian. In the face of war, the destroyed cities of Ukraine remind us of the fragility of cities.
According to the authors of the project, the idea of the bench was realized for the first time in Copenhagen in the summer of 2015, in the Nikolaj Kunsthal gallery, which is located in a former church. In Vilnius, there are a lot of spaces where there are former prayer houses. The artists took the idea of the bench home and recreated it for their city. In the project stage, the bench-sculpture traveled to several locations in Vilnius and, after a long process, settled in Lazdynai Pelėda Square, where St. Church of Joseph the Spouse.
"Klausyklos" is one of the 12 projects of "Kuriu Vilnius". The competition received a record number of applications - as many as 188. The "Kuriu Vilnių" program initiated by the city revives the neglected spaces of the capital.


