The "Kuriu Vilnių" competition, which is in its fourth year and brings art to unexpected spaces of the capital, has been filled with 12 new projects. This year, the competition received a record number of applications - as many as 188. The 12 strongest projects that will appear in various districts of the capital this year have been selected. Among them is a giant mushroom In Vingo Park, new highlights of the Green Bridge and bird watching the station. 0,5 million was allocated to finance them. euros.
"Last year, during the first quarantine, I was happy that the competition received many applications - at that time it was a sign that artists are using the pandemic productively and are boldly looking for ideas on how to decorate the city. This year we received twice as many applications, so it seems that the people of Vilnius are bursting with creativity even in the face of these restrictions. I congratulate all the winners and I am glad that most of the works will appear again closer to the people of Vilnius - in their residential areas", said the mayor of Vilnius Remigius Šimašius.
See what 12 artistic highlights you'll see in different neighborhoods this year:
In the Grill area in Vingis Park, the artist Andrius Labašauskas will not build a traditional stone spindle to perpetuate agricultural culture and sponsors, but rather perpetuate a kind of kingdom that feeds, inspires, educates and enriches people - it will be "Mushroom", which will sprout in the historical park's food area.
Next to the renovated Žirmūnai beach, a sculpture and skateboard park will be created under the Valakampiai bridge "Rio de Žirmūnas" – an initiative aiming not only to create an aesthetically attractive park suitable for active leisure, but also to invite the local community to contribute to the creation of the park, and in the future also to the organization of renovation talks or events. A park built and maintained by artists and skateboarders in cooperation with the local community would provide an opportunity to establish a closer relationship with the living environment, nurture and themselves contribute to the life of the cultural spaces of the city.
Kipras Dubauskas, together with the employees of the Lithuanian Nature Foundation and students of botanical sciences, will start collecting detailed information about the biological diversity of Lazdynai Island and the formation of flora, the genetic diversity of the island - in the middle of Neris, called Lazdynai Island, will be established bird phenological observation station, lured by the fruit trees planted on the island, zigzag bird traps will be built.
The "Cultural and Organizational Ideas" Public Enterprise will give gifts to the capital "Future Lithuanian" - the work of the Japanese artist Hiroyuki Mitsume Takahashi, which is planned on the facade of an apartment building in Naujininkai, on the road from Vilnius airport to the city center (building address: Darius ir Girėno st. 13). The work actualizes national heritage, traditional Lithuanian costume and other ethnographic artefacts in a futuristic, attractive, modern way, paves the way for a new interpretation of Lithuanian traditional symbols, and awakens the imagination.
According to Audrias Ambras, after removing the sculptures from the Green Bridge, it is no longer known what to do in their place, and the flower pots or works of art on the pedestals do not fit with the overall architectural composition of the bridge. The architect proposed new ones Green bridge signs, which will be abstract - they will not only symbolically mark the space previously occupied by the sculptures, but also remind us of the expressive construction of the previous bridge.
The Vilnius pedestrian path "L8" is that 1 hour 24 minutes duration of the winding leisure walking trail through the territory of Užupis and the state castle reserve, which has a number of interesting objects that make you pause. The artists of VšĮ PVZ LT will immortalize the path with modern means In Užupi the memory of living artists. The trail will have markers that are educational, intriguing, and aesthetically, yet unobtrusively, complementary. In unexpected places, it will be possible to see sketches of unfinished works by artists that have not yet been presented to the public.
Fabijoniškės also attracted the attention of artists. The creative team of the project - artist Bert Jacobsas and Sigita Simona Paplauskaitė - proposes to create a new meeting place for the community, taking advantage of the possibilities of landscape formation and artistic expression. "Fabijon's Site" - it will be a friendly garden of stone sculptures for the residents of the Fabijoniškii House to sit down, rest, cook outside, and most importantly - gather and be together.
in Antakalni, in the Montville Triangle, a new attraction will appear - community garden, which would stand out with specially designed functional sculptural objects (benches, greenhouse, water tap and fence), which will not only serve, but also have artistic value. According to the authors, the idea of the project was born during the global pandemic, when the issues of mental health and human well-being, the importance of the common good, the community and the immediate environment, as well as the issues of urban green spaces became particularly evident due to restricted movement and forced sedentarism.
In the same Antakalny, there will be another artistic highlight, named "Wolf Changes Skin". The main idea of the project is to take a new look at the well-known symbol of the city of Vilnius, the iron wolf. Vytautas Poška's sculpture standing in Sapiegii Park, a classic sculptural variant of the "iron wolf", with the author's approval, will playfully and creatively acquire new, deeper, not only romantic meanings, which are dictated by the current affairs of today's life - the abundance of information, excessive consumption, which is encouraged by the ever-accelerating pace of life and the way, the hypocrisy, the empty politics, the destruction of nature.
Another project that won funding this year is "Vilnius Bunda". This is an ambitious project dedicated to the 700th anniversary of Vilnius, which will revive the forgotten spaces of Vilnius, combining a huge network of Lithuanian and foreign professional creators of urban and contemporary art, history, architecture and new technologies. Within 3 years, 15 districts are planned to be included in the project: Naujamiestis, Naujininkis, Stotis, Vilkpėda, Naujaj Vilnia, Žirmūnis, Šeškinė, Fabijoniškes, Karoliniškes, Justiniškes, Pašilaičius, Lazdynes, Žvērynas, Pilaitė and Viršuliškes.
Another attraction will be built in Šeškinė, next to Šeškiuk lake - GEO ART sculptural benches are inspired by the natural environment of Šeškina. Unique, sculptural, expressive benches combined into a single composition will allow a group of people to gather and give a new meaning to a very beautiful natural place.
Artist Povilas Kupčinskas on Malūnų str. 3, the walls of the residential building, which used to be the Užupis Bernardini Monastery in Vilnius, will be painted Bernardinas Sienietis, who brought reforms to Lithuania. Thanks to his efforts, monasteries were built not only in Vilnius but throughout Lithuania.
