We are pleased to invite you to the exhibition “Architecture of Lust” that will open on May 13th, 7pm at former cinema building “Panemune” (Vaidoto street 26, Kaunas)
“Architecture of Lust” is the concluding exhibition of a five-year research project that probes into the murky underbelly of architecture. The research moves from the imaginary of the urban, to the symbolic of the spatial, and eventually to the impeccable real of the material. Using archival documents, urban tales, photo documentation, theories, gossip and artistic interpretations, the project aims to reveal lust as an omnipresent force permeating architecture. Kaunas and its celebrated modernist architecture became a playground for such exploration.
In many ways, the city is considered to be a success story of embodied modernity. However, as the research moved through thoughtfully planned streets, eye-catching villas and enticing wooden houses, the tissue of the city fissured, revealing territories of the numinous and otherworldly. Sites of disenchanted modernity became muddled and slowly re-enchanted. From gates of hell opening in passageways of the new town to the esoteric rituals of local bohème—the urban fabric proved to be ripe with uncharted lust.
The works in the exhibition act as subtle references that create a multifaceted, desire-ridden architectural experience. Instead of a linear historiographical narrative, visitors of “Architecture of Lust” will have the opportunity to embark on an experiential composition that encapsulates the results of five years of research.
Within the scenography of an old wooden house’s attic, “Architecture of Lust” confesses the secrets of a lustful city. It whispers stories of seduction, transgression and the surreptitious past. At the same time, the exhibition cherishes the living and heterogenous city; a city fervidly resisting the rationale of the present.
Exhibition will feature both new art objects created by Inside Job and classic sketches by Kaunas-based set designer Liudas Truikis. Space will be filled with the mysterious atmospheric quality of Lukas Mykolaitis’ photographs and Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė’s suggestion to look at the smallest architectural organic particles, while the architecture of the building itself will invite you to discover and experience the intimate video work of Julie Favreau.
ARTISTS
Aistė Ambrazevičiūtė (LT) is a digital artist and ex-architect based in Lithuania. Her work focuses on the decorative arts of architectonics, where she celebrates and employs the forms, shapes and textures found in the intricate and complex nature of things. Goal of her practice is to stimulate the arts of noticing and visualise the unimagined reality. She is a creator of ‘Plantasia Lab’, where she designs digital plants using the intuitive imagination of technology. Currently she is a PhD-in-Practice candidate at the Vilnius Academy of Arts working on the ‘Grammar of the Forest Tectonics by Lichens’.
Inside Job (PL) is the duo of artist Ula Lucińska and Michał Knychaus. Both graduated from the University of Arts in Poznań, Poland. Their practice is based on the use of different mediums and materials, which often leads to the creation of specific, multi-layered environments. They focus on the processes of how identities are constructed, including the identities of places, within the context of dynamic changes such as: the climate crisis, technological acceleration, political shifts and growing anxiety about the unknown future. Many of their projects refer to futuristic and post-catastrophic scenarios.
Lukas Mykolaitis (LT) is an artist and researcher currently based in Kaunas. Using photography and other documentation techniques, Lukas explores the relationship between historical and personal spaces. While creating personal collections of archival material, through his creative processes, he seeks to rethink the notions of heritage, ephemerality of memory, the accumulation and transmission of information. Lukas is also the co-founder of the artists collective Heritage Institute, a performative institution with archiving and story curation at its core.
Julie Favreau (CA) lives and works between Berlin and Montreal. Since 2005, Favreau has been working at the crossroad between choreography and sculpture, mainly via moving image. This, leading her to her actual researches: Favreau’s knowledge of body-contact with the inanimate allows her to study how we can approach artificial intelligence in the field of bioethics.
Liudas Truikys (LT) (1904-1987) stage designer and painter. Initially, he was a book illustrator, painter (mainly of landscapes), decorated churches, designed sets for drama and opera performances (P. Vaičiūnas’s The True Path 1933, G. Verdi’s The Ball of Bones 1934, A. Račiūnas’s Three Talismans 1936). Later, he created stage designs mainly for opera performances at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre and Kaunas Music Theatre. His early work was dominated by aestheticized poetic expression, which was later replaced by dramatism, a purified plastic language, and compositions made of repetitive motifs analogous to musical rhythms, with a pronounced art deco influence.
TEAM
Curator: Tautvydas Urbelis
Exhibition architect: Artūras Čertovas
Coordination: Margarita Žigutytė
Design: 0ffsh0.re [1]
Translations: Austėja Banytė
Editing: Dovydas Laurinaitis, Goda Aksamitauskaitė
PARTNERS
Partners: Architects Association of Lithuania Kaunas Chapter; Kinas “Panemune”; Modernism for the Future Kaunas 2022; Kaunas Artist House; M.K.Čiurlionis museum of Art; L.Truikys ir M.Rakauskaitė House-Museum; Rupert; Architextūra
Special thanks to Aistė Liuka Jonaitytė
Project presented by Kaunas European Capital of Culture 2022
Partly funded: Lithuanian Councils for Culture
EXHIBITION VISITING INFORMATION
Place: kinas “Panemune”, Vaidoto street 26, Kaunas
Opening time: May 13th 7pm
Exhibition visiting time: May 13th – June 12th
Thursday – Friday 4pm-7pm
Saturday 2pm-7pm
Guided tours with curator: times will be confirmed soon
ACCESSIBILITY
Address: Vaidoto g. 26, Kaunas
Public transport bus stop KTU inžinerijos Licėjus.
Trolleybus: 1; 4
Bus: 46; 47; 68
Kinas “Panemunė” building is on the other side of the road from KTU building moving towards the church.
This exhibition is happening on the second floor of the building. Building has no elevator, it is not accessible for people with wheelchairs or movement disability.
During the exhibition time there will be smell of incense.