On August 30, the last Sunday of summer, the branches of the National Museum of Lithuania (LNM) will welcome visitors for free. On that day, for the first time during the Free Sunday, the exhibition “Frequency of Freedom”, which opened a week ago in the Gediminas Castle Tower, will be open, and in the House of History there will be the last opportunity to see the photographic dialogue between Stanisław Filiberto Fleury and Sigitas Parulskis.
Responsibility for your freedom
The exhibition “Frequency of Freedom” opened in the Gediminas Castle Tower on August 23. It tells the story of Lithuania’s freedom struggles not chronologically, but through the constantly recurring choice – to resist, to take responsibility, and to act together.
“The circumstances and methods of resistance differed, but people kept appearing who took responsibility and asked themselves: what can I do now? They could have been afraid, doubted, not knowing how it would all end, but they chose not to give up. Freedom does not appear by itself – it is created by people’s decisions and actions. Today we live in a free state, but the question of responsibility has not disappeared. The exhibition invites us to think about how we ourselves would behave in difficult circumstances and what we can do for our country today,” said Rūta Kačkutė, Director General of the Lithuanian National Museum, during the opening of the exhibition.
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Uprisings, the struggle for independence, the partisan war, the dissident movement, the Revival and the events of January 1991 are combined in the exhibition in a recurring frequency. The tower itself is a part of this history: for many years the remains of the participants of the 1863–1864 uprising who were sentenced to death rested at its foot, on January 1, 1919, the Lithuanian state flag was raised for the first time on the tower, during the years of the Soviet occupation, political prisoners returning from the camps rushed here to take pictures, and in January 1991, volunteers defending the tricolor saw tanks driving towards the parliament building from here.
Fleury and Parulskis’ photography conversation and immersion into Lithuanian roots
The exhibition “Looking at Each Other” is open on the last day at the LNM History House. At the beginning of the 20th century, Stanisław Filibertas Fleury walked around Vilnius with a camera and photographed the city’s streets, hills, bridges, and everyday life. More than a hundred years later, the writer, poet, and photographer S. Parulskis went to the same places, set up a large-format camera on a tripod, and captured the same image. The exhibition reveals the change and stability of the city of Vilnius at the same time, and the photographs are accompanied by texts by S. Parulskis. This weekend is the last when this exhibition can be viewed.
The LNM History House is hosting a permanent Ethnographic Repository-Exhibition during the free weekend. This is the only place in the country where you can see a rich and diverse collection commemorating the identity of Lithuanians who lived 200 years ago and more, immortalized in architecture, home interiors, everyday life, crafts and businesses. Straw gardens created by craftsmen also find a special place in the repository.
Optical illusions, dragons, and the most beautiful books from three countries
On Sunday, August 30, at 11:00, 12:00, and 14:00, free 45-minute tours of the world of optical illusions created by the artist and collector will be held at the Kazys Varnelis House-Museum of the Latvian National Museum of Art – with imaginative games, theatrical mise-en-scènes, and unexpected spatial transformations.
The museum also has an exhibition for the whole family, “The Book Dragon. A Fantastic Story about the Beauty of Books”. It playfully and engagingly tells the story of the birth of a book: what materials it is made of, how it is printed, illustrated and bound, and what an ex-libris is – a sign that book lovers use to mark their library books. Bibliophile Kazys Varnelis accumulated more than 9500 books during his life, so this exhibition continues the discussion about the former housekeeper’s special relationship with books.
The museum halls also exhibit the most beautiful books from three countries: 46 laureates of the Czech Most Beautiful Book Competition, 21 Lithuanian books from the 34th Book Art Competition and 25 Latvian publications from the 33rd Golden Apple competition. The most beautiful Latvian books are exhibited for the first time in the Kazys Varnelis House-Museum. The exhibitions are organized in cooperation with the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania , the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Vilnius and the “Country of Books”.
Ukrainian children’s works
At the Vilnius Defensive Wall Bastion of the LNM, you can visit the exhibition “That Flower Looks Like a Drone” – ten paintings born from a painting workshop organized by Danish artist Eske Touborg in Kyiv for Ukrainian children liberated from Russian-occupied territories.
The artist has supplemented the brightly colored backgrounds painted by the children on a 20-meter canvas with blurred portraits of their own and images of war – this speaks of the systematic destruction of the identity of the kidnapped children: new names, imposed languages and loyalties. Alongside the paintings, a sculpture created by the artist, depicting the fear of children, is also exhibited. The title of the exhibition is One Child’s Words About His Painted Flower, and the author will donate all funds from the sale of the works to the organization “Save Ukraine” (until September 6).
The Bastion dungeons have a renewed exhibition “From Flint to Gunpowder”. It offers visitors the opportunity to see previously unexhibited authentic weapons from the LNM collections and the 10-year evolution of weaponry: flint is replaced by steel with gunpowder, bow by arquebus, blow by shot, and the beast in the sights by man.
The topic of sustainability and the opportunity to understand Lithuania
The archaeological exhibition “Use Again” is open at the LNM Old Arsenal until November 8. Archaeological finds reveal how people extended the life of objects — from carefully repaired jewelry and tools to objects that acquired a completely new function. Sometimes items were remade or repaired even when they were no longer suitable for everyday use, for example, when preparing them for burial rites.
The LNM Castle House, located in the very center of Vilnius, houses the exhibition “Understanding Lithuania”, which presents the country’s history, culture and identity in six threads: creativity, beliefs, struggles, historical turning points, global connections, faces. The house itself, built in the 16th century, was the headquarters of the Castle House of Vilnius until the 18th century – history has preserved the names of 39 castle houses.
“Lithuanian Indiana Jones” – Jonas Basanavičius
The LNM Signatories House Gallery is hosting an exhibition “Unknown Jonas Basanavičius: Lithuanian Indiana Jones” about the little-known archaeological and anthropological activities of the doctor until September 27.
The exhibition presents the Lithuanian archaeological monuments he researched and the theories of Lithuanian origin he formed: his personality is revealed through personal belongings, and his scientific activities through archaeological finds and a collection of skulls collected from ancient graves. The exhibition was created by master’s students of the Department of Archaeology, Faculty of History, Vilnius University .
A look at history through the prism of contemporary art
The LNM Jonas Basanavičius Birthplace in Ožkabaliai has dedicated most of its projects this year to the 175th anniversary of the patriarch’s birth. Until September 27, the museum is showing the audiovisual installation “Es humanus”. The volumetric installation combines textiles, kinetic projections, music and contemporary dance. The work becomes a connection between tradition, history and contemporary art. A different story is being created by artists about the personality of J. Basanavičius, using the leitmotif of a person: from the first heartbeat to a thinking personality and a guide uniting the entire nation – the Lithuanian Patriarch Doctor, whose works covered the themes of nationalism and the nurturing of life.
The exhibition “Traveling Fighter” tells about Jonas Basanavičius’ travels around Europe and across the Atlantic – not for rest, but for work. The exhibition features his personal belongings that have never been exhibited before: a toiletry case with brushes, cufflinks, a stiff white collar, a pillowcase with state flags, a document case “LITHUANIAN FAIRYTALES”, Franzensbad glasses, a sachet with Bulgarian soil and an autograph, hand-drawn playing cards. Next to it is a printing house toolbox, reliefs of the 1863 rebels T. Kosciuszko and A. Mickiewicz, and a pocket pistol.
Mykolas Sauka’s sculpture “Church Pillar” in the birthplace of Jonas Basanavičius also speaks of the patriarch’s personality. The three-meter-high wooden work is a modern interpretation of the Lithuanian church pillar tradition: it depicts the figure of a child holding a mask. The sculpture does not depict a specific saint, myth or fairy tale character.
“The connection I had in mind when creating the sculpture is a connection with tradition – through the form of a chapel pillar. The sculpture placed in a traditional small architectural object does not depict any specific saint, myth or fairy tale character. Folklore, fairy tales, myths are born from oral tradition, from collective creation. This is what I invite visitors to contribute to. The sculpture placed in a chapel pillar – like many sculptures, is just an abstract form, a character without a name, waiting for a story to be created for him. If a story is created, he will succeed and he will live,” said sculptor M. Sauka.
In Palanga – the sea in tapestries and partisan stories
The LNM Palanga Mayor Jonas Šliūpas Museum in Palanga is hosting a sensory exhibition for the blind and not only — “In the Shoes of Lithuanian Partisans…” until October 2. Here you will experience the stories of Lithuanian partisans through smell, hearing, sight and touch: the exhibition center features freedom fighters’ footwear, shoe covers, shoe blanks and other exhibits related to footwear production, and twelve historically restored artifacts can be touched, measured or even worn. The exhibition was prepared by historian, artist and footwear designer Rūta Rimšelienė. This exhibition is part of the summer residency program “CREATION” at the Jonas Šliūpas Museum.
Until October 2, the museum is also hosting the exhibition “Marija Švažienė: Tapestries and Painting”. The artist (born in 1930) has been breaking with established tapestry traditions since her early works and giving this form a dynamic, spatial expression. The exhibition features motifs of the sea and Palanga, as well as a creative dialogue with her husband, painter Jonas Švažas (1925–1976). The five-decade story with the Italian-born Swiss composer Gaetano Giuffrè is also presented: his rhapsody, created based on “Spatial Tapestry”, was unknown to the author for many years, and here it sounds for the first time against the background of the restored tapestry that inspired her.
The bridge to nowhere and the vanished city
LNM Vincas Kudirkas Museum at 13 p.m. – Summer Sunday excursion around Kudirkas Naumiestis. Museum workers will show one of the largest churches in Užnemunė – the late Baroque Church of the Discovery of the Holy Cross, interwar modernist architecture that you would not expect to see in a small town, and a bridge over the Širvinta River, which today no longer leads anywhere. The excursion is paid, it is recommended to purchase tickets in advance.
The museum in Kudirkas Naumiestis hosts the exhibition “I want to go home, to Širvinta. In search of a destroyed city” about the city of Širvinta (German: Schirwindt), which stretched across the river and disappeared without a trace – the easternmost city belonging to Germany, once called the twin of Kudirkas Naumiestis. The exhibition is prepared from the collection accumulated by teacher and local historian Antanas Spranaitis and his wife Irena over many years: during the Soviet era, they traveled around the former East Prussian region, renamed the Kaliningrad region, and collected surviving German dishes, household items, and tools. Currently, they can be seen in the exhibition of the Vincas Kudirkas Museum.
Free museums
On the last Sunday of February, August 30, the following museums and their departments invite you to visit them for free:
National Museum of Lithuania :
Gediminas castle towerThe old arsenalHouse of signatoriesKazis Varnelis House-MuseumThe defensive walls of Vilnius are being fortifiedFormer prisonHouse of storiesJonas Basanavičius Birthplace MuseumVincos Kudirka Museum
Lithuanian National Museum of Art:
Vilnius picture galleryNational Art GalleryArt Museum of the Radvil PalaceMuseum of Applied Arts and DesignVytautas Kasiulis Art MuseumPalanga Amber MuseumClocks MuseumGallery of Pranas DomšaitisPomary Gallery
National Museum Palace of the Rulers of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania
National MK Čiurlionis Art Museum:
Kaunas picture galleryMuseum of A. Žmuidzinavičius’ Works and Collections / Devils’ MuseumThe house-museum of A. and P. GalauniasJ. Zikar’s house-museumHistorical Presidency of the Republic of LithuaniaMK Čiurlionis house-museumVK Jonynas gallery
Kaunas IX Fort Museum
Lithuanian Museum of Ethnocosmology
Lithuanian sea museum
Lithuanian Folk Household Museum
Lithuanian Museum of Education
Museum of Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Cinema
Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum:
Bali and Vanda Sruogai House-MuseumJuozas Grušas House-MuseumJuozas Tumas-Vaižgantas’ apartment-museumSalomėja Nėris and Bernardus Bučas House-MuseumMuseum of Children’s Literature
Šiauliai “Aušra” Museum:
Šiauliai History MuseumChaim Frenkel’s Villa-MuseumBicycle MuseumMuseum of PhotographyMuseum of Radio and TelevisionVenclauskis House-MuseumHomestead of a greengrocer miller
Trakai History Museum:
Trakai Island CastleSacred Art Exhibition / Trakai Peninsula CastleMedinkai castleSeraj Shapshal Karaite Museum
Vilnius Gaon Jewish History Museum:
Samuel Buck MuseumMuseum of Lithuanian Jewish Culture and IdentityHolocaust expositionPaneriai Memorial
Vaclovas Into Stone Museum
Samogitian Museum “Alka”:
Samogitian Bishopric MuseumŽemaicai Village MuseumTelšiai Yeshiva
Lithuanian Aviation Museum (currently only the outdoor exhibition and museum departments can be visited):
At the birthplace-museum of pilot Stasys GirėnasAt the birthplace-museum of pilot Steponas Darius
The following museums and their departments will also be open for free:
Before visiting these museums, please check their websites for additional information.