THE AGENDA OF THE VISIT

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25/08/2020-06/09/2020

In 1910, Austrian architect Adolf Loos published an essay “Ornament and Crime”, where he criticised décor in contemporaneous production, claiming that it is amoral to waste resources on adding unnecessary ornament. Loos was not the only one, other famous modernists, including Le Corbusier, were also indifferent or even hostile towards décor. The ‘ideal’ modern house is white, without any decorations. Yet it is only a fragment in the history of ornament. The 20th-century design included not only pure colours and innovative shapes but also diverse ornaments, and the study of them allows us not only to show a new side of modernism but also to demonstrate the variations of regional modernism.

This exhibition focuses on the phenomenon known as the Baltic Modernism. Through ornament, this exhibition presents the history of regional modernism of three Baltic countries of closely intertwined cultural histories during the Soviet occupation. The aim is to show the similarities and variations in the designs of the three countries by introducing the principles of local modernism when many objects and tendencies presented may not correspond to the paradigms of traditional modernism and, thus, fall in the realm of alternative histories. It is also interesting to observe an ornament in Soviet culture. On the one hand, an ornament carries an important role in objects influenced by crafts and folk arts, while on the other hand, it can also be seen as an anomaly in the production system built on rationalisation. Kaunas Public Library as a fascinating landmark from the same period is used as a background, to put the objects back into the context where and for which they were created.

The objects on photos are from the collections of Lithuanian National Museum of Art,

Latvian National Museum of Art and Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design

Exhibition was supported by the Research Council of Lithuania.

Curator: Triin Jerlei (Vilnius University)

Graphic design: Jesse O’Neill

Having taken the Lithuanian Government’s decisions into account, the working group at Vilnius University, responsible for coronavirus prevention, has decided to extend the remote work period at Vilnius University up until 31 May.

While the threat of the COVID-19 infection remains, the University, in line with the decisions made by the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, has decided to extend the deadline for conducting work remotely via on-line measures until 11 May (inclusive) with a possibility to extend this deadline as well if needed.

Restrictions on accessing the University’s infrastructure remain the same.

More useful information can be found here. Further questions can be addressed to VU Department of Communications and Marketing via email

https://www.vu.lt/en/covid-19

Based on the cooperation programme between Vilnius University and JSC “Altacom“, students of Kaunas Faculty of Vilnius University are provided with free access to Bitdefender antivirus software.

To request a personal login ID, please contact Kaunas Faculty IT centre at

Login IDs will only be sent to applicants using Vilnius University student email!

Professor Clive Holtham from Cass Business School, London, will be visiting on 18-19^th October and leading two workshops. Although the expert presentations and materials will be in English, it is expected that most discussion in groups, and presentations, will be in Lithuanian.