Performances by artists Lina Lapelytė, Arturas Bumšteinas, duo Eye Gymnastics and Andrej Polukord at one of the most influential Bavarian cultural institutions, the Haus der Kunst museum of contemporary art and the Munich centre, begin the final and most intense part of the Lithuanian cultural season Without Distance: Lithuanian Cultural Season in Bavaria 2021 on 9-11 September.

Concerts, exhibitions and literary readings of the most prominent Lithuanian creators are going to take place in Munich and Augsburg in September and continue in October. The culmination of the season awaits in November at the Blaibach City Concert Hall, where the contemporary music ensemble Synaesthesis will perform the premiere of composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė’s piece. The chamber choir Aidija and accordion virtuoso Martynas Levickis will also have the opportunity to test the special atmosphere and acoustics of the Blaibach City Concert Hall. In the lobby of the concert hall, photographer Gintaras Česonis will present an exhibition of especially created pieces.

“Back in March this year, when we started the season in the heat of the pandemic with the concert of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla without spectators, we were already planning the autumn events, “pencilling” them in. We wanted to believe that the situation would change and we would be able to reduce the cultural distance between Lithuania and Bavaria in real life rather than virtually. At the moment, we can say with more certainty (albeit with our fingers crossed) that the events of September, October and November will happen, that there is a strong determination felt in Germany and Bavaria not to stop cultural life, applying all possible safeguards to both artists and audiences,” said Aušrinė Žilinskienė, the Director of the organiser of the Lithuanian culture season in Bavaria, the Lithuanian Culture Institute.

Lithuanian performance artists open the Haus der Kunst season

Haus der Kunst in Munich is an art museum established in 1937 that underwent a radical transformation from a “fortress” of National Socialist cultural policy in the interwar period to the global museum of contemporary art of global significance today.

Atmospherics, the programme of Lithuanian performances, is going to open the autumn season at the Haus der Kunst museum.

“In my opinion, the Lithuanian contemporary art scene has something extraordinary and fundamental that makes it exceptional. I could also say that it differs greatly from a hermetic, provincial approach that we still encounter today: Lithuanian artists’ work is based on collaboration and unity, and at the same time, it is visionary, experimental and radical, delving into non-objective art forms: performance, sound art, poetry and moving image. Haus der Kunst is proud to present such exciting creators to its audience,” said Andrea Lissoni, the museum’s director.

On 9 September, Lina Lapelytė, the winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale, is presenting three of her performances: Ladies, Pirouette and Instructions for the Woodcutters. On 10 September, Arturas Bumšteinas’ baroque theatre noise machine performance Navigations (producer Operomania) are going to be performed as part of the Atmospherics programme. On 11 September, duo Eye Gymnastics (Gailė Griciūtė and Viktorija Damerell) present their work Nothing Supernatural.

By presenting the programme of Lithuanian performances, the Haus der Kunst museum participates for the first time in the gallery weekend in Munich entitled Various Others that took place on 9-12 September. The programme of the event, which connects many galleries, include another highlight of the Lithuanian cultural season in Bavaria Without Distance, Andrej Polukord – Galerie Uberall, which appeares in the Kunstareal museum quarter in central Munich on 12 September.

Two more events of the season of Lithuanian culture in Bavaria are taking place in Munich in September: an evening of Lithuanian literature with Rimantas Kmita and Rasa Aškinyte at the prestigious Literaturhaus München (Munich’s House of Literature) and the Lithuanian Jazz Weekend at the legendary jazz club Unterfahrt, which feature Brave Noises, Dmitrij Golovanov and Viktorija Gečytė with the band.

An exhibition of the painter Patricija Jurkšaitytė will be opened at the Neue Galerie im Höhmannhaus in Augsburg in October, and an evening of contemporary Lithuanian poetry with Aušra Kaziliūnaitė, Giedrė Kazlauskaitė, Marius Burokas and Tomas Venclova will take place at the Munich poetry library Lyrik Kabinett. Arturas Bumšteinas will present a new piece at the media art festival LAB30 in Augsburg. The Nuremberg Pop Festival will feature live streams of performances by the Lithuanian bands shishi, Afrodelic, Timid Kooky and Junior A. The programme of the Lithuanian cultural season in Bavaria also includes the residence of playwright Birutė Kapustinskaitė at the Residenz Theatre in Munich.

Closing the season will be works by Lithuanian artists created in Bavaria

In November, the small town of Blaibach, located in the wooded mountains on the eastern border of Bavaria, will become much closer to Lithuania. The final events of the Lithuanian cultural season in Bavaria will take place for three days in the Blaibach Concert Hall, an example of impressive modern architecture, which has turned the town into a cultural magnet, also due to the artists’ residences taking place there.

The contemporary music ensemble Synaesthesis, which has won the prestigious Bavarian recognition, the special Ernst von Siemens ensemble prize, will perform the Lithuanian composer Žibuoklė Martinaitytė’s piece The Hadal Zone, which the composer was writing while residing in Blaibach this summer.

According to Martinaitytė, she found the extraordinary architecture of the Blaibach Concert Hall (the main body of the building, a diagonal block of granite, appears to be inserted into the ground) a very inspiring place in which to write a piece about the darkest and deepest oceanic zone.

“Scientists classify oceanic zones according to depth and light penetration level into five zones. The fifth, deepest zone is called the hadal zone. My new composition also has five parts, gradually descending to the lowest register. During the hour, we will be delving deeper and deeper, until the last part will immerse the musicians and audiences in complete silence where it is not even possible to differentiate the timbres of the instruments because the frequency is so low that it is difficult to distinguish who plays what,” shared the composer about her piece.

In the lobby of the Blaibach Concert Hall, the exhibition Ancient Woods by G. Česonis will be opened. For this show, the photographer captured the oldest trees in the forests of Kaunas vicinity and during his summer residence in Blaibach, following his vision of the impenetrable forests that once connected Lithuania and Bavaria.

The project Without Distance: Lithuanian Cultural Season in Bavaria 2021 (Ohne Distanz – Litauische Kultur in Bayern 2021) initiated by the Lithuanian Cultural Attaché in Germany is organised by the Lithuanian Culture Institute and funded by the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture. Partners: the Lithuanian Embassy in Germany and Bavarian cultural organisations.