The Lithuanian Season in France will greet the host country with the events-packed weekend Labas!
The Season, which will take place throughout France for three months, will begin with the events-packed weekend under the title LABAS! – Lithuanian for HELLO! – on 12-15 September in Paris.
“Lithuanian culture is rather little known in France, so the Season is an invitation to come together and explore the common points of our cultures. All events will hopefully be the beginning of long-term partnerships, and we want the French audiences to see that we are just like them, and they are just like us. Indeed, the programme of the Season is tied together by the slogan The Other Same, encouraging each of us to see ourselves in another through culture. At the same time, events with echoes of France in Lithuania will highlight the common historical and cultural ties between these two countries”, said Dr Virginija Vitkienė, the commissioner of the Lithuanian season in France 2024, at the press conference presenting the opening events of the Season.
The Season will open with a two-day conference organised by Vilnius University and the Faculty of Literature of Sorbonne University, which will take place in the largest hall of Sorbonne University, the Grand Amphithéâtre.
On 14 September, as many as two exhibitions of the Season will be opened at the Centre Pompidou in cooperation with the MO Museum and the National Museum of Lithuania. This is the first time that the works of Lithuanian artists will be presented on such a scale in the museum considered the most important for the visual arts in Western Europe.
Partnership with the MO Museum brings an exhibition presenting the Lithuanian art collection from the 1960s to the present day. It will comprise works by Lithuanian artists of several generations that have become of national importance – and have now become part of Pompidou’s permanent collection. The works from the Lithuanian ‘gold fund’ of arts that will enrich the collection of the Centre Pompidou are a gift from the collection of the MO Museum by its founders Danguolė and Viktoras Butkus.
Meanwhile, the National Museum of Lithuania will present the Op Art painter Kazys Varnelis, whose works are undoubtedly in the league with the best masters of optical art in the world. Thanks to the efforts of the National Museum and Kazys Varnelis’s son, one of the artist’s works will be gifted to the Centre Pompidou by Jonas Dovydėnas, a US-based Lithuanian collector.
During the opening weekend, the Centre Pompidou will also host the Lithuanian marking of Poetry Day, this year dedicated to Jonas Mekas. The celebration will include screenings of Jonas Mekas’s films, discussions about his work, as well as readings from the collection of his poetry recently published in French for the first time. Various public spaces of Paris will see five choirs from Lithuania perform the repertoire of the Centennial Song Festival, alongside such events as the premiere of Lina Lapelytė’s new work The Speech at the Festival d’Automne, a programme curated by Raimundas Malašauskas at the Centre Wallonie Bruxelles, and Radio Vilnius inviting visitors to a night programme at the Gaîté Lyrique cultural centre with a playlist of Lithuanian electronic music.
The Lithuanian Season in France will present contemporary art, new theatre forms, music projects, meetings with writers and thinkers, cycles of debates on geopolitical realities, economic and educational events, as well as gastronomy projects. The full programme of the Season can be found on the website of the Lithuanian season in France www.saisonlituanie.com.
“In France, the tradition of cultural seasons presenting different countries has been nurtured for three decades. Since it is common for the French to be interested in the culture and art of other countries, the resonance after each season is felt for several more years. It is also great to know that the events taking place in France are also followed in other countries, which opens up more opportunities for Lithuanian artists”, said Dr Julija Reklaite, head of the Lithuanian Culture Institute.
From 12 September to 12 December, events of the Lithuanian Season will take place in more than 80 cities throughout France. About 130 French and a similar number of Lithuanian cultural organisations will present various partnership projects. More than half a million visitors are expected to attend the events.