At the new exhibition by The Applied Arts and Design Museum of the LNMA, iron tells the story of Vilnius
Exhibition opening on Thursday, December 12, at 5.30 pm, 2024
Applied Arts and Design Museum opens an exhibition Iron Vilnius. It sets a stage for an engaging encounter of the city’s history and contemporary art to show the beauty and value of iron. The Iron Vilnius will invite to take a fresh look at iron in the city – both as a witness to its history and a source of inspiration. The exhibition Iron Vilnius will be on until 16 March, 2025.
“The history of Vilnius can be told in different ways – poetical, documentary, visual, with humour or with a very sombre note, indeed that story can be told using a very unexpected medium, as curator Dr Jurgita Ludavičienė did, claiming that iron can also do the job. The exhibition opening at the Applied Arts and Design Museum shows the LNMA’s sustained attention to the history of the capital city and its creators,” says Dr Arūnas Gelūnas, director general of the LNMA.
“I find iron as a deeply inspiring material. Yet I have noticed that people in the city do not notice it around. Few pay attention to the balconies and small roofs, the gates and iron bars. More often we tend to try to see what is behind them, as if the ironwork obstructs our view. However, iron can take most different shapes, it was important in the history of Vilnius as material used to build bridges and to cast canons, so besides historical, there military and artistic aspects to its function. Therefore, one of the goals of this exhibition is not only to highlight the bond between the city of Vilnius and iron, but also to shift the viewer’s perspective. So that the next time, taking a walk in Vilnius we would see it in iron terms,” the exhibition’s curator Jurgita Ludavičienė says.
From the iron wolf dream to the iron stories of Vilnius
Iron is woven into Vilnius’s story from its very foundation – the howling iron wolf appears in Duke Gediminas’s dream, therefore, according to the curator, iron is at the core of the rise of the capital. It played a role of importance in the history of the town, when used to manufacture weapons, crosses, details of small-scale architecture, roofs and railings, keys and chests, and to cast sculpture pieces. From steel to cast iron and, and finally, to rust, iron appears in many states, and finds this diverse expression in the space of the city. Presently iron has become material of choice for quite a few noteworthy artists based in Vilnius.
However, the curator Ludavičienė admits that iron has not been truly integrated as an element of the Lithuanian self-perception, it often remains marginal to the field of reflection and seeing. Thus, the Iron Vilnius, quite the opposite, will invite the visitors to pay attention to the ironwork in the town, and to consider in what ways it was related to the history, culture and contemporary art.
Lost, invisible and inspiring – three roles of iron at the exhibition
The exhibition is composed in three thematic threads: of lost, invisible and inspiring iron. The first will give the visitors an opportunity to see the iron elements of the lost small-scale architecture as recorded by photographer artists and painters. The section of invisible iron shows the extant in the landscape of the city, yet obscured and seldom noticed iron elements of the objects from the military, architectural, sculptural and simply urban domains. Finally, the exhibition explores the artistic bond of the city of Vilnius and iron as manifested in the artwork of contemporary artists. It includes contemporary cast iron sculpture, graphic prints made from the iron objects found Vilnius, also photographs of weather wanes, roofs, gates and balconies from historical Vilnius, designs for the city that were never realized.
“Iron here is not a supplementary, but main material. These military, defensive, sculptural threads are woven into one narrative, where that distant iron wolf’s howl still echoes”, says the exhibition’s curator Jurgita Ludavičienė.
Curator Jurgita Ludavičienė
Participants: Ramūnas Alminas, Konstantinas Balzukevičius, Mečislovas Bulaka, Jan Bułhak, Raphael Chwoles, Vladas Drėma, Matas Dūda, Nerijus Erminas, Stanisław Filibert Fleury, Johanas Hiksa, Alfred Holler, Juozas Kėdainis, Eglė Kuckaitė, Eimantas Ludavičius, Vladimiras Malinovskis, Antanas Miežanskas, Rimantas Milkintas, Mindaugas Navakas, Remigijus Pačėsa, Rafal Piesliak, Vita Pukštaitė-Bružė, Eglė Ridikaitė, Liudvikas Ruikas, Biruta Stulgaitė, Ričardas Šileika, Vladas Urbanavičius, Teodoras Kazimieras Valaitis
Exhibition presents works from the collections of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, National Museum of Lithuania, Šiauliai “Aušros” Museum, TARTLE, Lithuanian Photographers Association, private collections and artists.
3A Arsenalo st, Vilnius, Lithuania
+370 5 212 1813;
+370 5 261 25 48; +370 5 262 80 80.
tddm@lndm.lt
