This Thursday, May 9 6 p.m. The pop-up experimental architecture gallery A-XY (Maironio St. 2, Kaunas), which started operating last September, invites you to its fourth architectural event – the opening of the exhibition “Gera diena” by architect Povilas Vincent Jankūnas.
The exhibition will invite you to travel to 1939. May 21 – 24 hours of interwar Kaunas, captured in a 24-minute short computer animation film, the central axis of which is the iconic vertical tower of the Vytautas Great War Museum.
Kaunas quickly turned from a provincial town in the interwar period into a full-fledged and modern European city that can be proud of its distinctive and unique architectural language and culture. Unfortunately, this period of rapid growth and prosperity was mercilessly cut short by the onset of World War II, which took everything with it. From today’s perspective, the golden construction years of interwar Kaunas seem like an incredibly short and fragile era of prosperity with an inevitable end.
The experimental short film “Good Day” exhibited in the exhibition aims to overcome this painful end of the era and appreciate the period while forgetting the traumatic experiences at least for a moment. Digitally recreated/created one peaceful and most important – never-ending day of interwar life in Kaunas, like an architectural moment re-recorded in time, silently telling about the city full of progress and hope at that time. The static architectural landscape of the film is voiced by a dynamic soundtrack and sonic events taking place around the building – carillon concerts, political rallies, flag ceremonies and public radio broadcasts. The video piece is complemented by copies of a fake newspaper created in the style of the interwar period, intended to discuss and narrate the events of the day shown in the film.
The piece allows the viewer to stop time and calmly, experiencing one golden day of the first Republic of Lithuania, evaluate it in the context of today’s stormy times.
The author of the idea and the creator of the film Povilas Vincentas Jankūnas is an architect who creates exhibitions in the fields of design, illustration, comics and virtual/interactive media. in 2019 graduated from the Bachelor of Architecture studies at Vilnius Gediminas University of Technology. Creates exhibition design/architecture in the Lithuanian National Art Museum, Church Heritage Museum, MO Museum and other institutions. Interested in the concept and expression of architecture in a virtual environment. Curated the series of talks “Virtual space”. Together with a group of friends, he joined the video game development collective “Weekend Warriors”, with which he released award-winning games in Lithuania. Creates illustrations and comics inspired by architecture. He is the author of several comic books.
The author of the film’s soundtrack is Ignas Čeponis – 2019. graduated from architecture studies, after which he engaged in architectural activities in Lithuania and abroad for several years, from 2022. works in an urban planning company. For some time now, in addition to urbanism and architecture, he has been engaged in musical and sound design activities. He currently plays and composes in the band “blank”, is a sound designer in the video game development collective “Weekend Warriors”, and collaborates with Povilas Vincent Jankūnas in various artistic projects.
The exhibition in gallery A-XY will be open from May 9-12.
Tags: Architecture Gallery modern day
