Although we can‘t go there, it is interesting to discover that a new festival is being curated in Kaunas this month, reflecting a local, yet universal experience.
Through sounds, images, and stories, The City Telling Festival organized by “Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022” returns to Kaunas October 8 to 11, inviting inhabitants to reflect on how the pandemic invading the year 2020 has affected daily habits and relationships. “When we reflect on the unexpected experiences of this year, we realise that, in terms of history, they are not unique or exceptional. Wars, exiles, occupations, and persecutions – these are the many drastically interrupted destinies of our parents, grandparents, and Kaunas residents. Remembering them, perhaps with greater empathy we will listen to the stories and experiences of the generations before us”, says Daiva Citvarienė, the Festival organizer and curator of the Kaunas 2022 programme “Memory Office”. The programme of this year’s festival – tours, exhibitions, theatrical narratives, artistic meetings, and conversations will make the city, its streets and walls speak and will bring up the stories that have been forgotten. Artistic performances in public spaces of the city are one of the highlights of the festival this year. Through street artwork, sound, and light installations famouse historical figures will be remembered: Israel’s most beloved poet Leah Goldberg, French philosopher Emmanuel Levin, Kaunas teacher and inventor, ghetto photographer George Kadish (Hirsch Kadushin), actors of interwar, war and postwar stories, partisans and dissidents, heroes of past times and witnesses of everyday life.
The City Telling Festival will last 4 days, more than 30 events are scheduled, and more than 20 partners are involved in the festival programme. Part of the events will be translated to English and part will be speaking the language of art. The full programme of the festival is available at www.istorijufestivalis.eu.
News from Delfi and LRT.lt
