Laisvės Alley echoed with whoops which reminded of an important message, offering, protest and confession at noon of the 1st of September. It was like a strong lightning stroke from the clear sky: passers-by hushed down after getting a split-second slash of energy, sincerity, aesthetical cleanliness; later they continued their road in the chaotic crowd of the street but they had been marked by a strong emotional shock.

What would happen if we invited Feliksas from Kėdainiai to tidy up the falling-apart buildings of Kaunas old town artistically? Perhaps Kaunas inhabitants would start embellishing their city out of anger? Kaunas inhabitants are proud of their historical city. Then why are we losing for “the capital of cucumbers”?

In brief: There are many unused industrial objects and territories in Kaunas. One of them is the depot of locomotives near the Nemunas. Only two facilities of this kind have remained in Lithuania: in Vilnius and Kaunas. Even though the railwaymen take care of the territory of the depot, its “expiry date” is already near. Therefore, the author offers several ideas which could help to get acquainted with the railway heritage better, reveal its charm and save the place from final deterioration.

The exhibition “Contemporary Lithuanian Drawing” is the first visit card presenting the main tendencies of attitude of Kaunas artists to contemporary drawing. Continuing the rich and versatile tradition of European drawing, Kaunas artists find persuasive and original style for expressing and reflecting their epoch. This attitude unites the participants of the exhibition.

In brief: It is believed that the originality of art created by Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911) is determined by the intertwined features of Symbolism and Avant-gardism. As scientists analyse the “transitional" status of Čiurlionis’ works (between Symbolism and Modernism), less attention is allocated to features determined by art of his epoch, i.e., manifestations of epoch of year 1900 and Art Nouveau.

The results of entrance examinations to higher art schools announced last Friday caused more concern than joy, similar to last year. The Ministry of Education and Science boasted in spring that it would improve the procedure of artists’ acceptance to higher art schools this year. It promised to correct the formula of evaluation of special skills and methodology of calculation of results. It planned to train evaluation committee members how the evaluation system should be applied and exams should be organised more fluently. Have the promises been fulfilled?

Strive for things which seem impossible today and you will achieve what will appear real tomorrow: this is how the creative courage of participants of the young architects plein-air, which was organised in the old Aleksotas airport in Kaunas at the end of June, could be described. According to the architect R.Palys, “the biggest achievement is that young architects realised the importance of the airport, its semantic and historical significance well“.

The summer season is suitable for organising various festivals; untraditional spaces, i.e., various manors, parks, museum courtyards or terraces are suitable for this purpose. The programme is often adjusted to open-air stages: classical music is combined with jazz; also, stage opuses, concert performances and projects prepared for festivals in particular are offered. Cosy atmosphere, beautiful environment and emotional music is frequently more important to listeners, who are not very big music gourmands.

If the festival "Operetta in Kaunas Castle" were to be evaluated as a phenomenon, it is evident that it is a good occasion to popularise classical music for the wide public. On another hand, the festival is not a purely popular music event. It is rather a borderline festival: the manoeuvring between popular and serious culture is fashionable today; still, the masses rather than music gourmands are pleased in this way.

It is difficult to judge the concert of Pažaislis Music Festival “A.M.Germek: Orchestral Flamenco” as a solid formation. It was full of various moods, which provoked diverse emotions and evaluations. Maybe that was an attempt to persuade listeners of various types – both those who did not wish to contemplate complicated emotions and those who did not appreciate superficial and illustrative art.

"Under the Red Star": artists believed naively at the period of changes of 1940 that the annexation of Lithuania to the empire controlled by Stalin's dictatorship would improve lives of people.” Intellectuals hoped to preserve at least the cultural sovereignty and believed that political changes would not have any impact on artists. They wanted recognition and material remuneration hoping that the generous Soviet authorities would evaluate their attempts. However, wasn’t the naivety of the intelligentsia too dangerous?

“Kampas was one of the artists who forgot his personal life and dedicated all the spiritual passion to creation. He burned in his dreams destroying himself completely. It seems to me that he was a completely phenomenal case in Lithuania. Moderation, coldness and reason is typical of Lithuanians. Meanwhile, Kampas gave away all his health and spirit to creation. His paintings are full of heart rather than intellectualism or conceptualism. It is a quality of increasing value these days as less and less of it remains.” (E.Miliūnas).

It is still early to guess whether the poet V.Stankus, who received Z.Gėlė Prize for the debut selection of poems “A Walk on the Other Side of Ice”, will be inspired for new poetical searches by such evaluation or will fall asleep on laurels. Still, it is intriguing and tempting to have a walk on the other side of ice and to get acquainted with the most outstanding poetical debut of the year.

M.Pitrėnas will create the triptych of G.Puccini in Düsseldorf Opera in Germany next year. He has already signed a contract with the Austrian art agency Hollaender-Cali. One more project offered by this agency is “The Magic Flute” by W.A.Mozart in Köln Opera Theatre. This performance awaits M.Pitrėnas in the first half of the next season. In addition to new works in Riga, the Lithuanian will also create “Carmen” in Warsaw Grand Theatre.

The premieres of the 89th season of Kaunas State Drama Theatre, which ended recently, are very diverse by the genre and theme. The differences are also highlighted by the very dissimilar “origin” of creative groups of the four performances, the attitude to theatre, experience and individual stage biography. The fact that young people are creating under the roof of KSDT testifies about the open rather than rapacious position of the theatre. Meanwhile, the audience of the last theatre season could enjoy the diversity of the prey.

D.Pulauskas: "I have an idea to play with birds now. It is possible. Veronika Povilionienė and I have recorded an album of lullabies, in which a nightingale is singing. I believe that I will succeed to communicate with birds."

We love light in Kaunas the most – it is very strong. The light is really strong here in spring, summer and autumn. Something similar can be noticed in Denmark, which is surrounded by water, but not in other countries. Therefore, we believe that this phenomenon may be related with rivers in Kaunas.

What was unusual? This time the opening concert of Pažaislis Music Festival did not draw crowds of listeners. All standing people had a perfect chance to sit down. Does it mean that the cultural tradition to attend the opening concert of Pažaislis Music Festival and to rejoice for its existence is weakening? Or perhaps it is a silent note of the audience that the festival of fifteen years could get slightly rebellious while it is a teenager?

It is not enough for the painter to admire the interpretation of the environment created by him. The painter invites the viewer to see the banks, women, apples, blue Eifel tower loved by him. The Lithuanian Jew treats the viewer with his Paris, which is so tasty and French.

The winner of poetry festival “Poetry Spring 2010” Z. Mažeikaitė: “most of the time I spend in translating. Poetry – is the unexpectedly visited favour. You don’t know when or how, or where. You just get it and indulge in it. Translation is also a creative dizziness where you can feel the joy of creating. This pleasurable dizziness, creative favour is a gift that exhilarates and enriches. Everything seems so far and careless, you just feel the pleasure of creative process, feel the heroes, the world of a different creator. This is what is most important for me in creation”.

In brief: In the interview Mindaugas Grigaitis and Doc. Dr. Saulius Keturakis discuss the situation of popular literature, evaluation criteria, relation of academic literature criticism and popular literature, history and reasons of present spread of popular literature.

Columbian art critics evaluate Lituano Nijolė Sivickas de Mockus highly. She was called “an artist giving birth to iron” in 1990. She burns clay in low temperature and uses metal. Works from burned soil – the new clay combustion technique was invented by her son Antanas Mockus. The titles of her works are abstract and philosophical. The artist gives titles to works for practical reasons; moreover, she believes that a title sets an artwork free.

“MonoBaltic“ could be called a festival-child as compared with the famous lord Kaunas Jazz; still, the festival calculating its second year only has strong and sharp teeth that left a bright mark of the bite on the cultural body of the city in four days.

Even the tolerant S.Kuzma admitted that many works presented in the exhibition were not sculptures but “objects with features of art”. In the opinion of S.Kuzma, one of the most important problems of contemporary Lithuanian sculpture is the lack of wish or inability of young artists to take over the tradition of Lithuanian sculpture or at least the most outstanding achievements of it.

In brief: The biggest jazz festival of the country Kaunas Jazz celebrated its 20th anniversary this year. It appeared that the budget reduced by half was sufficient for the free programme of the festival on the outdoor stage and in churches, for the events of jazz fashion and fireworks, for good club projects and for inviting three mega-stars to the main stages of the festival.

The best sculptors of Lithuania of last year were announced at Vilnius St. John’s Street Gallery on the 5th of May. They were elected from the authors who presented works for the competitive exhibition “The Best Sculpture of the Year’09”. Two Kaunas artists are among the winners.

Many admirers of literature classics are concerned about the spread of popular literature. The level of literary and cultural consciousness falls with the increase of the number of “low literature” texts ostensibly. There is some truth in such statements; still, the criticism of popular literature is often pointed against the existence of such literature in general. There is no criticism which would analyse the Lithuanian popular literature seriously yet.

Catholics longing for artistic quality of religious pictures are constantly reminded: “Don’t worry, it is only a reflection, not the Mother of God or Jesus Christ.” Yes, we all know that an artwork is only a bridge, a reminder, help in prayer, indication to a Person. Why isn’t this applied to everybody? Cheap art hurts people; it is the same as to listen to a badly performed composition for a person who has an ear for music.

Authors’ rights of artists and the remuneration for the use of one’s work in an exhibition, catalogue, periodical press: how is it implemented in Lithuania? The essence and meaning of galleries and activity of exhibition curators consists of works of particular artists rather than a scenario of an exhibition created on paper. Why artists receive no salary for it? Are artists slaves of galleries? Why is the price of artist's authorship devalued?

Is it possible to answer the question reasonably why one artist or work of art is better than another? What could we lean upon if we discard the subjective opinion, snobbish interests and criteria of short-term fashion and commercial success in the local market? In order not to invent the local bicycle again, Dr. R.Andriušytė invites to take a look at the world where the mechanism of establishing the value of an artist or work of art has already been invented and functions perfectly.