Žygimantas Kudirka’s video artwork Total Alienation will be shown at the O kodėl ne? bar next to the Nemunas and near the railway tracks until June 8. The work is displayed in a dark room via screens and is reflected in a pool set up for this exhibition. The water is dark – special chemicals have destroyed life in it. “Water is the first mirror,” the artist said while presenting his piece about the body as a shell, a piece of clothing, technology, and the issues related to wearing it.
Water is also the purest mirror. You won’t install filters, adjust the lighting, or design a function that makes one look thinner. We see ourselves in it exactly as we are at that moment. However, it does contain one metaphysical function. The calm surface of the water also reflects how we treat the water. Only here we already have more choices. We can either avoid responsibility or become actors from observers. Activists.
At the beginning of the summer, thinking about water brings pleasure: freshness, holidays, entertainment, naked bodies, time for yourself. We did pay attention to this carefree look in the June issue. It was a lot of fun to dig in the archives of the Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum and find out which of our well-known writers did not part with a boat or a fishing rod.
You may have heard that Kaunas, which is located at the confluence of two rivers, was once a vibrant port city. In winter, a detailed 3D model of the historical part of the city was presented by the TẽKA initiative, whose representatives agreed to tell us more about life in the port city. The friendly initiative Let’s Celebrate the River invited everyone interested to get better acquainted with the city’s rivers – specifically the Nemunas – at the end of May for the fifth time. The authors of the initiative discuss the festive as well as the everyday encounters with water.
We talk to Stefano and Vitalija from Kaunas, who are hiking around the Baltic Sea, about the mirror, which clearly shows everything we put into the water. Of course, you don’t need to travel far from home to think about what we could do better as a society. In this issue, our colleague Algirdas Šapoka explores his “native” Gričiupis and other local streams. Eugenijus and Jovita Nalevaika, who will hold the tenth jubilee watercolor biennial Baltic Bridges in July, invite you to get more familiar with watercolor painting.
And we invite you to start by diving deep into yourself. Freediving is still a young sport in Lithuania and the world, and its effect is more reminiscent of meditation. Elvinas Stipinas, the organizer of the Freediving World Championship, which will be held in Kaunas at the end of June, tells us more about the benefits of this activity.
