“Every step I have taken in my life has led me here, now” – you know this quote by heart if you’ve visited the Kaunas Picture Gallery and the cafe Kultūra. The phrase was immortalized in 2017 by artist Alberto Garutti, who participated in the Kaunas Biennial. So, after reviewing the main highlights of early autumn in Kaunas in this issue, it’s also important to pay attention to the ongoing “moving” initiatives that not only fill the soul with culture but also delight our faithful bodies with movement. From tours to orienteering competitions and a unique Kaunas sport, we present examples of moving culture in Kaunas.
The only one in the world: an idea climbing a hill
Imagine a busy city intersection where the roar of cars is replaced for one evening by the stomping of thousands of feet, paws, and hooves. This is the Fluxus Festival, perhaps the most creative (though, sadly, not yet Olympic) sport born in Kaunas. As every year, on the evening of September 13, Parodos Hill, closed to traffic, will become a course where the idea, not speed, is what matters most. There is no wrong way to climb Parodos Hill – the important thing is to do it with imagination.
This tradition, inspired by the Kaunas-born artist George Maciunas and the Fluxus movement he founded, trades seriousness for playfulness and humor. That’s why you’ll see giant zeppelins, Sisyphus with his stone, and even basketball games in a wheelbarrow making their way up the hill. It’s no coincidence we mentioned hooves – this year’s festival theme invites you to unleash your inner beast. So whether you slither, leap, or plod to the top, there are no losers in this festival. Everyone who becomes part of this moving, laughing, and idea-filled stream is a winner.
Purposeful kilometers
Culture that inspires movement? Perhaps the best example is a walking tour. The city is full of people inviting you on cozy strolls. We’ve already featured several of them in our magazine – for example, Viktorija Vitkauskaitė (“One-Day Holidays”) or Laimonas Užomeckis, who explores “Kaunas Details”. But perhaps you haven’t yet discovered the “Gražinkime Kauną” (“Let’s Make Kaunas Beautiful”) initiative? Guides Jonas Oškinis and Deimantas Ramanauskas have organized dozens of themed walks in recent years, many of which are open and require no registration. You just see them and join in!
The range of themes for “Gražinkime Kauną” is surprisingly diverse. For instance, have you ever paid attention to the doors of the New Town? Or maybe you’d like to pedal along the paths of Kaunas’ cycling history? The guides are not afraid of difficult topics – walks are also dedicated to the history of the Kaunas Ghetto. From the defense plans of military fortifications to prominent but forgotten personalities, every walk here is both a history lesson and great exercise. You just need to follow their Facebook page.
Museum challenges: memory on foot
Who would have thought that Kaunas museums have so many orienteering fans? On the city’s birthday or during the International Museum Night, you can almost always not only calmly view an exhibition but also take on an adrenaline-filled challenge. A great example is the orienteering game organized this year by the Historical Presidential Palace of the Republic of Lithuania, with the goal to “womanize” Kaunas. Sound strange? In a similar way, the city once had to be “Lithuanianized”. The museum drew attention to how few memorial signs are dedicated to meritorious women. The route of the game “Neabejingos” (“The Unindifferent Women”) led not only through the sites of interwar women’s achievements but also through… emptiness. At most of the points, there was simply no sign at all. And this call was heard – over a hundred teams participated in the game.
However, challenges don’t have to be organized. On the last Sunday of every month, the free museum admission initiated by the Ministry of Culture can turn into a cultural marathon. It’s a great opportunity to create a personal route and visit as many exhibitions as possible in a few hours. From the National M. K. Čiurlionis Museum of Art on V. Putvinskio Street to Kaunas Castle or the Lithuanian Aviation Museum, maybe even the Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum – if you start on time, you can reach all the institutions on foot, thus combining art, history, and a healthy walk.
On the artists’ paths
What did Antanas Samuolis see when he looked at the river bend, and where did Rimvidas Jankauskas-Kampas draw his inspiration? These are the questions posed and immediately answered by the route “On the Paths of Modern Art”, prepared by the Kaunas Modern Art Foundation. This is not a traditional gallery tour, but an independent journey through the places that inspired the most famous Kaunas artists of the 20th century. The route leads to symbolic points – homes, panoramas, paths – that were important creative starting points for the artists. You can travel independently. QR codes on special stands open a virtual map and audio recordings where the artists’ stories come to life in their places of inspiration. It is a slow and inspiring walk that allows you to see the city through the eyes of late modernist creators and understand that sometimes the greatest art lies not on the canvas, but on the path itself.
City secrets in headphones
An audio guide is a good option for those who want to be alone in their free time and take as long as they want on a walk, not as long as the tour guide planned. Just this September, a new audio guide “From Freedom Avenue to Freedom” has been released in Lithuanian, presented as an immersive sound journey through wartime Kaunas. Two diplomats – Jan Zwartendijk and Chiune Sugihara – issued thousands of Visas for Life, which helped save countless Jewish refugees from destruction. At the invitation of the Sugihara Foundation “Diplomats for Life”, British artists Jenny Kagan and Louise Wilson invite you to start at the fountain on Laisvės alėja, walk further along the linden tree alley, stopping at the former Honorary Consulate of the Netherlands, and climb towards the Sugihara House in Žaliakalnis. Look for sugiharahouse.com.
Another of our suggestions is the “Spirit’ Guide to the Old City”, created almost a decade ago. It immerses you in the history of the first half of the 20th century, where the characters live, create, suffer, and love right here – on our city’s streets, in its courtyards, and homes. Everyday stories and the fates of citizens, along with audiovisual elements and fragments of today’s Old Town landscape, merge into a kind of personal film, experienced physically and emotionally. Look for atmintiesvietos.lt.
For tourists – not just the Soboras
For several years now, the Kaunas city tourism, business, and investment development and international city marketing agency “Kaunas IN” has been offering themed illustrated routes for guests visiting Kaunas from other Lithuanian cities and abroad. They include not only the traditional city symbols but also an invitation to discover the non-facade culture of Kaunas. The “It’s Kaunastic” series presents a modernist, Jewish, Scandinavian, Japanese, beastly, Čiurlionis-themed, national, medieval, cinematic, sporty, literary, theatrical, graffiti-covered Kaunas. If you can’t find or don’t want to take a paper map, know that all routes are conveniently digitized and waiting for you at kaunastika.lt.
