By the time you flip through this issue, it will be past Groundhog Day, which is celebrated in the US on February 2. The 1993 comedy of the same name trapped Bill Murray’s character in a seemingly boring time loop. However, the sarcastic journalist found a way out and it only took him 33 years. He broke the curse only when he changed completely.
In the gray evening between the winter solstice and the vernal equinox, it is easy to start imagining that life has come to halt. But we will welcome the spring renewed, after all, the top layer of human skin is repaired in just a month. Yes, you heard that right – in four weeks we become a different person on the outside. But what about the inside? A seven-year-old primary school student and a sixty-seven-year-old senior: what do they have in common?
So, in February, we explore inner and outer change. How has the century-old symbol of Kaunas – Vytautas the Great War Museum – changed in the two years since the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine? Algirdas Šapoka talked about this with the head of the institution. And what do the lions guarding the entrance of this museum have to do with Venice, from which Sun and Sea opera-performance returns to its creators’ hometown? Jogintė Bučinskaitė recorded the stories of the creators and performers of the opera-performance in which they tell us how their relationship to Kaunas changed over time.
Does a person change when the world around them is going to hell? We asked a whole bunch of people this question. Kotryna Lingienė spoke with Silvestras Dikčius, a climatologist studying philosophy, and Monika Balčiauskaitė discussed the sustainability possibilities of souvenirs with their manufacturers and sellers. It seems that there will be no shortage of work there but what about creative work? Is artificial intelligence trying to take your profession away? VMU professor Jurgita Kapočiūtė-Dzikienė provides interesting insights on this topic.
Urban researchers will be intrigued by Justė Vyšniauskaitė’s interview with the head of the Kaunas Film Office, Goda Gajauskaitė. The conversation is about the fact that Kaunas can be transformed by a few spotlights and a movie camera. And for dessert, you will have Paulius Tautvydas Laurinaitis’ top five chameleon-like buildings.
All articles can be found here.
See you in the spring!
