“Undertaking art initiatives at the airport is gradually becoming a tradition. Last year, we participated in the “Vilnius Street Art” festival: Vilnius Airport was decorated with a drawing immortalising the dream of aviation, which may be seen during take-offs and landings, while this year, the airport houses the works of world-famous artists. Airports are always open to art initiatives because art not only makes spaces more inviting, but also improves the image of the country,” said Indrė Baltrušaitienė, the Head of Communication and Marketing Division of Lithuanian Airports.
“It is no coincidence that the territory of Vilnius Airport was chosen for this exhibition: this transit area becomes a symbolic place housing the stops for several months in Lithuania. The choice of location conveys the idea of an open-air gallery. This demonstration of photographs not only returns the bus stops to the public area which is accessible to everyone, but also gives new meanings,” stated Raimonda Tamulevičiūtė, the curator of the exhibition. “Soviet bus stops differ in their architecture and functions from contemporary bus stops. Today, bus stops provide popular advertising space; but it was different in Soviet times. Bus stops shown during the exhibition reveal the rich and remarkable visuality of the bus stops and tell the tale of functional and aesthetic changes caused by changed times.”
The “Soviet Bus Stops” exhibition is a look of two authors at small-scale architecture in the former Soviet Union. The exhibition is dominated by the works from the collection called “Soviet Bus Stops” by Christopher Herwig, a famous Canadian artist, and from a collection of photographs called “Lithuanian Bus Stops” by the Swiss artist Nicolas Grospierre.
C. Herwig started the “Soviet Bus Stops” project as many as 15 years ago; the artist’s works may be seen in “National Geographic”, “CNN Traveller”, “Natural History”, “Lonely Planet”, and similar influential publications. His photographs depict the most interesting examples of small-scale architecture in the countries of the so-called Eastern Bloc. Photographs of bus stops from neighbouring countries and countries in Asia as well as the artist’s impressions from the recent trip to Russia are displayed during the exhibition.
The works of the Swiss artist Nicolas Grospierre, who currently works in Poland, call into question the Soviet culture and architecture, ideas and stories hidden underneath the visuality. In 2008, during the Venice Biennale the Golden Lion was awarded to this artist for the best national pavilion. The series of photographs “Lithuanian Bus Stops” of N. Grospierre will allow comparing the images captured by C. Herwig to Lithuanian bus stops from the Soviet period since there are almost 30 such pictures in the collection.
The project is implemented by PB “Meno vadybos platforma”, curator: Raimonda Tamulevičiūtė. The project is partly financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.
