J. (by Madli Maruste)

I approached Vilnius with a lot of questions. I tried to understand the multicultural past and present of the city that has been previously known by the Jewish people as Vilna and by the Polish as Wilno. I soon realised that I had too many questions within a very limited time and it is impossible to get answers to all of these during my one week stay in Vilnius. I decided to stop demanding answers, let go of control and let the city talk in it`s own way to me.

The next night I met with a person, someone who opened a door to Vilnius I did not know much about before. I realised talking to him that through one lifestory city`s history, language and identity can reveal themselves in a unique way. I decided to do my project about our interaction. For me the text I wrote and the photos I took represented the past that might still haunt the people after decades. The life narratives of a lot of people living in Vilnius were cut through so suddenly and aggressively during World War II, and the character of the city changed completely.

When someone`s roots are cut, then the routes in his life are disrupted as well. The city becomes a place to hide, but at the same time a place that haunts. The city is like a labyrinth of all the memories of people, who used to live there, but it is also a lost love letter to hopes and dreams that never materialised. When one ethnic group loses the places in the city that used to be the cornerstones of their identity, they might always feel homeless. Is it possible to fill this void in the soul? Can the city give them shelter and understanding, or is it hostile towards people who are the reminders of the layered history and sad secrets of a nation?

(text by Madli Maruste)

J. from Madli Maruste on Vimeo.

Urban Rhythms (by Andrei Karpeka)

It is about different rhythms which form the cityscape of Vilnius. Some of them are not recognizable, too routine to be noticed. Others interrupt them, they reflect the pace of people who animate the streets. It's the rhythms people are aware of, the ones which could make you stop and give up for some moment your initial plans. Those actions, which make the city's face.

Here's the documentatioin of the live video performance:

urban rhythms (documentation) from verabej on Vimeo.

Performed by Andrei Karpeka during LitPro Summer School on 17.08.2012 @ foos-in club, Vilnius

Street Komoda on TV!

Belsat TV's report about Street Komoda project, realized during LitPro Summer School "City, Language, Identity".

Street art in Minsk

 It`s a pity that this is photoshop:
Mensk razmaljoyka

The Street Komoda is launched!
U can see many nice pictures in facebook album :)

Here some other pictures:

(more pics below)

StreetKomoda facebook

And that's the facebook fanpage. If you're there, then like us!!!
Lot's of pictures and news :)

https://www.facebook.com/StreetKomoda

Gatvės Komoda pradės veikti šiandien

Draugai ir praeiviai, Gatvės Komoda pradės veikti šiandien, nuo 14.3o. Ją rasite prie Gedimino 9, iš fontanų pusės. Ši vieta skirta dalinimuisi: suradę daiktą gatvėje arba norėdami pasidalinti kokiu nors daiktu su kitais, palikite jį Komodoje. Taip pat galite pasiimti
patikusį daiktą. Komoda yra geros dušios vilniečių, gatvės
menininkų, miesto sociologų ir antropologų bendradarbiavimo
rezultatas:) Tikimės, ji jus nudžiugins netikėtais radiniais!

Dear friends & passers-by, Street Komoda is going to be installed
at Gedimino 9 (by the fountains) today at 14.30. It's a place for
sharing: you can leave items you found on the streets or at home
and also search for the goodies left in Komoda. Street Komoda is
a result of cooperation of many people from various countries, so we hope you will enjoy the findings and treasures inside the Komoda! :)

***

Some people had been working really hard throughout whole night!!!

Bang Bang Are you sleeping?

Vera Z is having a Birthday today! Our greetings!

3:30 and the work is in progress. So we are tired and want to freak bree x)

making-off 2

Vilnus Soundscape: in process

The aim of Vilnius Sound Scape project is to catch the sounds which represent the Vilnius city most. We are collecting drops, crackle, noise, bangs and etc. which attract our attention. The final product is going to be sound track

Vilnius Street Animals Liberation Front moves forward

Day 4

Discussion of the story plot and getting acquainted with its main heroes

Day 5

Surfing in the distant districts and grabbing some further insights 

Day 6

Preparations for the animals' party in progress. Drawing, cutting, being involved…

Urban Comics in the making

To be continued...

making-off

Here are some pictures of us working really hard. Don't mind the music & dancing, eating & drinking, sitting & sleeping - those are all just obstacles we're trying to overcome while focusing on the work!

 Tourism group while arguing!

The Break!

Observations by 'Russian Pop' group.

 Lost&found almost finalising their project!

Rafal's lecture in the 'full house', seriously!
/photos by joanna/

Day 4

Movement & Numbers

    The idea of my project is to research Vilnuis as a place of movement and numbers. The movement can be found everywhere in the city (trains, people etc). The language can be also defined as a combination of numbers (that follow us everywhere hiding in things we do not pay a lot of attention to). 

    The method of my research is practical: I cross the city in order to feel its movement and look for numbers that reflect the city's identity. 

Komoda is wit us! Lost&Found crew

So basically the Komoda is here. Now some street artists are working to cover it with some fancy graffiti.

 

 

Gedimino Tower Sausage

by Gerap

VSALF: Vilnius Street Animals Liberation Front

Day 1: Field work.

....

Offtop: Wallpaper in Moscow

In order to understand whether English signs could help foreign tourists to better orient in Moscow, they did the following:

looking around in order to see beyound

snapshot of contrasting borderline between commuter town and 'new city'

Galvanized by a strong desire to explore Vilnius spaces through its variable surfaces, this project is aimed to discover alternatively (looking forward for sensitive perception) the representation of multi-cultural spatial relationships. It is an inevitable exploration of how do the surfaces change through different cultural zones and how can we investigate identity in these motions. Strolling around the city I've considered (with photography and mapping) a very strong borderlines between the 'new city' and the others regions.  Thus, I've decided to zone out all these regions on the map, in attempt to clear up the cultural differences between surfaces.

map of regions // livid - 'new city' / red - soviet time building ( malls, hotels, ent.)  / grey - 'Shanhai' region / orange - park & old city

The next checkpoint was to examine attentively the main roads, putting them out I've started shooting first video scales... The endeavor is a quest for revealing always not represented features, intangible sensations of everyday-life practices. 

snapshot of 'new city' surface

LOST&FOUND?

The lost&found group has started from discussion. We have been wondering what does it mean to be lost and what is a difference between trashes and lost objects. During the first two days we have been observing public places - how people acting in there.

 We have noticed that turist visiting city are mostly looking up, natives are looking straight ahead and people who have lost something are walking observing the ground.We have been  looking for objects you can find on the streets. Than we put them on the map.

Out trip was very inspiring. Afterwards we decided that we wanna combine offline and online activities to create space for lost and found things.

Carskoje POP

Some impressions from the second evening at "Carskoje Selo". The sound would be presented later, now you can catch a glimpse of this form of entertainment.

Alternative and Official Representations of the City

The group organized around the notion of tourism explores the overlap between the informal, self-organized  and the official, institutionalized representation of the city of Vilnius.  It set to create an engaging and entertaining social game based on information and data gathered in field-work research in the center of Vilnius.

Blind Walking: the beginning

Blind walking is a stunning experience of losing major orientation sense. 

An Alien in the City

Hunting

In order to regardfully expore the soundscape of Vilnius we have covered our eyes with a scarf. For our group the process of blind walking was even harder, cause the sound you hear was reduced by recording equipment.

Keep your focus...

...in any situation

I

Day 3. Fieldwork

What does the city tell you?