mabb T U R I N Y S C O N T E N T S

David Mabb

MENAS KASDIENYBEI...... 1

Simon Rees

APSPURÆ PAKRAÐÈIAI: DAVIDO MABBO KILIMAI IR TAPYBA...... 7

Lolita Jablonskienë

TRUMPA JUDËJIMO „MENÀ Á BUITÁ“ ISTORIJA 12

David Mabb

ART INTO EVERYDAY LIFE...... 24

Simon Rees

FRAYING AT THE EDGES: CARPETS AND PAINTINGS BY DAVID MABB...... 30

Lolita Jablonskienë

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE “ART INTO EVERYDAY LIFE” MOVEMENT...... 35 1. David Mabb. SPORTO RÛMAI / THE SPORTS HALL, 2005. Tapyba ant Williamo Morriso „Sausmedþio“ audinio / Oil paint on William Morris “Honeysuckle” fabric, 142 x 90 cm. Menininko nuosavybë / Courtesy the artist. Fotografija / Photo: Paulius Mazûras

2 3 mabb M E N A S ! K A S D I E N Y B E I A R T ! I N T O ! E V E R Y D AY ! L I F E Ð M C ! C A C 2006 01 20 ! 2006 03 19

MENAS KASDIENYBEI

Að atvykau ið Londono. Á Lietuvà atsiveþiau savosios ir tapetø dizaineris ir vadovavo interjero dizaino kom- kultûros sàlygotà ir nuo jos priklausomà istorijos sam- panijai Morris & Co. Morrisas manë, kad dizainas pratà, kultûriná ir politiná kontekstà, kuriame uþaugau, atlieka labai svarbø vaidmená gerinant kasdienio trumpai tariant, didþiulá intelektualiná bagaþà, kurá gyvenimo kokybæ – ðá ásitikinimà iðreiðkë garsusis jo veþiojuosi savo galvoje ir kuris man padeda suprasti principas: „Savo namuose nelaikykite nieko, kas, jûsø pasaulá. Tai reiðkia, kad Lietuvos kultûra, su kuria þiniomis, nëra naudinga ar, jûsø manymu, nëra graþu“1. susidûriau vieðnagës metu, manyje ávairiai rezonuoja Susidomëjau Williamu Morrisu, susidûræs su dviem susikirsdama su mano paties kultûros istorija ir vietos akivaizdþiai prieðtaraujanèiais dalykais. Pirmiausia – tai pojûèiu. átampa, kilusi tarp vëlesnës Morriso politikos ir jo ver- slo. Jis tapo vietiniu Britanijos marksistu, Londono Williamas Morrisas Hammersmith draugijos Trotskiu ar Gramsciu, bet tuo Su savim taip pat atsiveþiau savo meninës praktikos pat metu pasiturintiems britams kûrë interjerus. Nors patirtá, kûrybà, kurià tobulinau visà savo – suaugusiojo ðie du jo projekto aspektai sunkiai derëjo, jo kurtø – gyvenimà. Pastaruosius septynerius metus dirbu su ornamentø utopiðkumas lëmë ðio prieðtaravimo Williamo Morriso (1834–1896) tekstilës ir tapetø naudingumà: neámanoma iðvengti paties kapitalo, gali- dizainu. Tæstinis mano „bendradarbiavimas“ su ma tik já nuversti – tai Morrisas suprato vëliau. Williamu Morrisu susijæs su Morriso ornamentø supa- Antrasis, stipresnis prieðtaravimas yra tai, kad prastinimu ir rekontekstualizavimu – tai yra bûdas Morriso estetika gali tave perplëðti pusiau: tau gali kvestionuoti Morriso utopinio idealizmo modelius. Ne patikti jo ornamentai, jie gali gundyti ir tuo pat metu maþiau nei Morriso dizaino palikimas mane domina ir gali bûti nepriimtina jø vartojimo politika. Ið pradþiø jo pats Morrisas kaip istorinë figûra. Morrisas garsëjo dizainas buvo aukðèiausios ámanomos techninës koky- romantine poezija ir utopiniais romanais. Tai jis ákûrë bës rankø darbo audiniai ir ksilografiniø kliðiø atspau- pirmàjà Anglijoje architektûros apsauga besidominèià dai, áperkami tik pasiturinèiai vidurinei ir aukðtesniajai draugijà – Draugijà senoviniams pastatams iðsaugoti, klasëms. Morriso kompozicijø prasmës keitësi laikui kuri ir ðiandien tebesirûpina istoriniais pastatais. Britø bëgant; dabar jos plaèiai prieinamos palyginus pigiø politiniame gyvenime jis buvo þinomas kaip Sandersono kopijø pavidalu Britanijoje ir JAV ir jau Nacionalinës liberaliosios lygos iþdininkas, vëliau tapo reprezentuoja gyvenimo priemiesèiuose, vidurinës vienu Socialinës demokratinës federacijos lyderiø, o klasës ir estetinio konservatyvizmo vertybes. Nors 1883 m. ákûrë Socialistø lygà. Taip pat jis buvo tekstilës Morriso sukurti gausos ir vaisingumo ávaizdþiai tuomet

4 5 reiðkë radikalø ryðio su praeitimi nutraukimà, dabar „1990 m. atkûrus nepriklausomybæ, Lietuvoje Respublikos“ kino teatru). Kam nors pasakyti „susi- jie, regis, stokoja juos inspiravusiø prieðtaravimø ir prasidëjo pamiðëliðkas privatizacijos, nekilnojamo tikim prie Lietuvos“ tikrai kaþkà reiðkë sovietinës oku- problemø. Netekæs kritinio konteksto, utopinis jo turto plëtros ir griovimo laikotarpis. Primenantis pacijos laikais. 2002 m. Vilniaus savivaldybë tyliai par- projektas virto nostalgiðku tokiø vietø, kur visad Laukiniø Vakarø þemës grobimà ar aukso karðtligæ – davë kino teatrà privatiems nekilnojamojo turto ðvieèia saulë, kur niekad nelyja ir, þinoma, kur niekad spekuliantai ir nekilnojamojo turto magnatai susivieni- supirkëjams; su priesaku, kad jis turësiàs veikti kaip nëra þiemos, ilgesiu. jo su korumpuotais savivaldybës biurokratais siekdami kino teatras dar trejus metus“2. beprotiðku greièiu perstatyti ðalá. Pelnas – vienintelis jø Menà – á buitá motyvas. Vieðoji erdvë, svarbiausi pastatai, kultûrinis Penki pastatai Mano darbai Lietuvoje susijæ su sovietinës Lietuvos gyvenimas ir vieðoji nuomonë buvo pagrindinës aukos. Að pasirinkau penkis pastatus, kuriø funkcijos istorijos laikotarpiu, þinomu kaip „chruðèiovinis atðili- Jø metodas paprastas: pasakyk visuomenei, kad pasikeitë atkûrus nepriklausomybæ. mas“, ir judëjimu, þinomu kaip „Menà – á buitá“. Jis kilo ekonomikos raida yra visiems gerai. Átikink juos, kad Kino teatras Lietuva turi ilgà modernistiná stiklo po Stalino mirties, kai sovietø valdþia susilpnino meno Kapitalas yra Karalius. Primink visuomenei, kad norint paviljonà, sudarantá viso pastato pirmo aukðto fasadà. ir dizaino kontrolæ. Kadangi SSRS ekonomika buvo paversti Lietuvà blyðkiu Vakarø Europos miestø Kino salë yra uþ jo, ásirëmusi á kalvà, esanèià uþ pasta- pagrásta penkmeèio planais, ði tendencija uþsitæsë ir ðeðëliu, geriausia yra iðtrinti sovietinæ praeitá – ir taip to. Kompleksas kelia giedros ir ramybës áspûdá. laikotarpiu, þinomu „breþnevinës stagnacijos“ pava- padaryti ðalá dar patrauklesnæ dar didesnëms investici- Anksèiau minëtas trejø metø malonës laikotarpis pasi- dinimu. To meto menininkams buvo suteikta galimybë joms bei plëtrai. baigë 2005 m. liepos 1 d. Raðant ðá tekstà, kino teatras bendradarbiauti su tekstilës, kilimø, stiklo ir Sovietiniais laikais kinas atliko labai svarbø vaidmená Lietuva uþdarytas ir já grasinama nugriauti. Pro-testo keramikos gamyklomis, taip pat su tokiomis organi- visuomenës kultûriniame gyvenime. Centrinëse laboratorijos kampanija uþ jo iðgelbëjimà tæsiasi. zacijomis kaip leidyklos, kur jie kûrë vienetiniø Lietuvos miestø vietose buvo pastatyti dideli kino Didþiulë United Colors of Benetton parduotuvë gaminiø ar gaminiø serijø dizainà. teatrai. Tie teatrai atliko lemiamà vaidmená tapdami anksèiau, iki rekonstrukcijos 1996 m., buvo kino Akcijos rezultatai nukrypo nuo oficialaus socialistinio vieðø susitikimø ir susirinkimø vietomis. Atkûrus teatras Vilnius. Koncertinà primenantis pastato fasadas realizmo, kurio pagrindiniai ingredientai buvo sovi- nepriklausomybæ, kai dideliu greièiu urmu þlugo sovi- iðliko ir iðeina á Gedimino prospektà (buvusá Lenino etiniai herojai ir jaunieji traktoristai. Menininkai sëmësi etinës struktûros, kino teatrai patraukë nekilnojamojo prospektà), pagrindinæ prekybos gatvæ Vilniuje. Vidus ákvëpimo ið vietos tradicijos arba tarptautinio modern- turto rinkos dëmesá. Per trumpà laikotarpá privatus visiðkai sugriautas ir pirminio kino teatro interjero izmo, pavyzdþiui, „anglø festivalinio stiliaus“. verslas sugebëjo perimti ir sugriauti beveik visus kino nelikæ në pëdsako. Dabar, áëjæs á pastatà, patenki á Architektai taip pat turëjo galimybiø paieðkoti teatrus Vilniuje paversdamas juos gyvenamaisiais vienà ið 5000 Benettono parduotuviø bet kurioje pavyzdþiø Skandinavijoje ir kitose Europos ðalyse. namais ir prekybos centrais. Iðnyko daugiau nei 15 pasaulio vietoje. Nors valstybë vis dar buvo nepaprastai represyvi, kino teatrø, tarp jø tokios miesto áþymybës kaip Aušra, Didingas Sporto rûmø stogas ðauna á dangø ir domin- daugelis tuo metu pastatytø pastatø yra lengvi ir erd- Þvaigþdë, Spalis, Pionierius, Pergalë, Tëvynë, Kronika, uoja ðiaurinëje Neries pusëje, þvelgiant nuo Senojo vûs, juose panaudoti kai kurie geriausi tarptautinio Aidas, Planeta, Neris, Vingis, Lazdynai, Vilnius, Maskva ir Arsenalo, esanèio prieðingame krante. Dabar jis atro- modernizmo elementai. Jie yra tarsi ðviesmeèius LIETUVA. do apleistas. Ðalia buvæ atviri baseinai jau nugriauti, o nutolæ nuo vestuviø tortà primenanèio stalinistinio Kaip menkas pakaitalas, atspindintis viso pasaulio pastatas nebenaudojamas kaip sporto salë. Vilniaus kièo, kuris tik prieð keletà metø, Stalino valdymo miestø tragedijà, buvo pastatyti du kino multipleksø miesto savivaldybë jau paskelbë pasiûlymus rekon- laikotarpiu, uþterðë didþiuosius buvusios Sovietø monstrai: Coca Cola Plaza naujamiestyje ir Akropolis struoti ðià teritorijà. Sàjungos miestus. Cinemas uþ miesto. Pastarasis, kuris yra didþiausio Kai ten lankiausi, Britø kino kompanija buvo ásikûrusi Taèiau kadangi dauguma to meto pastatø vis dar aso- Lietuvoje prekybos centro dalis, yra Lietuvos „preky- filmavimo aikðtelæ – taip Vakarø kompanijos pasinau- cijuojasi su sovietø okupacija, jie buvo ir vis dar yra bocentrizacijos“ pavyzdys. Su multipleksais atëjo mul- doja pigia darbo jëga ir erdve Rytø Europoje. Fojë ið arba tyèia griaunami (pardavus juos perstatymui), arba tipleksiniai Holivudo filmai, taigi kino erdvës griovimas trijø pusiø supa stiklo sienos, taigi tai yra atvira, apleisti ir palikti griûti savaime. uþkodavo ir nepriklausomø kino programø þlugimà. nuostabiai apðviesta modernistinë erdvë. Autentiðkas Dabar, 2005 m., tebestovi tik vienas kino teatras – interjeras ið esmës iðlikæs – organiðka, augalijà pri- Kapitalas yra karalius LIETUVA. Kilo mûðis, siekiant já iðgelbëti. Kino teatras menanti medinë konstrukcija, dël kurios ði erdvë atro- Pro-testo laboratorijos – organizacijos, kovojanèios uþ Lietuva pastatytas 1965 m. ir (o tai reikðminga) yra do lyg didþiulis ðiltnamis. kino teatro Lietuva Vilniuje iðsaugojimà, – iniciatoriai didþiausias kino teatras Lietuvoje, turintis 1000 vietø ir Nacionalinë dailës galerija stovi ðiauriniame Neries Nomeda ir Gediminas Urbonai labai tiksliai apibûdino 200 kvadratiniø metrø dydþio ekranà, siûlantá idealø krante, o ðalia jos – sovietinio laikotarpio skulptûra, procesus, nulëmusius sovietinio laikotarpio kino vaizdo dydá. Tai – Vilniaus kino festivalio namai, be to, áamþinusi sovietiniø kosmonautø pasiekimus. Tai vien- teatrø griûtá: kino teatras atliko svarbø vaidmená visos vilnieèiø kar- as ið keleto Vilniuje iðlikusiø sovietinio laikotarpio tos vaizduotëje. Jo pavadinimas „Lietuva“ taip pat yra paminklø. svarbus nacionalinës tapatybës signifikantas, nes jis Pastatas „þvelgia“ á Vilniaus centrà nuo þemos kalvos niekada neturëjo sovietinio atspalvio (t.y. jis nebuvo ir yra suprojektuotas taip, kad atrodytø lyg aðtuoniø ------vadinamas „Lietuvos Sovietø Socialistinës modernistiniø kubø seka. Jis pastatytas 1980 m. – 2. William Morris 3. KILIMAS SU LENINO ATVAIZDU, GRÛTO PARKAS / LENIN CARPET FROM GRÛTAS PARK. Autoriaus fotografija / 7 Photo the author, 2005 anksèiau èia buvo Lietuvos Sovietø Socialistinës tatø forma ir medþiagos daþnai yra netinkamos Respublikos Revoliucijos muziejus. 1991 m. pastatas Lietuvos klimatui. Jiems visiems reikia kapitalinio tapo Rezistencijos muziejumi, o paskui, prieð uþdarant remonto ir rekonstrukcijos, taip pat visa tai garantuo- 1995 m., buvo paverstas ðiuolaikinio meno galerija ir janèiø valstybës dotacijø. liko nenaudojamas, apleistas, kol neprasidëjo per- statymas ið pagrindø. 2007 m. já planuojama atidaryti Penki paveikslai kaip naujàjà Nacionalinæ dailës galerijà, kurioje bus Kurdamas šioje parodoje eksponuojamus penkis pristatomas XX ir XXI amþiø Lietuvos menas. paveikslus pasirinkau šiuolaikinius Morriso dizaino Parko restoranas Trakuose labai primena 4-ojo audinius ir uþtapiau juos interpretuodamas anksèiau deðimtmeèio tarptautiná modernizmà. Kai minëtø pastatø fotografijas. Kai kurios Morriso kom- fotografavau, statybos èia buvo paèiame ákarðtyje ir pozicijø detalës neuþtapytos – jos iðnyra ið po rekonstruojamas pastatas atrodë taip, lyg bûtø buvæs nutapytø vaizdø. Pavyzdþiui, United Colors of Benetton apleistas ilgà laikà. parduotuvëje matyti tik ðakelës ið Morriso „Vaisiø“ Jei privatizacija ir nesunaikina sovietinio laikotarpio kompozicijos, o Morriso vasaros vaizdas virto þiema. pastatø, tai jiems vis tiek gresia pavojus, nes priimta „Dviejø prieðtaraujanèiø vaizdavimo sistemø kon- manyti, jog jie nepraktiðki rinkos ekonomikoje. Kartais frontacijos inscenizacija yra manevras... Kai susiduria jiems trûksta ekonomiðkos ðildymo sistemos, o pas- dvi kultûrinës sistemos, ávyksta iðsiliejimas ir aplink

5. ÁËJIMAS Á UAB KILIMAI LENTVARYJE / GATES OF AB KILIMAI FACTORY IN LENTVARIS. Autoriaus fotografija / Photo the author, 2005

4. BASEINO TRAMPLINAS, SPORTO RÛMAI VILNIUJE / DIVING BOARD, THE SPORTS HALL IN VILNIUS. Autoriaus fotografija / Photo the author, 2005

8 9 kyla verpetai. Abi lygties pusës patiria stresà, tuo tarpu Tikiuosi, kad mano kûriniai parodoje Menas kasdi- APSPURÆ PAKRAÐÈIAI: pavirðiun iðkyla ‘treèia prasmë’“3. enybei paskatins dialogà, kuris galëtø bûti produktyvus ir þvelgiant á ðiuolaikinæ Lietuvà, ir mëginant modern- DAVIDO MABBO KILIMAI IR TAPYBA Trys kilimai izuoti ar prikelti Morrisà, kad dar kartà iðryðkëtø jo, Trys ið ðiø paveikslø dar kartà yra „iðversti“ á didþi- kaip dizainerio, paminklosaugininko ir kapitalizmo kri- ulius taftinginius vilnonius kilimus Lietuva, Benetton tiko, talentas. Jau daug raðyta apie þmogaus potrauká nusikrapðtyti tema/idëja, o Morrisà – su objektu/kûriniu. Pasitelkus parduotuvë ir Sporto rûmai. Jie mus gràþina prie judëji- ðašà. Nes nieþulys yra gijimo proceso dalis, taèiau jis du santykio tipus iðryðkëja ir yra suaktyvinamas dialek- mo „Menà – á buitá“. Lietuvoje nuo 1990 m. per priva- DAVID MABB gali iðvaryti ið proto ir priversti kenèiantájá ið naujo tinis kûrinio aspektas2. Šiuo poþiûriu Mabbo darbai tizacijà prarasta ar transformuota didþioji dalis pra- atverti þaizdà. Taip visiško išgijimo procesas uþsitæsia. atspindi paties Williamo Morriso kûrybà. Ir labiausiai – moninës gamybos bazës. Þlugo pramoninë vitraþø 1 W. Morris, The Beauty of Life, 1880. Þaizdos vietoje net gali likti randas. Kartais tas veiks- per tokià estetikos ir politikos sampynà, kuri svyruoja gamyba, nes iðnyko uþsakovas – Sovietø Sàjunga; stik- 2 Geerto Lovinko pokalbis su Pro-testo laboratorijos iniciatoriais mas, abjekcija, yra tyèinis ir išvaduoja nuo nieþulio. tarp aukštojo, liaudies ir taikomojo meno3. lo dirbiniø gamybos struktûra pritaikyta naujai Vakarø Nomeda ir Gediminu Urbonais Hacking Public Spaces in Vilnius: Toks ciklas kultûros kritikoje daþnai pasitelkiamas Þvelgiant ið Lietuvos ir ið meno pozicijø (ir á jas rinkai. Bet dalis kilimø gamybos árengimø iðliko UAB Politics of a new media space inside the Lietuva (Soviet) Cinema, 2005, kaip metafora apibûdinant istorijà – ypaè XX a. vidu- kreipiantis) Morrisas labiausiai þinomas kaip taikomo- Kilimai gamykloje prie Lentvario netoli Vilniaus ir èia prieiga per internetà: rio istorijà – kaip „atvirà þaizdà“. Tiesà sakant, kri- jo meno atstovas, kûræs ir gaminæs (per Morris & vis dar gaminami aukðtos kokybës riðtiniai kilimai pagal http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=05/07/16/0344240&mode= tikams, rašantiems po Frankfurto mokyklos Company) namø apdailos dirbinius, o taip pat kaip originalius Lietuvos menininkø projektus. nested&tid=22 negatyviosios dialektikos ir anglø postmarksistinës pagrindinë „Meno ir amatø“ sàjûdþio figûra. Greta Bûtent èia iðausti trys mano kilimai. Kilimø gamyba 3 S. Edwards, „The Trouble with Morris“, in The Decorating Business, teorijos vëliava, šašo nukrapštymas yra svarbiausias meno/dizaino kûrybos Morriso veikla apëmë poezijà, mus vël gràþina prie Morriso, kuris kûrë ir audë kil- Ontario: Oakville Galleries, 2000. tikslas. Laikyti þaizdà atvirà tam tikra prasme reiškia, leidybà, politikà, politinæ teorijà, literatûrinius ver- imus – tai iðaugo á tarptautiná „meno ir amatø“ kad ji nuolat gyja. Tai padeda, turint omenyje minëtàjà timus, spaudà ir architektûrinio palikimo apsaugà. Jis judëjimà. Sudarytojo pastaba: jau po to, kai šis tekstas buvo abjekcijà, išvengti „nuslopintø dalykø sugráþimo“ (tai daug pasiekë visose ðiose srityse ir reikšmingai bei parašytas, kino teatro Lietuva likimas iðsisprendë. yra, ávykiø ir jëgø, kurios dar nëra tinkamai suvirðkin- ilgam paveikë anglø visuomenæ ir kultûrà4. Šiuo atveju Viena paroda Pastatas bus pertvarkytas á gyvenamàjá kompleksà su tos ar su kuriomis dar nepradëta tvarkytis, pasirody- mus domina bûtent politika ir jos dvelksmas Morriso Kilimai ir paveikslai iðkabinti ratu Ðiuolaikinio meno komercinëmis patalpomis. Savivaldybë iðkëlë sàlygà, mo). dizaino projektuose. centro kino salëje. Centras, kuriame dar tebëra ið kad komplekse bûtø skirta erdvës 200 vietø kino Tas pats impulsas slypi ir palaidame siûle. Siûlas, Tai nelengva uþduotis, kai mëgini suprasti Morriso gelþbetonio iðlietas rievëtas interjero dekoras ir vit- teatrui, kuris, kaip praneðë savininkai, bus árengtas kyðantis ið siûlës, drabuþio apsiuvo ar rankogalio, interjero apdailos projektus naujame tûkstantmetyje ir raþas, yra buvæ Dailës parodø rûmai, atidaryti 1968 m. apatiniame bûsimo pastato aukðte. audeklo atraiþos kraðto, patiesalo ar kilimo kuto (ar ið XX a. pabaigos perspektyvos. Jie reprezentuoja pakraðèio), vilioja já patraukti. Iðtraukti já tam, kad vidurinës klasës skoná, taip pat angliðkumà, kuris tarp- pašalintum, yra netikslusis mokslas. (Tikslumas tautiniu mastu reprezentuoja rafinuotà, konservatyvø 6. UÞPAKALINË KILIMO PUSË / BACK OF CARPET. Autoriaus fotografija / Photo the author, 2005 reikalauja kirpti). Èia didelë tikimybë, kad tas vienin- skoná. Didþiàja dalimi taip nutiko dël to, kad kompani- telis siûlas pasidarys proporcingai ilgesnis nei atrodo, ja Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd masiðkai gamina iðprovokuodamas naujà impulsà já pasekti (traukiant) audinius ir sienø apmušalus pagal Morriso projektus. iki jo logiškos pabaigos, audeklui, drabuþiui, kilimui, Gëlëtuose jø ornamentuose áþvelgti politiná elementà patiesalui išsiardant á naujà materialumo stadijà. atrodo beveik neámanoma. Taèiau, XIX amþiuje, kai Dekonstruktyvistas Jacques’as Derrida tai jau panau- jie buvo sukurti, jie buvo spaudþiami rankomis ksilo- dojo kaip kultûrinio tyrimo metaforà. Kaip ir pirmo- grafijos bûdu. (Ironiðka, taèiau tai reiðkë, kad jie buvo sios metaforos atveju, Derrida èia pasiûlo „aktyvios“ brangûs ir parduodami tik aukðtuomenei, kà Morrisas kritikos formà, leidþianèià objektui [kuris kadaise buvo vadino „pasitarnavimu kiauliškai turtingøjø praban- siûlø krûva] bûti ið naujo susiûtam/iðaustam. Tiesà gai“). Rankø darbas ir sàlygos, kuriomis dirbo Morris & sakant, „dekonstrukcijà“ galima apibûdinti kaip Co. darbininkai, iðreiðkë Morriso socialistines teorijas „rekonstrukcijà“. Neilgai trukus, þinoma, audeklas apie darbà bei pasiprieðinimà industrinës revoliucijos atspurs ir iðlás daugiau palaidø siûlø...1 nulemtam darbo ir gyvenimo mechanizavimui Šias dvi metaforas galima pritaikyti anglø menininko Viktorijos laikais. Davido Mabbo kûrybai – ir formos, ir funkcijos Nuo XIX a. 8-ojo deðimtmeèio ásitraukæs á liberalø poþiûriu. Mabbas kuria dviejø kanoniniø kultûriniø politikà, 9-ajame deðimtmetyje Morrisas ástojo á tradicijø kontekste: 1) susijusiame su anglø Socialinës demokratijos partijà, Socialistø lygà ir galiau- „menininko“ Williamo Morriso (1834–1896) kûryba; siai ákûrë Hammersmith socialistø draugijà, nes jo poli- 2) susijusiame su marksizmu. Jo parodos suaktyvina tika vis labiau radikalëjo. Jis vadintas „vietiniu Anglijos abu ðiuos istorinius/kultûrinius sluoksnius. Daugelis marksistu“. 1884–1895 m. Morrisas buvo svarbiausio þaizdos analogijà taikytø Marxui, o nuolatinio audimo to laiko socialistø periodinio leidinio Commonweal metaforà – Morrisui. Vadinasi, Marxà galëtume sieti su vienas leidëjø ir dirbo jo redaktoriumi – èia jis iðspaus-

10 11 dino keletà átakingø straipsniø. (Jis taip pat yra paraðæs buvo tikrai visaapimanti interjero „aplinka“. reputacija ir statusas taip pat pakilo. kilimø gamykloje UAB Kilimai (40 km á vakarus nuo pamfletø ir keletà knygos apimties traktatø). Jis Visaapimanèio dizaino ir gyvenamosios aplinkos Buvo sunku surasti to sàjûdþio metu sukurtus objek- Vilniaus). UAB Kilimai yra pelninga ámonë, iðsaugojusi nepailsdamas gynë darbininkø teises, ypaè [kaip groþio teorija turëtø atrodyti paþástama naujojo tûk- tus, kurie pasitarnautø kaip istoriniai þenklai. amatininkiðkà kilimø gamybà ir reorganizuota po Marxas] teisæ ágyvendinti savo tikràjá potencialà – per stantmeèio skaitytojui – per jos dialektinæ antitezæ. Nepaisant idealistinio tono, jie, tiesà sakant, þymi sovi- Lietuvos nepriklausomybës atkûrimo (1990) orien- mokslà – ir bûti teisingai atlygintiems uþ savo pastan- Nuo paskutiniojo XX a. deðimtmeèio drabuþiø etines represijas tiek pat, kiek ir simbolizuoja tuojantis á eksportà. Kadangi Morrisas kûrë gobelenus, gas; transformuojant visuomenæ, kuri vertintø dizaineriai Giorgio Armani, Calvinas Kleinas, o ypaè takoskyrà Lietuvos taikomojoje dailëje. Todël to laiko savo parodai Mabbas nusprendë imtis kilimø. darbà/produktyvumà labiau nei pelnà. Vienas garsi- Versace kuria drabuþius, kosmetikà, apdailà, net daiktai buvo iðmesti ið asmeniniø, komerciniø ir insti- Dirbdamas su šio amato meistrais, „iðvertusiais“ jo ausiø ir èia labai tinkamø jo principø yra ðis: „panaudo- vieðbuèius ir poilsiavietes tarsi teigdami, kad jie gali tuciniø kolekcijø ar bent jau nukišti á toliausius tø tapybà á kilimø raðtà, Kilimø gamykloje Mabbas sukûrë dami þmogaus darbà neturëtume gaminti nieko, ko vartotojams suteikti iðtisà (ir patobulintà) gyvenimà. kolekcijø kampelius – ið akiø ir ið galvos. Objektai, tris figûrinius kilimus, kurie yra pagrindinis parodos neverta gaminti, ar kam pagaminti reikalingas darbas, Daþniausiai su tuo siejama grieþto minimalizmo esteti- kuriuos pavyko pamatyti, buvo nedideli atradimai elementas. þeminantis gamintojus“5. ka, tarsi koks postinternacionalinis stilius. (Ir priešingas [uþsienieèio akimis], nes juos kuriant pritaikytas britø Sinchroniškai šiam sàlyginiam kûrybiðkumo pakilimui Morriso organicizmui). Žinoma, toks socialinis mod- „festivalinis“ stilius. Britanijos festivalis (1951) buvo taikomojoje dailëje gimstantis modernizmas iðryðkëjo eliavimas kuriamas labiau vartojimo, o ne gamybos valdþios mëginimas atgaivinti visuomenës suvokimà, ir Lietuvos architektûroje – tai rodë keletas pagrin- plotmëje – šis argumentas sudaro postmarksistinës kad nacionalinio dizaino kultûra gali prisidëti atstatant diniø to meto pastatø. Daþnai interjero architektûra, kritikos, kurià plëtojo Guy Debord’as savo svarbiausi- Londonà ir ðalies pramonæ po antrojo pasaulinio karo. puoðyba ir baldai atspindëjo sàjûdá „Menà á buitá“. Tuo ame situacionistiniame tekste Reginio visuomenë Uþsakyti projektai dairësi á „modernistinæ“ ateitá, kad metu, kai visuomeninë architektûra turëjo tarnauti (1967), pagrindà. iðvaduotø ðalies dizainà ið organinio „meno ir amatø“ valstybei, èia mano aptariami pastatai sublimavo Pastaroji nuoroda gràþina mus á dabartá ir prie sàjûdþio palikimo átakos. Kuriant daugelá su Festivaliu socialistinio realizmo stiliø ir átraukë elementus, kuriu- Davido Mabbo kûriniø. Ir á Lietuvos, kur jie eksponuo- susijusiø buitinio dizaino objektø buvo derinami mod- os galima sieti su modernistine Vakarø architektûra. jami, erdvæ. Mabbas atvyko á Lietuvà tyrinëti Morriso ernistiniai ir tradiciniai elementai – Morrisas susidûrë Sprendþiant iš išvaizdos ir turint omenyje ryðá su „fes- tradicijos ir èionykðtës taikomojo meno kûrybos su modernizmu, jei norite. tivaliniu“ stiliumi (kuriam Britanijoje atstovauja sandûrø. Politinæ analogijà diktavo tai, kad Lietuva yra Karaliðkieji festivaliø rûmai, Hayward galerija ir buvusi sovietø socialistinio eksperimento kalinë. Nacionalinis kino teatras/Britø kino institutas – visi Norint áausti Marxà á savo kûrybos ataudus, Mabbui pastatyti pietiniame Londono krante), šiuos pastatus orrisas kûrë savo projektus reikëjo politinio jautrumo ir reflektyvumo, o taip pat – galima vadinti „brutalistiniais“. Brutalizmas apibûdina- bûdamas ásitikinæs, kad kuratoriaus sukurtos struktûros. Ir suvokimo, kad mas kaip „humanistinis modernizmas“, o pastatuose, estetika/groþis atlieka tam tikrà reikia skirti marksizmà nuo to, kaip já iðkraipë sovieti- išaugusiuose Lietuvoje „atšilimo“ laikotarpiu, jo šiek vaidmená visuotinio visuomenës nis socializmas, absoliuèiai suþalojæs þmones, karinës tiek yra. Taèiau átvirtinti ðá atitikimà reikðtø ignoruoti tobulinimo procese. (Kaip tik toká galios priverstus gyventi po jo padu. (Iðryðkinant ðá platesnes socialines reikðmes, o taip pat ir pastatø 7-9. Domicelë Tarabildienë. INICIALAI poþiûrá tuo pat metu propagavo Johnas Ruskinas – skirtumà verta paþymëti, kad prokomunistiniø kritikø L. GIROS RINKINIUI NE MARGI SAKALËLIAI / likimà, arba, kaip sakë þymus architektûros kritikas vëliau Walteris Benjaminas, Levas Trockis ir Bertoldo Brechto ir Georgo Lukácso estetika nebuvo INITIALS FOR L. GIRA’S BOOK HIGH IN THE Manfredo Tafuri, „bûti priklausomiems nuo vyrau- SKY NOT FALCONS WERE FLYING, 1963 Theodoras Adorno tai pavertë teorija). Sekdamas átraukta á Lietuvos meno pedagogikà, nes jø mark- janèio gamybos bûdo“7. (Tiek pat, kiek ir architektø Ruskinu ir prerafaelitø judëjimu, su kuriuo siejama jo sistinë kritika laikyta pomirtiniu seniai mirusio kûno norà kurti, patys pastatai atspindi medþiagas, kurios paties poezija, Morrisas atsigræþë á ikiindustriná amþiø, tyrimu)6. tuomet buvo prieinamos Sovietø Sàjungoje. T. y., bru- atitinkantá jo gamybos technologijas, ieðkodamas Visgi šis projektas ágyvendintas ásitikinus, kad laikas talistai rinkosi betonà, o Lietuvos modernistø medþia- motyvø ir apipavidalinimo pavyzdþiø. Jo atikiniai ir pribrendo kritikai. Sekdama siûlu atgal á pradþià istor- anaðus lydinys aptinkamas ir lietu- gos pasirinkimas atspindëjo pasiûlà). organiniai vaizdiniai labiausiai sietini su Viduramþiø inë kritika (ðaðo nukrapðtymas) siekia neigti, o ne skat- viðkuose judëjimo „menà á buitá“ Nepaisant ðiø sàlygø, keletas pastatø yra grakðtûs gobelenais ir knygø miniatiûromis. Jo ornamentuose inti sugráþimà to, kas buvo nuslopinta. Kurá laikà objektuose, apjungusiuose „kylantá sovietinës architektûros pavyzdþiai. Kam, atëjusiam ið bujoja gausybë gëliø, šakø ir vaisiø – idealios patyrinëjæs situacijà padedant Lietuvos akademinëms modernizmà“ su tuo, kà geriausia vakarietiðko konteksto, paraboliška Koncertø ir þemdirbystës gerovës þenklai. Tai – ikiindustrinio ir parodø institucijoms, Mabbas galëjo susitelkti ties bûtø vadinti „folkloro“ elementais. Sporto rûmø stogo kreivë neprimins Le Corbusier darbo vaisius. Tiems, kuriems rûpi dailës istorija, tai viena „chruðèiovinio atlydþio“ laikotarpio, 6-ojo Folklorinis dizainas susijæs su þemdirbystës ir organini- Ronðano koplyèios? Panaðiai ir uþdaras betoninis yra klestinti gamta, apaugusi Arkadijos griuvësius rojø deðimtmeèio pabaigos iniciatyva, þinoma kaip „menà á ais motyvais, daþnai primenanèiais viduramþiø medþio kubas, sklandantis ant dviejø kolonø ir iðtisai ástiklintos primenanèiose erdvëse Claude’o Lorraino tapyboje ar buitá“. Tai buvo eksperimentas, susijæs su penkmeèio raiþinius ar ksilografinius atspaudus. (Tai nesusijæ su sienos (kino teatre Vilnius), primena Lucio Costa ir didþiajame kolonijinës Amerikos tapytojo Thomaso plano ekonomika, pagal kurià menininkai/taikomosios „sovietiniu realizmu“, kurá nuolat prisimena, net Oscaro Niemeyerio kûrybà. Nepaisant ðiø panaðumø Cole’o cikle Imperijos kelias (1834–1836), vaizduo- dailës atstovai turëjo vadovauti tekstilës ir keramikos fetiðizuoja Vakarø menotyrininkai). Savo vaidmená ir jø vertës, pastatus, apie kuriuos kalbu, iðtiko tas pats janèiame Amerikos þlugimà. Kaip ir Cole’as, Morrisas gamyklø projektavimo skyriams. Judëjimas gyvavo iki atliko ir technologijos, nes gamyboje jos buvo atnau- likimas kaip ir minëtus „kasdienius“ daiktus – jie buvo buvo ankstyvasis gamtosaugininkas ir jo kûryba skelbia „breþnevinës stagnacijos“ 8-ojo deðimtmeèio viduryje. jintos praëjus 15 metø po sovietø okupacijos [antrojo uþdaryti, išgrobstyti, privatizuoti (kino teatras Vilnius apie þalingà industrializacijos poveiká britø gamtai ir Iniciatyva skatino taikyti menà ir dizainà buities daiktø pasaulinio karo pabaigos]. dabar yra United Colors of Benetton parduotuvë) arba gyvenimo kokybei. Atrodo, kad Morriso interjerø gamyboje galvojant, kad tai pagerins kasdienio gyveni- Geriausias tuo laikotarpiu sukurtø objektø archyvas, átraukti á griaunamø pastatø sàraðà. Taigi Mabbas nus- groþis yra priminimas apie degradacijà uþ lango. Tai mo kokybæ. Ðiame judëjime dalyvavusiø menininkø bent jau uþfiksuotas fotografijose, saugomas Lentvario prendë panaudoti penkis ið ðiø pastatø kaip pagrin-

12 13 dinius ávaizdþius savo parodoje, sudarytoje ið trijø kil- 1 Filosofinis/istorinis optimistas èia aptariamam procesui galëtø pri- imø ir penkiø paveikslø (visi jie sukurti 2005 m.). Tai – taikyti „amþinos revoliucijos“ terminà. Koncertø ir Sporto rûmai, kino teatras Vilnius ir kino 2 „Dialektikos“ sàvoka èia naudojama klasikine prasme (tai reiðkia teatras Lietuva (kilimai ir tapyba) bei naujoji logiðkà tyrimà pasitelkus dvi prieðtaraujanèias sàvokas) ir siejama su Nacionalinë dailës galerija (buvæs Lietuvos Sovietø Theodoro Adorno nukalta „negatyvia dialektika“. Tai jokiu bûdu Socialistinës Respublikos Revoliucijos muziejus) ir neturëtø bûti siejama su [sovietiniu] „dialektiniu materializmu“. restoranas Trakuose (tapyba)8. 3 Daugiau informacijos apie Mabbà ir Morrisà þr. Marnie Fleming, The Pagrindiná pastato ávaizdá ðiuose kûriniuose jis Decorating Business, Ontario: Oakville Galleries, 2000; David Mabb, sujungë su organiniu motyvu, pasiskolintu iš Morriso. David Mabb: A Factory As It Might Be or The Hall Of Flowers, Ontario: (Prisiminkite, Morrisas ákûrë pirmàjà Britanijoje Art Gallery of Windsor, 2003; David Mabb, William Morris, architektûros apsaugos draugijà). Paveikslai nutapyti Manchester: The University of Manchester, 2004; David Mabb, ant Sandersono Morriso gaminamo audinio, kurá gali- adangi, nepaisant oficialios funkci- William Morris in Jaipur, New Dehli: The Queen’s Gallery, 2005. ma nusipirkti parduotuvëje, iðtempto ant drobës. jos, ðiø visuomeniniø pastatø 4 Williamas Morrisas iðleido keletà poezijos knygeliø, susijusiø su pre- Daþais uþtepami ornamento elementai, kurie verþiasi paskirtis buvo pramoga, su jais rafaelitø judëjimu: The Defense of Guenevere and Other Poems, á vaizdà ir paveikslo plokðtumà – šis efektas primena susijæ ávaizdþiai tikriausiai bus pozi- London: Bell & Daldy, 1858; The Earthly Paradise: A Poem (parts I-III), sintetiná kubizmà. Kilimuose organinis ornamentas tyvûs. Ypaè todël, kad netrukus po London: F.S. Ellis, 1868–1870. Jis taip pat vertë Islandijos mitologinæ tarsi paryškina pagrindà, ant kurio ákomponuojamas to, kai buvo atkurta nepriklau- poezijà: The Story of Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs, pastatas. Kilimuose Sporto rûmai ir Lietuva ant pastatø somybë, Sporto rûmai ir kino teatras Lietuva tapo London: Ellis & White, 1877. 1890 m. Morrisas ákûrë specializuotà pavirðiaus vejasi šakos, lyg trišakiai, pranašaujantys vietomis, kur daugelis lietuviø pirmà kartà paragavo Kelmscott spaustuvæ, iðgarsëjusià naujø viduramþiø poezijos leidimø, greità jø sugriovimà. Tai primena Morriso kûryboje populiariosios Vakarø kultûros (popmuzikos koncertø tarp jø ir Geoffrey Chaucerio kûrybos, iliustracijomis. 1877 m. jis jauèiamà átampà, kurià Morriso tyrinëtojas Stephenas ir kino), kuri taip ilgai jiems buvo uþdrausta. Tai „kas- ákûrë Draugijà seniesiems pastatams iðsaugoti, kuri vis dar veikia ir S. Eisenmanas apibûdino kaip „ornamentinæ natûraliz- dienybë“, ið tikrøjø áausta á Mabbo kûrinius. kuri daugeliu atþvilgiu buvo Nacionalinës globos pirmtakë. Daugiau mo ir koðmaro opozicijà“9. Taip pat tai tarsi iliustruoja Šis procesas primena naujosios Nacionalinës dailës informacijos ieškokite Williamo Morriso draugijos tinklapyje Morriso tekstus, kuriuose daþnai aprašomas irimo ir galerijos rekonstrukcijà – jos kubiniai tûriai èia uþfik- www.morrisociety.org atgimimo, griovimo ir augimo, degimo ir naujo suk- suoti griovimo stadijoje. Kadangi pats pastatas buvo 5 Citatos tæsinys: „Kokia paprasta ir, þinoma, teisinga, bebûtø ta pozi- lestëjimo vienalaikiškumas. prastai pastatytas ið prastø medþiagø, jo renovacija yra cija, kaip, esu ásitikinæs, ji tau ir turi atrodyti, apmàstæs ðá reikalà tu Esë Architektûra ir jos antrininkas (1973), þymëjusi- didþiulis architektûrinis darbas. Ásitikinimas, kad suprasi, jog tai yra tiesiog mirtinas iððûkis dabartinei darbo sistemai ame naujos architektûros ir naujos architektûros architektûrà verta išsaugoti, liudija dialektiðkà pozicijà civilizuotose šalyse“. Iš „Art and Socialism“ (1884), þr. A. L. Morton teorijos formavimàsi pritaikius poststruktûralizmà, – tà paèià pozicijà, kuri ákvepia gyvybæ Davido Mabbo (ed.), The Political Writing of William Morris, London: Lawrence & Tafuri raðë, jog tam, kad taptø radikalesnë, „architek- projektui. Projektas atskiria architektûriná projek- Wishart, 1984. tûra turëjo paneigti visuomenës lûkesèius – taigi griu- tavimà ir statybà: projektavimas pristatomas kaip 6 Dël visiškos teisybës reikia priminti, kad sovietmeèiu á kanono kritikà vësiai tapo paèiais architektûriðkiausiais objektais“. lietuviðka architektûra, o jo rezultato – pastato – apskritai buvo þiûrima negatyviai. Pristatydamas griûvanèià architektûrà ir ávesdamas materija paþenklinama kaip sovietinë. Paprastai kuo 7 Žr. Manfredo Tafuri, Architecture and Utopia: Design and Capitalist kaip prieðstatà svetimà objektà [Morrisà], kuris toliau nuo Maskvos bûdavo statomas pastatas, tuo Development, Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1976. nepasiduoda realistinei reprezentacijai, Mabbas prastesnës statybinës medþiagos bûdavo naudojamos. 8 Reikia pastebëti, kad net jei tie pastatai buvo suplanuoti ar suprojek- veiksmingai paneigë socialinius lûkesèius pastato Taigi reikia ekstensyvios rekonstrukcijos ir naujø tuoti èia mûsø aptariamu laikotarpiu, jie buvo pastatyti per dvidešimtá atþvilgiu. Paprastai ir dialektiðkai kalbant, sug- medþiagø. Nacionalinë dailës galerija yra atstatymo ið metø nuo 7-ojo iki 9-ojo deðimtmeèio. retindamas du ávaizdþius ir dvi tradicijas, jis sukûrë griuvësiø simbolis. Mabbo nutapyta ant Morriso 9 Steve Edwards, „The Colonisation of Utopija“, in David Mabb, ðiuolaikiniø griuvësiø ávaizdá. Tai griuvësiø atvaizdai, „Sauluèiø“ audinio, Nacionalinë dailës galerija atrodo William Morris, Manchester: The University of Manchester, 2004. sudarantys sàlygas þiûrovo sàveikai su tais pastatais, lyg padabinta gëliø girliandomis. Jos betoninæ masæ iðlaisvintais nuo sovietiniø lûkesèiø – ant jø fasadø nuðvieèia oranþinë saulëlydþio þara, taip sukuriant þiûrovas gali projektuoti savo paties lûkesèius. Mabbas aiðkiai optimistiná vaizdà. Perfrazuojant Morriso sukûrë tai, kà Adorno vadina „autonomiðku meno Maþesniuosius menus (1882), ji reprezentuoja „naujà kûriniu“, kurio turinys, nepaisant á já pripumpuoto menà, iðaugantá ið naujos visuomenës situacijos“. intelekto, sudaro sàlygas asmeniniam susitapatinimui. Naujà visuomenæ, auganèià ant Neries krantø, nuo Kilimas, paþástamas buities daiktas, yra idealus objek- Mabbo parodos saliø skiria neilga kelionë kilimu – tai tas asmeniniam susitapatinimui kurti, ypaè toks kaip tas pats krantas, ant kurio stûkso Sporto rûmai, o jø šie kilimai, vis dar kvepiantys švieþiu audimu, minkšti ir likimas dar neþinomas. mieli. SIMON REES

14 15 TRUMPA JUDËJIMO „MENÀ Á BUITÁ“ ISTORIJA Juolab, kad miesto rekonstrukcija ið dalies atitinka jø tas estrados programas, tebespëlioja: griaus – negri- lûkesèius, simbolizuoja reikðmingø pokyèiø (kapital- aus. Ðiame upës krante vyksta ir buvusio Revoliucijos izacijos) metà („kas buvo nieks, tas dabar gali viskà muziejaus pastato (arch. G. Baravykas ir V. Vielius, nusipirkt“, perfrazuojant þinomà revoliucinæ giesmæ). projektas 1968, ágyvendintas 1980), kuriame ásikurs Vartotojus, be abejo, dþiugina nauja United Colors of jau minëtas naujasis muziejus – Nacionalinë dailës Benetton parduotuvë, árengta rekonstravus puikø galerija, rekonstrukcija ir iðplëtimas. Tik itin populia- ankstyvojo pokarinio modernizmo Lietuvos architek- raus, platø ekranà ir didþiulæ salæ turëjusio, nepriklau- tûros pavyzdá – kino teatrà Vilnius (arch. J. somà kino pristatymo programà vykdþiusio bei kino Kasperavièius, 1964). Niekas, atrodo, nepasigedo ir festivalius rengusio kino teatro Lietuva (1965) uþdary- paèiame miesto centre nuo 1955 m. stovëjusio deng- mas sukëlë didesná ðurmulá. Dëmesá á pastato ir jame to baseino. Jo vietoje mûrijama prestiþiniø apartamen- veikianèios institucijos likimà labiausiai atkreipë tø tvirtovë „su vaizdu“ á patá Vilniaus simbolá – menininkø Nomedos ir Gedimino Urbonø organizuo- Gedimino pilá. Greta, toje pat Neries upës pakrantëje ta Protesto laboratorija, deja, taip ir neiðgelbëjusi tikrø tikriausiai merdi vienu originaliausiø savo metui Lietuvos. Ðiuolaikinio meno misija gal ir nëra gelbëti, konstrukciniu sprendimu pasiþymintys Koncertø ir tad projektas veikiau (dar syká prisimenant Benjaminà) sporto rûmai (arch. Z. Liandzbergis, E. Chlomauskas pasistengë sugriauti miesto suvokimo automatizmà, ir J. Kriukelis, projektas 1964, ágyvendintas 1971). rutiniðkumà, taip paþadindamas aistrà ðiai vietai ir Miesto gyventojai, sovietmeèiu verþte verþæsi á ten problemai. vykusias krepðinio varþybas, baletà ant ledo, uþsienio Nûdienà ir „pavojuje atsidûrusiø“ pastatø gimimo popmuzikos koncertus, Naujøjø Metø sutikimui reng- laikà (7-àjá deðimtmetá) sieja tam tikros paralelës.

10. LUKIÐKIØ AIKÐTËS VILNIUJE REKONSTRUKCIJOS KONKURSO PROJEKTAS, 7-ojo deðimtmeèio pradþia / 11. VALGYKLOS ŠATRIJA KAUNE INTERJERAS. Architektas A. Gordevièius, metalo plastika T. E. Vaivadienës / CONTEST PROJECT FOR THE RECONSTRUCTION OF LUKIÐKËS SQUARE IN VILNIUS, early 1960s INTERIOR OF ŠATRIJA CANTEEN IN KAUNAS. Architecture by A. Gordevièius, metal plastic by T. E. Vaivadienë, 1966

Lietuvoje ðis Davido Mabbo projektas pataiko iðsyk á neáteisintos vertës daiktø – XX a. 6-ojo deðimtmeèio du taikinius, tiksliau – á abi vieno taikinio puses. pabaigos–7-ojo deðimtmeèio pradþios Lietuvos taiko- Taikinyje – atmintis: pirmiausia, miesto kaip nuolat mosios dailës ir dizaino objektø kaleidoskopas: kintanèios, naujais sluoksniais apauganèios materialios geometriniais ir stilizuotais etnografiniais motyvais struktûros, o taip pat emocinë – gyvenimo mieste – margintos uþuolaidos, trapecijos silueto staleliai ir atmintis. Kitoje pusëje nuolatinë atminties palydovë – kalinëtos metalo sagës, moliniai likerio servizai, oda uþmarðtis. Á XXI amþiø áþengusi ir staigiø pokyèiø áriðti ornamentuoti fotografijø albumai ir kt. Ðis daiktø sukeltas traumas per keliolikà metø apsigydþiusi pasaulis, tiksliau, já sukûrusio judëjimo ideologija tapo Lietuvos visuomenë dràsiau græþiasi ir á sovietinio Mabbo projekto Menas kasdienybei atspirties tašku. laikotarpio patirtá bei to meto kultûros paveldà, juos „Istoriðkai artikuliuoti praeitá – nereiðkia paþinti, prisimindama ne kaip tiesiog blogà, neteisingà laikà, o „kaip viskas buvo ið tikrøjø“ (Ranke). Tai reiðkia veikiau „kaþkoká“, specifiniais bruoþais pasiþymintá, á uþvaldyti prisiminimà toká, koks jis suþimba pavojaus ðiandienà nepanaðø fenomenà. Sovietinë dailë itin daþ- akimirkà“1. Ðis Walterio Benjamino pastebëjimas nai minima diskusijose apie bûsimà ekspozicijà nau- puikiai iliustruoja ðiandieniná visuomenës santyká su jame modernaus ir ðiuolaikinio meno muziejuje sovietinio laikotarpio Lietuvos paveldu, ypaè architek- Vilniuje (kurio rekonstruojamà pastatà Mabbas ápynë tûra. Ið pradþiø taikæsis tik á miestø pakraðèius, per ir á vienà ið savo paveikslø). Iðties, kokià þinià perduos paskutiniuosius metus centro link pajudëjo kapitalas. ðio laikotarpio dailës kûriniai ðiandieniniam þiûrovui? Beveik nepastebimai ëmë dingti (nugriaunami ar neat- Koká sovietinës Lietuvos kultûros matymà ir màstymà paþástamai perstatomi) ankstesnës statybos skatins muziejus – galingas, diskursà formuojantis visuomeniniai pastatai (kino teatras, teatras, baseinas, visuomenës institutas? baldø salonas). Jø vietoje dygsta biurai, butai, prekybos Britø menininkui pasidomëjus Lietuvos moderniøjø centrai... Brandþiu bendruomeninës nuosavybës jaus- laikø amatø ir dizaino sàjûdþiais, gretintinais su jo mu negalintys pasigirti miestieèiai (dar neseniai tai tyrinëjamomis Williamo Morriso idëjomis ir veikla, priklausë ne jiems, o valstybei) daþnai nespëja atmintyje/uþmarðtyje ëmë suktis gana ryðkiø, bet sureaguoti á vienai ar kitai vietai iðkylantá pavojø.

16 17 vyravo visoje SSRS. Pastaràjà áprasta vertinti kaip kon- muose reikalavimuose. servatyvià, retrospekcinæ. Nors socialistinis realizmas Visuotinai (priþiûrint ir kontroliuojant valstybei) – sovietinës architektûros ir dailës kryptis, susifor- pasukta link internacionalinës XX a. stilistikos – mavusi dar 4-ame deðimtmetyje ir pokario metais funkcionalizmo. Naujø pastatø kompozicija buvo pasiekusi Lietuvà, – paradoksaliai apjungë dvi grindþiama vientisa, atsiverianèia á iðoræ, laisvai pere- prieðybes. Meniniø formos orientyrø buvo ieðkoma inanèia ið vienos patalpos á kità erdve. Interjere naudo- praeityje, taèiau bendra idëjinë ir emocinë nuostata tos natûralios vietinës medþiagos: plytos, medis, krypo kaip tik á ateitá. Sovietø valstybës deklaruojamus akmuo, ðviesus tinkas. Rinktasi nacionalinei buièiai (kad ir á tolimà rytojø perkeltus) komunizmo sukûrimo charakteringus dekoratyvinius elementus: kaltà met- siekius ákûnijo ir paties gyvenimo bûdo, ir jo materi- alà, tekstilæ ir keramikà (il. 11 ir 30). Plito aliosios aplinkos rekonstravimo patosas. 6-ojo deðimt- funkcionalûs, paprastos konstrukcijos, lakoniðkø meèio pabaigoje (mirus Stalinui ir 1955 m. partijai formø daiktai. Sparèiai formavosi gilesniø prieðkario priëmus reikðmingà nutarimà dël nesaikingumø tradicijø beveik neturintis baldø dizainas. Pagrindinës paðalinimo projektavime ir statyboje) buvo atsisakyta baldø dizaineriø pajëgos telkësi 1957 m. Vilniuje tik eklektinës puoðybinës architektûros stilistikos, o ásteigtame Eksperimentiniame konstravimo biure. Èia bendroji rekonstravimo ideologija iðliko, grindþiama kurti ir prototipai masinei gamybai, ir unikalûs projek- naujais pasaulëþiûriniais orientyrais. Jos invazija tai visuomeniniams interjerams. Lietuviðki baldai tuo Lietuvoje buvo visuotinë – atkuriamieji pokario darbai metu puikavosi ne tik Lietuvos, bet ir SSRS, o taip pat taip pat skatino totaliai pertvarkyti aplinkà. „draugiðkø besivystanèio socializmo ðaliø“ miestø 7-ame deðimtmetyje buvo pradëti kritikuoti, pri- interjeruose; jie taip pat buvo rodomi SSRS paviljonu- paþinti nemokðiðkais pokariniai Lietuvos senamiesèiø ose ávairiose tarptautinëse parodose. Ryðkiausiø mod- griovimai. Bet ir to meto urbanistiniai projektai ne erniø baldø pavyzdþiø sukûrë Algimantas ir Vytautas maþiau drastiðki. 1962 m. Vilniaus centro rekonstravi- Nasvyèiai, Laima ir Algirdas Stapulioniai, Vytautas mo konkurso dalyviai – Minsko, Leningrado, Rygos ir Beiga, Eugenijus Cukermanas, Valerija Cukermanienë, Vilniaus valstybiniø projektavimo institutø kolektyvai, Tadas Baginskas ir kt. (il. 12, 13 ir 31). Taikomosios projektuodami didþiuliø gabaritø pastatus, atverdami dailës modernizacijà skatino paskelbtas ðûkis „menà – milþiniðkas erdves, ne tik neatsiþvelgë á susiklosèiusá á buitá“. Oficialiuosius ðios ideologijos tikslus bene geri- miesto centro audiná, bet ir siûlë „su uþmoju“ griauti ausiai ávardija tuometinio Lietuvos SSR kultûros min- vardan naujo (il. 10). Á miestà þvelgta taip pat antiis- istro Liongino Ðepeèio knygos Daiktø groþis moto – toriðkai, kaip ir pirmaisiais pokario metais. Be to, pasak autoriaus, frazë ið Partijos programos: „Meninis visuotinai rekonstruojant aplinkà, buvo siekiama jà pradas dar labiau ákvëps darbà, pagraþins buitá ir tau- aprëpti vientisu (ir vieninteliu) stiliumi. Buities rins þmogø“2. Prioritetiniu tapo buièiai skirtø taikomo- kultûros, gero skonio ugdymo skyreliai periodikoje, sios dailës dirbiniø (keramikos, tekstilës, odos, meta- taikomosios dailës ir kitos specialios parodos (pvz., lo) projektavimas. Nuo 5-ojo deðimtmeèio vidurio 1959 m. ðiuolaikinës buities paroda buvo surengta didþiuosiuose Lietuvos miestuose Vilniuje, Kaune ir naujame gyvenamajame name Vilniaus Antakalnio Klaipëdoje veikë dailës kombinatai, kurie pagal juose rajone) didaktiðkai propagavo naujàjà groþio sampratà. dirbusiø dailininkø sukurtus etalonus serijiniu bûdu 12. VIEÐBUÈIO KONAKRI MIESTE (GVINËJA) BALDAI. Dizaineris V. Beiga / FURNITURE AT THE HOTEL IN CONAKRY CITY (GUINEA). Design by V. Beiga, 1963 6–7-ojo deðimtmeèiø sandûroje iðsiplëtæs aplinkos gamino indus, vazas, þvakides, margintus audinius, oda pertvarkymas Lietuvoje organiðkai ásiliejo á tuo metu áriðtus albumus, pinigines, rankines, papuoðalus. Ðie SSRS prasidëjusá gyvenimo (ir jo materialaus apvalkalo) dirbiniai buvo parduodami kombinatus valdþiusio Pirmiausia, ir tuomet, ir dabar miestà bei gyvenimà pobûdá. atsinaujinimo sàjûdá. Chruðèiovinio „atðilimo“ metø LSSR dailës fondo Dailës parduotuvëse, prekiavusiose jame norima radikaliai pertvarkyti, rekonstruoti. Stalininis „triumfo stilius“ buvo áskiepytas á Lietuvos permainos politikoje ir ekonomikoje paþadino ir taikomàja daile, tapybos, grafikos, maþosios plastikos * architektûros aplinkà autoritariðkai. Ir to meto dvasinio atgimimo viltá. Perspektyva buvo grindþiama ir kt. kûriniais. Parduotuvës tarsi atliko komerciniø 6–7-ojo deðimtmeèiø sandûra – pokarinio mod- Lietuvos miestø generaliniai planai, ir nauji progreso ir dinamikos idealais. Kaip primygtinai galerijø vaidmená, jø veiklà (parduodamø kûriniø ernistinio sàjûdþio Lietuvos architektûroje, dizaine ir visuomeniniai pastatai buvo suprojektuoti ið Sovietø amþininkø þvilgsniai krypo á mokslo ir technikos atrankà, kainas, taip pat rengiamø parodø turiná) kon- taikomojoje dailëje pradþia. Paprastai ðis periodas Sàjungos atvykusiø architektø arba jiems padedant, paþangos skubinamà ateitá, liudija nusiritusi futur- troliuojant valstybei. Dalis dailininkø, ypaè tek- grieþtai atskiriamas nuo stalininio pokario laikotarpio. konsultuojant. Átrauktas á bendrà sovietinës kultûros ologiniø diskursø banga dailininkø pasisakymuose, stilininkai, dirbo ir pramonës ámonëse (Kauno audiniu- Nors atidþiau paþvelgus nesunku pastebëti ir juos jun- vagà, oficialusis Lietuvos meno gyvenimas jau pirma- publikacijose apie buities kultûrà. Orientacija á mokslo ose, Vilniaus Audëjuje, Lentvario kilimø fabrike, kt.). Jie gianèius idëjinius saitus. Pastarøjø ávardijimas jame pokario deðimtmetyje buvo priverstas prisiderin- ir technikos paþangà bei visuomenës demokratëjimo projektavo audinius drabuþiams, buièiai (uþuolaidas, sukonkretina ir paèiø moderniø permainø kryptá bei ti ir ëmë alsuoti ta paèia atmosfera, kuri tuo metu þenklai atsispindëjo ir architektûrai bei daiktams kelia- baldø apmuðalus), kilimø raðtus. 7-ojo deðimtmeèio

18 19 spaudoje, knygose apie taikomàjà dailæ3, buièiai skirtø Sàjungos daiktø dizaine ir architektûroje buvo jauèi- daiktø dizainui, interjerø árengimui skiriama daugiau amos Vakarø átakos. Itin svarbiu impulsu, propagavusiu dëmesio nei unikaliajai kûrybai – pirmøjø simbolinis modernià iðraiðkà, tapo 1957 m. tarptautinis Jaunimo kapitalas buvo neabejotinai didesnis. Propaguoti utili- festivalis Maskvoje. Jo metu buvo surengta tarptautinë tarûs, pramoniniø formø keramikos, tekstilës, metalo, vaizduojamosios bei taikomosios dailës paroda. odos dirbiniai, dekoruoti apibendrintais, stilizuotais, Festivalio apipavidalinimui (plakatams, emblemoms, daþnai nacionalinio etnografinio pobûdþio ornamen- architektûriniams akcentams) buvo pasirinkta vientisa, tiniais motyvais. Tokiø darbø sukûrë Liudvikas Strolis, dar 6-ojo deðimtmeèio pradþioje daugelyje Europos Jonas Mikënas, Juozas Adomonis, Aldona Lièkutë, ðaliø prigijusi stilistika. Festivalio metu Maskvos miesto Juozas Balèikonis, Vladas Daujotas, Mina Babenskienë, vyriausiuoju dailininku dirbæs M. Laduras nuo 1958 m. Ramutë Jasudytë, Tiju Vaivadienë, Sofija Rimantienë ir vadovavo minëtajam þurnalui Dekorativnoje iskusstvo kt. (il. 14, 15, 32 ir 33). Judëjimas „menà á buitá“ – SSSR. Didþiulá visuomeniná rezonansà turëjæs renginys ryþtinga modernistinio dizaino pokarinëje Lietuvoje ir þurnalas iðpopuliarino ðià kryptá visoje Sovietø formavimosi pradþia. Teorijoje ðios naujovës buvo sie- Sàjungoje. Sovietinëje menotyroje ji ir vadinta „festi- jamos su komunistinës visuomenës sukûrimo idëja, valiniu“ stiliumi. Beje, Vakarø dizaino istorijoje taip pat mëginant atsiriboti nuo „burþuaziniø“ tarptautiniø átakø. cirkuliuoja toks terminas. „Festivalinio“ stiliaus dizaine Tikrovëje á architektûrà ir dekoratyvinæ dailæ naujau- simboliu tarptautiniame kontekste tapo 1951 m. sios idëjos ëmë plûsti kaip tik ið Vakarø, nors ir pavëlu- vykæs Britanijos festivalis (Festival of Britain) ir Festival otai ar netiesiogiai, jau adaptavæsi Rytø Europos ðal- Pattern Group dizaineriø veikla. „1951 m. pietiniame yse. 6-ojo deðimtmeèio pabaigoje–7-ojo deðimtmeèio Temzës krante surengtas Britanijos festivalis iðreiðkë pradþioje suaktyvëjo tarptautinis turizmas. Lietuviø sieká suvienyti britø nacijà ðviesios, naujos ateities, menininkai, nors ir su grieþtai priþiûrimomis sovietiniø grindþiamos modernaus dizaino aplinka, idëja“5. turistø grupëmis, taip pat ëmë daugiau keliauti. Idëjinës ir emocinës paralelës artina beveik per Pirmiausiai – po komunistinio bloko valstybes deðimtá metø nutolusius pokarinës Anglijos Europoje, taip pat „draugiðkas“ ðalis Azijoje, Afrikoje; sutvirtëjimà ir Sovietø Sàjungos „atðilimà“ þyminèius daþnëjo kelionës ir á Vakarø Europà. Apybraiþos ið ðiø festivalius. 7-ojo deðimtmeèio pradþios interjero ir kelioniø pasirodë periodikoje – 1956 m. tuomet vien- daiktø dizaino stilius Lietuvoje akivaizdþiai susiforma- inteliame meno savaitraðtyje Literatûra ir menas spaus- vo europiniø „festivaliniø“ tendencijø, pavëluotai dinti menininkø áspûdþiai ið Lenkijos, Rumunijos, pasiekusiø SSRS, vagoje. Èekoslovakijos, Ðvedijos, Indijos ir kitø ðaliø. Bene reprezentatyviausias ðio stiliaus pavyzdys – Keliaudami dailininkai ir architektai susipaþino ir su architektø Algimanto ir Vytauto Nasvyèiø suprojek- moderniàja Vakarø kultûra bei menu. Be to, tuo metu tuoti ir 1959 m. rekonstruotame XIX a. pastate publikacijø apie Vakarø modernøjá dizainà, architek- árengti Neringos vieðbutis ir kavinë Vilniuje (il. 34). tûrà pasirodë ir sàjunginiuose þurnaluose, ypaè naujo- Kavinës meniná ávaizdá kartu su interjero architektûra, jo judëjimo tribûna tapusiame Dekorativnoje iskusstvo árangos ir baldø dizainu formuoja ir dekoratyvinës SSSR. Net kritiškai „burþuazines madas“ vertinæ lei- dailës kûriniai: keraminis fontanas, keramikos dirbini- 13. KOMPOZITORIØ NAMØ VILNIUJE INTERJERAS IR BALDAI. Architektas V. Èekanauskas / INTERIOR AND FURNITURE AT THE COMPOSERS HOUSE IN VILNIUS. Architecture by V. Èekanauskas, 1966 diniai, pavyzdþiui, minëtoji Ðepeèio knyga, pateikdavo ai, tekstilës gaminiai, sienø tapyba bei skulptûrinis naudingos faktinës ir iliustracinës informacijos. bareljefas. Ansamblio pagrindas – modernistinë erd- Lietuviø menininkai (kaip SSRS atstovai, sàjunginëms vës samprata ir vieningas apipavidalinimo stilius. Visi ose, sienø tapyboje, pano. nacionalinës specifikos bruoþus, nei potencialià kos- dailës institucijoms aprobavus) taip pat pradëjo daly- komponentai stilizuoti remiantis dviem pagrindiniais 7-ojo deðimtmeèio pradþios interjerus Lietuvos mopolitinæ, internacionalinæ orientacijà. vauti tarptautinëse parodose. Ðios bendros bangos vaizdo kûrimo principais: linijiniu supaprastinimu, architektûros istorikai vadina „lietuviðko nacionalinio * pakylëta, daiktø kûryba Lietuvoje atsigræþë á Vakarus. schematizavimu ir laisva, asimetrine kompozicija. interjero mokykla“. Vienijanti nacionalinio folkloro ar Susiþavëjimas „festivaliniu“ stiliumi arba, anot Iðryðkëjo ir pasirinkimo dominantës: Skandinavijos Kavinei buvo suprojektuoti (neiðlikæ) netaisyklingo istorinës praeities tema iðties neretai buvo ansamblio Ðepeèio, „gyvenimo dþiaugsmu persmelktu groþiu“6 architektûra ir dizainas bei lengviau Lietuvà pasiekusi silueto trikampio, trapecijos, elipsës formø grafiðkos siuþeto, kuriam paklusdavo ir grynai utilitarinës paskir- Lietuvoje greitai atslûgo. Jau 7-ojo deðimtmeèio Vidurio Europos dekoratyvinë dailë. Kokie aktualûs konstrukcijos baldai. Analogiðki kontûrai kartojosi ir ties aplinkos elementai, visumos emocinio skambesio viduryje vis maþiau dþiaugtasi „lietuviðkais nacionalini- buvo ðie pavyzdþiai liudija ir to meto kritikos perspëji- paèiose architektûros formose (virðutinio apðvietimo pagrindas. Tai, beje, bûdinga ir analogiðkiems to meto ais interjerais“ – architektûros modernizavimas ið mai: „...visiðkas atitrûkimas nuo lietuviðkos keramikos angos ir vestibiulio baseino kreivës). Tie patys motyvø kaimyniniø ðaliø Estijos bei Latvijos interjerams. atskiro interjero persikëlë á visà pastatà, pastatø kom- tradicijø daþnai pereina á nevykusá èekiðkos, vokiðkos apibendrinimo ir jø komponavimo principai – diago- „Socialistinio turinio ir nacionalinës formos“ reikalavi- pleksà, o dar vëliau á tokias iðplëstines struktûras kaip ar suomiðkos keramikos pavyzdþiø mëgdþiojimà“4. nalios kryptys, aptirpusios formos ir kt. – taikyti ir mas, kurá skelbë socialistinio realizmo doktrina, labiau gatvë ir miestas. Taikomojoje dailëje prioritetai 6–7-ojo deðimtmeèiø sandûroje visos Sovietø dailëje – audiniuose, vazose, lëkðtëse, odos dirbiniu- toleravo uþdaro, lokalinio identiteto puoselëjimà, radikaliai pasviro unikalios, parodinës kûrybos pusën –

20 21 ------P A R O D Ø S A L Ë S E AT THE EXHIBITION HALLS ------

16. David Mabb. SOVIETINIØ SPALVØ DIAGRAMOS LINK / TOWARDS A SOVIET COLOUR CHART, 2005. Sienø tapyba 7 akrilo daþø spalvomis, kintamos dimensijos / Wall-painting with seven acrylic paint colours, dimensions variable NACIONALINË DAILËS GALERIJA / THE NATIONAL ART GALLERY, 2005. Tapyba ant Williamo Morriso „Saulutës“ audinio / Oil paint on William Morris “Daisy” fabric, 148 x 69 cm. Menininko nuosavybë / Courtesy the artist. Fotografijos / Photos: Paulius Mazûras

14. P. Genienë. SERVIZAS GËRIMAMS / DRINKS SERVICE, 1962 15. V. Manomaitis. RANKINUKAS / HANDBAG, 1959

lietuviø dailininkai, anksèiau daug bendradarbiavæ su daiktai – buities puoðmenos. Judëjimà „Menà á buitá“ pramonës ámonëmis ir dailës kombinatais, dabar iðtiko XIX a. Morriso paskatinto „Meno ir amatø“ uþsiëmë tik laisva kûryba, aktyviai dalyvavo parodose. sàjûdþio likimas. Masinei gamybai meniðki daiktai buvo Verþlø lietuviðko dizaino formavimàsi masinë daiktø per brangûs, o vieningas jø stilius neatitiko vartotojø gamyba ir centralizuotas paskirstymas suvarþë papras- pageidaujamos ávairovës. tumo ir pigumo (=skurdumo) reikalavimais. Sovietinë Lietuvoje ágyvendintame Davido Mabbo projekte ideologija átakojo paèià kasdienio naudojimo daikto susitiko dvi utopijos: Morriso socialinis ir meninis sampratà. Jo vertë buvo matuojama socialistinio darbo reformizmas bei politinio „atðilimo“ SSRS gyvenimo verte, tad daikto groþis, patrauklumas nebuvo svar- pertvarkos (rekonstravimo) ideologija. Kaþi ar taip pat bûs. Pasak SSRS buitá tyrinëjusios Jekaterinos Degot, utopiðka tikëtis, kad ritantis naujoms rekonstrukcijos daiktai turëjo tapti ne viliojanèiomis prekëmis, o drau- bangoms prisiminimai apie sovietinio laikotarpio gais: ðiltais, draugiðkais, nesusirûpinusiais savo iðvaizda, Lietuvos architektûrà, daiktø dizainà ir taikomàjà dailæ sàþiningais, teisingais ir kukliais7. Dauguma buièiai netaps „þiniomis ið niekur“8? skirtø masiniø sovietiniø daiktø ir buvo praktiðki (teisingi), bet neiðvaizdûs (kuklûs). LOLITA JABLONSKIENË Tiesa, realiame gyvenime daiktus gaminanèiø ir juos vartojanèiø þmoniø troðkimai nesutapo. Iðsiilgæ 1 W. Benjamin, „Apie istorijos sampratà“, in Nušvitimai, vertë L. unikaliø, graþiø daiktø, SSRS vartotojai labiau vertino Katkus, Vilnius: Vaga, 2005, p. 327. „draugus ið uþsienio“. Simbolinëje verèiø skalëje 2 L. Šepetys, Daiktø groþis, Vilnius: Vaga, 1965, p. 3. tëvyninës gamybos prekës në ið tolo neprilygo import- 3 Taikomoji dekoratyvine daile, Vilnius: Vaga, 1965. inëms. Garbingiausias vietas sovietiniuose butuose 4 L. Cieðkaitë, „Ið muziejø – á buitá“, in Literatûra ir menas, 1962 03 17. uþëmë rumuniðki ir jugoslaviðki baldai, vokiðki indai ir 5 P. Sparke, An Introduction to Design and Culture. 1900 to the Present audiniai, èekø kriðtolas ir kt. Vietinio dizaino daiktø [second edition], London and New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 200. prestiþas buityje smuko. Originalius objektus lietuviø 6 L. Šepetys, op. cit., p. 118. baldø dizaineriai, taikomosios dailës kûrëjai toliau kûrë 7 Å. Äåãîòü, „Îò òîâàðà ê òîâàðèùó“, in Ëîãîñ, 2000, # 5/6, c. 29- vieðosioms erdvëms. Dailës parduotuviø asortimentas 37, prieiga per internetà http://www.ruthenia.ru/logos/num- negalëjo patenkinti masiniø poreikiø ir to nebesiekë. ber/2000_5_6/2000_5-6_04.htm Èia veikiau buvo ásigyjami simbolinæ vertæ turintys 8 Utopinio Williamo Morriso romano pavadinimas.

22 23 17-18. DAVIDO MABBO PARODA MENAS KASDIENYBEI ŠMC VILNIUJE / DAVID MABB’S EXHIBITION ART INTO EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE CAC VILNIUS, 2005. 19. David Mabb. SPORTO RÛMAI / THE SPORTS HALL, 2005. Taftinginis vilnonis kilimas / Tufted wool carpet, 400 x 253,5 cm. Menininko nuosavybë / Courtesy the artist. Fotografija / Photo: Paulius Mazûras Fotografija / Photo: Paulius Mazûras 20. David Mabb. LIETUVA, 2005. Taftinginis vilnonis kilimas / Tufted wool carpet, 400 x 236,5 cm. Menininko nuosavybë / Courtesy the artist. Fotografija / Photo: Paulius Mazûras 21. DAVIDO MABBO PARODA MENAS KASDIENYBEI ŠMC VILNIUJE / DAVID MABB’S EXHIBITION ART INTO EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE CAC VILNIUS, 2005. Fotografija / Photo: Paulius Mazûras

22. David Mabb. BENETTON PARDUOTUVË / THE BENETTON SHOP, 2005. Taftinginis vilnonis kilimas / Tufted wool carpet, 321 x 264 cm. Menininko nuosavybë / Courtesy the artist. Fotografija / Photo: Paulius Mazûras

27 ART INTO EVERYDAY LIFE cake Stalinist kitsch that had come to litter the major caught in an insane period of privatization, property cities of the Soviet Union during Stalin’s leadership — development and demolition. Like a Wild West land- only a few years previously. grab or a gold rush, speculators and real estate I come from London. I bring with me to Lithuania his life. Because many of the buildings from the era, howev- tycoons have joined forces with corrupt municipal my own culturally produced and contingent view of The second, more sustainable, contradiction is that er, remain associated with the Soviet occupation, they bureaucrats to redevelop the country at a mad pace. history, the cultural and political context I grew up in, it is possible to be torn apart by the aesthetics of have been and continue to be either deliberately Profit has been their only motive. Public space, land- in short, a load of intellectual baggage I carry around Morris: to like and be seduced by his designs while destroyed, through being sold for redevelopment, or mark buildings, cultural life, and public opinion have in my head which enables me to understand the simultaneously finding the politics of their consump- have been allowed to fall into disrepair. been the principal victims. Their method is simple: tell world. It means that the Lithuanian culture that I have tion unacceptable. When first produced the patterns the population that economic development is good encountered in the course of my visit resonates with were hand woven or woodblocks printed to the high- Capital is King for everyone. Convince them that Capital is King. me in many ways, intersecting with my own cultural est technical standards possible, and were only afford- Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas of Pro-test Lab, an Remind the public that making Lithuania look like the history and sense of place. able to the wealthy middle and upper classes. The organisation that is campaigning to save Vilnius’ pale shade of a Western European city is the best way meanings of Morris’ designs have changed over time; Lietuva Cinema, have very well described the to scrub the Soviet past: and make the country attrac- William Morris now widely available through relatively cheap processes behind the redevelopment of cinemas from tive to even more investment and development. I also bring with me an art practice, a body of work Sanderson copies in Britain and the USA, they have the Soviet period: During Soviet times, cinema played an important I have been developing during my adult life. For the come to represent the values of suburbia, the middle “Since independence in 1990 Lithuania has been role in public cultural life. Large movie theatres were past seven years, I have been working with the fabric classes and the aesthetically conservative. Although and wallpaper designs of William Morris (1834-1896). Morris’ representations of abundance and fecundity My on-going ‘collaboration’ with William Morris has constituted a radical break with the past when pro- 23. BASEINAS, SPORTO RÛMAI VILNIUJE / SWIMMING POOL, THE SPORTS HALL IN VILNIUS. Autoriaus fotografija / Photo the author, 2005 involved simplifying and recontextualising Morris’ duced, now the designs seem to lack the contradic- designs as a way of questioning Morris’ patterns’ tions and problems that generated them. Stripped of Utopian idealism. I am also interested in Morris as a their critical context, his Utopian project is trans- historical figure as much as I am fascinated by Morris’ formed into a nostalgic yearning for a place where the design legacy. Morris was famous for his romantic sun always shines, where it never rains, and where it’s poetry and utopian novels; he was responsible for certainly never winter. founding England’s first architectural conservation society, the Society for the Protection of Ancient Art into Everyday Life Buildings, which still works today to conserve historic My work in Lithuania has concentrated on a period buildings. In British political life, he was known as the of Soviet Lithuanian history known as the ‘Kruschev treasurer of the National Liberal League, and later thaw’ and the movement known as Art into Everyday became a leading member of the Social Democratic Life. This arose after Stalin’s death when the Soviet Federation; and in 1883 he founded the Socialist authorities relaxed the policing of art and design. League. He was also a fabric and wallpaper designer Because the economy of the USSR was structured and ran his interior design business Morris & Co. around the ‘Five Year Plan,’ this production extended Morris thought that design had a role to play in the well into the period known as the ‘Brezhnev stagna- quality of everyday life, a belief epitomized in his tion’. Contemporary artists were given the opportuni- renowned tenet: “Have nothing in your houses that ty to collaborate with textile, carpet, glass and ceram- you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beau- ic factories as well as organisations such as publishers tiful”. 1 to create one offs or designs for their product ranges. My initial interest in William Morris arose from two The resulting objects departed from official Socialist apparent sets of contradictions. The first is the ten- Realism, in which Soviet heroes and boys on tractors sion between Morris’ later politics and his business. were the staple ingredient, and looked to local tradi- He became Britain’s own indigenous Marxist, the tional or international modernist influences such as Trotsky or Gramsci of London’s Hammersmith, but he the ‘English Festival Style’. Architects were also able was also the designer of interiors for the wealthy to look around for influences from Scandinavia and British. While there may be no easy reconciliation the rest of Europe. Although the State was still between these two aspects of his project, the utopi- extremely repressive, many of the buildings con- anism of his designs makes the contradiction produc- structed at this time are light and airy, and incorporate tive: there is no escape within capital, only its over- some of the best elements of international mod- throw, something Morris came to understand later in ernism. They seem light years away from the wedding

28 29 24. SPORTO RÛMØ VILNIUJE FOJË / FOYER OF THE SPORTS HALL IN VILNIUS. Autoriaus fotografija / Photo the author, 2005

built in central locations around Lithuanian cities. The Plaza and exurban Akropolis Cinemas. The latter, that theatres filled a crucial role as places for public meet- is part of Lithuania’s largest shopping mall, is repre- ings and gatherings. After independence, as Soviet sentative of the ‘mallification’ of Lithuania. With the structures rapidly crumbled in a wholesale fashion, multiplexes came multiplex Hollywood movies: so the the cinemas caught the attention of the real estate demolition of cinematic space encoded a demolition market. In a short time, private enterprise managed of independent film programming. Now, in 2005, to take over and destroy almost every cinema in there is only one cinema standing: LIETUVA. And a Vilnius, turning them into apartments and supermar- battle has emerged to save it. Cinema Lietuva was kets. More than 15 cinema theatres disappeared built in 1965 and, significantly, is the largest cinema in including such urban landmarks as Auðra (Dawn), Lithuania with over 1000 seats and a screen size of Þvaigþdë (Star), Spalis (October), Pionierius 200 square meters, offering an ideal image size. It is (Pioneer), Pergalë (Victory), Tëvynë (Motherland), the home of the Vilnius Film Festival and as such has Kronika (Newsreel), Aidas (Echo), Planeta (Planet), played an important role in the imaginative life of a Neris, Vingis, Lazdynai, Vilnius, Maskva (Moscow), whole generation of Vilnius people. The title of the and LIETUVA (Lithuania). enterprise “Lietuva” (Lithuania) is also an important In poor replacement, and mirroring the tragedy of signifier of national identity, as its name never bore cities all over the world, two 2 multiplex cinema mon- any Soviet overtones (i.e. it wasn’t called the Cinema sters were constructed: the suburban Coca Cola of the Soviet Republic of Lithuania). To say to some-

------25. Juozas Mikënas. Paminklas sovietiniams kosmonautams PIRMOSIOS KREGÞDËS, Vilnius / 30 Monument for Soviet Cosmonauts FIRST SWALLOWS in Vilnius, 1964. Autoriaus fotografija / Photo the author, 2005 body “let’s meet at Lietuva” really meant something low hill and was designed to look like a series of eight ware production has been reinvented for a new during Soviet occupation. In 2002, the Vilnius modernist cubes. Built in 1980 it was formerly the Western market. But part of the carpet production Municipal authorities quietly sold the cinema to pri- Revolutionary Museum of the Lithuanian Socialist facility has survived at AB Kilimai at Lentvaris outside vate property developers; with a caveat that it had to Soviet Republic. The building became in 1991 a Vilnius, and high quality tufted carpets are still pro- operate as a cinema for a three-year period.”2 Museum of Resistance and was then converted into a duced there from original designs by Lithuanian gallery for contemporary art before closing in 1995 artists. Five Buildings and remaining unused and derelict until the beginning It is here that the three carpets were produced. I have focussed on five buildings that have been in of substantial rebuilding. It is planned to reopen as the Carpet production also takes us back to Morris who transition since independence. new National Art Gallery of Lithuania in 2007, pre- designed and produced carpets as part of what The Lietuva Cinema has a long modernist-type glass senting Lithuanian Art of 20th and 21st Centuries. became the international Arts and Crafts movement. pavilion that fronts the ground floor of the whole The Restaurant in The Park at Trakai is very reminis- building. The cinema auditorium spreads behind, cent of international modernism from the 1930s. One Exhibition tucked beneath the hill at the back. The complex gen- When I photographed it, it was in the middle of build- The carpets and paintings are hung around the erates a feeling of serenity and calmness. The three- ing works and looked like it was being restored after “Cinema Hall” of the Contemporary Art Centre. year grace period referred to above ended on 1st July a period of neglect. With its cast concrete fluted decorative interior and 2005. At the time of writing Lietuva cinema is closed If privatization does not destroy public buildings its stained glass window, the Centre is the former Art and under threat of redevelopment. The campaign to from the Soviet period, they may nevertheless be at Exhibition Palace, opened in 1968. save it organised by Pro-test Lab is continuing. risk through being viewed as impractical in a market I hope the work in the exhibition Art into Everyday The United Colors of Benetton Mega Store previ- economy. Sometimes there is no cost-effective heat- Life opens up a dialogue that can be productive, both ously housed the Vilnius Cinema before its conversion ing and the form and materials of the buildings are as a reading of contemporary Lithuania and as a in 1996. The concertina like façade of the building is often unsuitable for the Lithuanian climate. They all means of updating or resurrecting Morris, so that he intact and faces onto Gediminas Prospect (formerly require overhaul and renovation, and public money to again can be seen as having relevance as a designer, Lenin Prospect), Vilnius’ main shopping street. The facilitate this. conservationist and critic of capitalism. inside has been completely gutted and no trace of the original interior of the cinema remains. To walk Five Paintings DAVID MABB around it now is to be transported into any other of In the five paintings in this exhibition, I have chosen the 5000 Benetton stores anywhere in the world. a contemporary reprint of a Morris design and over- 1 William Morris, The Beauty of Life, 1880. The Sports Palace’s majestic roof sweeps upwards painted it with an interpretation of a photograph I 2 Interview with Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas of Protest Lab by towards the sky and is an imposing presence on the have taken of one of the buildings above. Some ele- Geert Lovink, Hacking Public Spaces in Vilnius: Politics of a new media north side of the Neris River when viewed from the ments of Morris’ design are left uncovered, and space inside the Lietuva (Soviet) Cinema. From interactivist info Old Arsenal on the opposite bank. It currently has a emerge through the painted images. In United Colors exchange 2005 look of abandonment about it. The open-air swim- of Benetton Shop, for example, only the twigs from http://info.interactivist.net/article.pl?sid=05/07/16/0344240&mode= ming pools next to it are already derelict and the Morris’ Fruit design remain visible, transforming nested&tid=22 building is no longer in use as a sports hall. Vilnius City Morris’ representation of summer into winter. “The 3 Steve Edwards, “The Trouble with Morris”. The Decorating Municipality has published proposals for the area’s staging of a confrontation between two contradictory Business, Oakville Galleries 2000 redevelopment. systems of representation is a maneuver.... As two When I visited, it was being used as a film set by a cultural systems come into contact meaning spills and Editor’s note: since writing this essay the Lietuva British film company, an example of Western compa- swirls around. Both halves of the equation are put Cinemas’s fate has been decided and the site will be nies’ use of cheap labour and space in Eastern Europe. under stress, while ‘third meanings’ rise to the sur- redeveloped as a mixed-purpose retail/residential The foyer has walls of glass on three sides and hence face.” 3 development. The Municipality has stipulated that the is an open, brilliantly lit modernist space. The original redevelopment must include a 200-seat cinema facili- decoration is largely intact, an organic and plant-like Three Carpets ty that the developers have announced will be situat- wooden construction that makes the space feel some- Three of the paintings have been reinterpreted as ed in the lower-gound area of the planned building. what like a large green house. large tufted wool carpets, Lietuva, The Benetton Shop The National Art Gallery stands on the north bank and The Sports Hall. This brings us back to the Art into of the Neris and has next to it a Soviet period sculp- Everyday Life movement. In Lithuania much of the ture that commemorates the achievements of Soviet industrial production base has been lost or trans- cosmonauts, one of the few Soviet period monu- formed due to privatisation since 1990. Industrial ments left in Vilnius. stained glass window production has ceased due to The building over-looks the centre of Vilnius from a the collapse of the Soviet Union as a customer; glass------26. DARBININKË, GAMINANTI KILIMÀ / WORKER MAKING CARPET. Autoriaus fotografija / Photo the author, 2005 32 33 FRAYING AT THE EDGES: itics became increasingly radical. He has been called ‘England’s indigenous Marxist’. From 1884-1895 CARPETS AND PAINTINGS BY DAVID MABB Morris was one of the publishers, and served as edi- tor, of the most important socialist periodical of his era Commonweal in which he published a number of Much has been written about the human urge to weaving to Morris. Following from this we could influential essays. (He also wrote pamphlets and a pick at a scab. Because itching is part of the healing apply Marx to the subject/concept and Morris to the number of book-length treatises). He argued tireless- process: it can drive to distraction, however, and object/work. Working with two relations makes the ly for the rights of workers especially [like Marx] for compel the sufferer to re-open the wound. In so dialectical aspect of the work apparent — and active.2 the right to attain their true potential — through edu- doing the final healing process is retarded. The sore In this regard, Mabb’s practice reflects that of William cation — and be rewarded justly for their efforts; via might even scar. Sometimes the act, and the abjection, Morris, himself. And chiefly via the entwining of; aes- the transformation of society that valued labour/pro- is willful and pre-empts itching. thetics and politics in a form vibrating between the ductiveness over profit. One of his most famous This cycle is oft deployed in cultural critique as a high, popular, and applied arts.3 tenets, and one apposite here, is: “nothing should be metaphor describing history — particularly the histo- Morris is best known — and I write from and for a made by man’s labour that is not worth making; or ry of the mid-20th century — as an ‘open wound’. In Lithuanian and artistic position — as an applied artist which must be made by labour degrading to the mak- fact critics, writing under the sign of Frankfurt School responsible for designing and producing (via Morris & ers.” 5 27. Vytautas Jurkûnas. ILIUSTRACIJA K. DONELAIÈIO METAMS / ILLUSTRATION FOR THE POEM THE SEASONS BY negative dialectics, and English post-Marxism, consid- Company) home furnishings; and as a principal figure Morris produced his designs in the conviction that K. DONELAITIS, 1956 er excoriation their purpose. Keeping the wound in the ‘arts and crafts’ movement. Aside from the aesthetics/beauty had a role to play in the overall open means in a sense it is constantly healing. It is a art/design production, Morris’s output includes poet- improvement of society. (This is an attitude that John improved) life. The aesthetic associated with this means, with the aforementioned use of abjection in ry; publishing; politics; political theory; literary transla- Ruskin was advocating at the same time, one that was tends to be hard-edged minimalism in a post- mind, of avoiding the ‘return of the repressed’ (that is tion; typography, and architectural heritage conserva- later developed in theory by Walter Benjamin, Leon International Style vein. (And the opposite of Morris’s the reappearance of events or forces that hadn’t been tion. He achieved renown in all of these fields and Trotsky, and Theodor Adorno). Following Ruskin, and organicism). Of course this social modelling is being adequately digested or addressed). made an important and lasting contribution to English the pre-Raphaelite movement with which his poetry is developed at the level of consumption rather than The same impulse is latent in a stray thread. Hanging society and culture.4 It is politics that is of interest associated, Morris cast his eye to the pre-industrial production, an argument that lies at the root of the free of a seam, the hem or cuff of a garment, at the here, and the locating of a political ambient in Morris’s age — consonant with his production techniques — post-Marxist criticism developed by Guy Debord in edge of a piece of fabric, in the tuft (or at the edge) of designs. for his central motifs and figuration. His Attic and his seminal Situationist text The Society of the a rug or carpet: the thread teases us to tug on it. This is no easy task when reading Morris’s interior organic imagery can be best related to medieval tap- Spectacle (1967). Pulling on it, to remove it, is an inexact science. furnishing designs in the new millennium, and from estries and book illumination. The flowers, boughs, This last reference brings us to the present and an (Exactitude requires a cut). There is high probability the perspective of the late-20th century. They are and fruit of the designs are proliferous and abundant: engagement with David Mabb’s work. And the space that the single thread will grow exponentially longer representative of middle-class taste; and an English- indicative of an ideal agrarian wealth. They are the of Lithuania in which it is exhibited. Mabb travelled to than apparent, provoking a new impulse to follow it ness that stands-in for refined, conservative, taste fruit of pre-industrial labour. To the art-historically Lithuania to research coincidences between Morris’s (by pulling) to its logical end — the fabric, garment, internationally. This is largely because the company inclined this is the abundant nature that overruns the legacy and applied art production here. A political carpet, rug, un-spooling to a new materiality. This too Arthur Sanderson & Sons Ltd mass-produces fabrics Arcadian ruins in the paradisiacal spaces of painting by correspondence was a given as Lithuania was prison- has been engaged as a metaphor for cultural enquiry and wall-coverings based on Morris’s designs. It Claude Lorrain or the great suite of American colonial er of the Soviet Socialist experiment. Weaving Marx by the deconstructivist Jacques Derrida. Related to seems hardly possible to locate the political element paintings by Thomas Cole The Course of Empire (1834- into the warp of his work required political sensitivity the first metaphorical example Derrida uses it to sug- in their floral patterning. At the time they were origi- 1836) depicting America’s ruination. Like Cole, and reflexiveness — also required of the curatorial gest a form of ‘active’ critique: and one that allows the nally produced in the 19th century, however, the fur- Morris was an early environmentalist and his work to framing. And recognition of the separation of Marxism object [once in a pile of threads] to be re-stitched/re- nishings were hand block-printed. (Ironically, this an extent sounds a clarion at the deleterious affect of and its corruption by Soviet Socialism to the absolute woven anew. ‘Deconstruction’ can in fact be meant they were expensive and sold exclusively to industrialisation on the British countryside and quality detriment of the people forced, by military might, to described as ‘re-construction’. Before too long of the upper classes, what Morris called “ministering to of life. There is sense in which the beauty of Morris’s live under its sway. (It is worth noting here, to eluci- course the fabric will begin to fray and more loose the swinish luxury of the rich”). This hand-crafted- interiors are a reminder of the degradation outside date the separation, that the aesthetics of the pro- threads will appear…1 ness, and the conditions under which Morris & Co.’s the window. This was a truly encompassing interior communist critics Bertold Brecht and Georg Lukács These two metaphors can be appositely applied to staff worked, reflected Morris’s socialist theories of ‘environment’. were excluded from art-pedagogy in Lithuania as their the practice of English artist David Mabb, in relation labour and a resistance to the mechanisation of labour A totalising theory of design, and lived beauty, Marxist critique was considered a post-mortem analy- to both form and function. Mabb works within two and life in the Victorian era abutting the industrial rev- should seem familiar to the new millennial reader — sis of a long dead corpse).6 canonical cultural traditions: 1) related to the work of olution. via its dialectical antithesis. Since the 1990s fashion Yet, this project has been produced with conviction English ‘artist’ William Morris (1834–1896) 2) related Involved in liberal politics since the 1870s in the designers Giorgio Armani, Calvin Klein, and, in partic- that time is ripe for critique. Following a thread back to Marxism. His exhibition practice activates both of 1880s Morris joined the Social Democratic ular, Versace have been designing clothes, cosmetics, to the beginning: a historical excoriation to negate, these historical/cultural legacies. Many would apply Foundation, the Socialist League, and eventually furnishings, even hotels and resorts, with implication not encourage, the return of the repressed. After a the wound analogy to Marx and that of the constant founded the Hammersmith Socialist Society as his pol- that they can provide consumers with an entire (and period of research, with assistance from Lithuanian

34 35 academic and exhibiting institutions, Mabb was able to potential role in the rebuilding of London, and nation- buildings, as the eminent architect-critic Manfredo focus on an initiative during the ‘Kruschev Thaw’ in al industry, after WWII. The commissioned design Tafuri put it, ‘to be subject to the prevailing mode of the late-1950s known as ‘art into everyday life’. It was kept an eye on the ‘modernist’ future to pull national production’.7 (The buildings’ materiality, therefore, is an experiment, linked to the five-year plan economy, design out from under the exclusively organic legacy as reflective of the materials available in the Soviet as in which artists/applied artists were put in charge of of the ‘arts and craft’ heritage. Many of the domestic the architects’ will-to-design. That is, the brutalists the design departments of factories producing textiles design objects associated with the Festival combined chose concrete and the choice of materials made by and ceramics. The movement operated until the modernist and heritage elements — Morris meets Lithuanian modernists reflected supply). ‘Brezhnev Stagnation’ in the mid-1970s. The initiative Modernism if you like. Despite this tension a number of the buildings are encouraged the application of art and design to the A similar fusion was present in Lithuanian ‘art into elegant exemplars of soviet architecture. Who, from a production of home ware, with implication that they everyday life’ objects: combining ‘emerging mod- western perspective, can help but be reminded of Le had a role to play in the improvement of everyday liv- ernism’ with what is best described as ‘folk’ elements. Corbusier’s Chapel at Ronchamp in the parabolic ing. The reputations, and standing, of the artists The folk design relate to agrarian and organic motifs, upsweep of the roof of the National Sports Hall? involved also flourished. often with a relation to medieval woodcuts or wood- Similarly, the enclosed concrete louvered cube float- It was difficult to find objects produced during the block prints. (It is unrelated to the ‘Soviet Realism’ ing on two pillars and a glass curtain wall (of the movement to serve as historical indices. Despite the endlessly memorialised, even fetishised, by Western Vilnius Cinema) is reminiscent of work by Lucio Costa idealist tone, they are in fact indexical of Soviet art historians). Technics also had a role to play, as pro- and Oscar Niemeyer. Despite this semblance, and repression inasmuch as they are representative of a duction technology was updated 15 years after Soviet their inherent value, the buildings I am referring to watershed of Lithuanian applied arts production. colonisation [the cessation of WWII]. have suffered a similar fate to that of the ‘everyday’ Consequently, objects from the era have been purged The best archive of objects produced during this objects and have been decommissioned, despoiled, from individual, commercial, and institutional collec- era, at least photographically recorded, was that held privatised (Vilnius Cinema is now a United Colors of tions or at least were stored in the far-corners of col- by the carpet production company AB Kilimai at Benetton store), or are slated for demolition. Mabb lections out-of-sight and mind. Those objects that Lentvaris (40 km west of Vilnius). AB Kilimai is a going has chosen, therefore, to use a group of five of these 29. Domicelë Tarabildienë. ILIUSTRACIJA L. GIROS RINKINIUI NE could be witnessed were small revelations [to foreign concern that has maintained a tradition of producing buildings as the central images of his work in the exhi- MARGI SAKALËLIAI / ILLUSTRATION FOR L. GIRA’S BOOK HIGH IN eyes] as they combined stylistics associated with artisinal carpets, and has reinvented itself since bition: comprising three carpets, and five paintings (all THE SKY NOT FALCONS WERE FLYING, 1963 British Festival Style. The Festival of Britain (1951) Lithuanian independence (1990) as an export works 2005). The buildings are the (carpets and paint- was a governmental initiative to re-animate public focussed concern. As Morris produced tapestries ings) National Sports Hall, Vilnius Cinema, Lietuva and a new architectural theory — via the absorption consciousness about national design culture and its Mabb decided to concentrate on carpet making for Cinema; (paintings) and the new National Art Gallery of post-structuralism, Tafuri wrote that in order to the exhibition. Working with the crafts people at AB the former Revolutionary Museum of the Lithuanian radicalise itself “architecture had to negate what soci- Kilimai who translated his paintings into carpet Soviet Socialist Republic, and the Restaurant at Trakai.8 ety expects from it: thus ruins became the most archi- designs, Mabb has produced three figurative carpets In the works he has combined the core image of the tectural of objects”. By presenting this architecture in as the centrepiece of the exhibition. building with organic motif lifted from Morris. ruins, via the counter-imposition of a foreign object Synchronous with this relative upswing of creativity (Remember Morris founded Britain’s first architectur- [Morris] that elides a realist representation, Mabb has in the applied arts, a nascent modernism emerged in al conservation society). The paintings are applied on effectively negated the buildings’ social expectations. Lithuanian architecture, signalled by a few key build- commercially available Sanderson Morris’ fabric, Plainly, and dialectically speaking, he has — via the ings. Often the interior architecture, ornamentation, stretched onto canvas. The paint occludes elements juxtaposition of two images and traditions — pro- and furniture, was reflective of the ‘art into everyday’. of the pattern that irrupts the image and picture duced images of contemporary ruins. These are images While all public architecture was built in the service of plane; the effect is reminiscent of synthetic cubism. In of ruins that allow the viewer to interact with the the State the buildings to which I am referring subli- the carpets the organic patterning seems to articulate buildings free of soviet expectation, and to project mated socialist realist style and incorporated elements the ground onto which the figure of the buildings are their expectations onto their façades. Mabb has pro- that can be related to western modernist architec- imposed. In Sports Hall and Lietuva Cinema branches duced what Adorno calls an “autonomous art work” ture. At a level of appearance, and considering the creep, triffid like, over the surface of the buildings the content of which, despite the amount of intellect connection to Festival Style (whose legacy in Britain predicting their imminent ruin. It evokes the tension pumped into it, allows a personal identification. A car- included the Royal Festival Hall, Hayward Gallery, and present in Morris’s work; described by Morris histori- pet, a familiar domestic object is an ideal object to National Film Theatre/British Film Institute – grouped an Stephen S. Eisenman as the ”ornamental contradic- produce a personal identification — especially ones on London’s South Bank), the buildings could be tion between naturalism and nightmare”.9 And follows like these that smell freshly woven and feel soft and termed ‘brutalist’. Brutalism has been described as Morris’s writing that often described the coevality of cuddly. ‘humanist modernism’ and the buildings constructed decay and rebirth, destruction and growth, burning Because, despite their official function, these were in Lithuania during the Thaw were imbued with a and new abundance. public buildings focussed on entertainment their imag- degree of this. To fix the correspondence would be to In the essay “Architecture and its Double” (1973) inary is likely to be positive. Especially as, in the years ------ignore broader social implications and also the fate of that signalled the emergence of a new architecture, immediately after independence, the Sports Hall and 28. Domicelë Tarabildienë. ILIUSTRACIJA L. GIROS RINKINIUI NE MARGI SAKALËLIAI / ILLUSTRATION FOR L. GIRA’S BOOK HIGH IN 36 THE SKY NOT FALCONS WERE FLYING, 1963 37 Lietuva Cinema were spaces in which many 1 A philosophical/historical optimist could apply the term ‘permanent A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE Lithuanians got their first taste of popular Western revolution’ to the process being described. culture (pop music concerts and movies) denied them 2 The term ‘dialectics’ is being used in its classical sense (meaning “ART INTO EVERYDAY LIFE” MOVEMENT for so long. This is the ‘everyday’ truly being thread- logical enquiry via two opposing terms), and that later associated ed through Mabb’s work. with ‘negative dialectics’ as coined by Theodor Adorno. This should The process is something akin to what is happening in no way be associated with [Soviet] ‘dialectical materialism’. David Mabb’s project engages two aspects of mem- city. It also engages memory’s constant companion — with the re-construction of the new National Art 3 For more information on Mabb and Morris see: Marnie Fleming ory as it operates in Lithuania, focussed in Vilnius. and inverse — oblivion. Having entered the 21st cen- Gallery; its cubic volume recorded mid-ruin here. The Decorating Business [Ontario: Oakville Galleries, 2000]; David Firstly, the memory of the city as a constantly chang- tury and, in the course of the last 15 years, started Because the building itself was poorly constructed and Mabb David Mabb: A Factory As It Might Be or The hall Of Flowers ing material structure that is constantly growing a new recovering from the traumas caused by sudden made of low-grade materials its renovation is a major [Ontario: Art Gallery of Windsor, 2003], David Mabb William Morris layer; as well as the emotional memory of life in the change, Lithuanian society is increasingly courageous architectural undertaking. The conviction that the [Manchester: The University of Manchester, 2004], David Mabb design is worth conserving evinces a dialectic attitude William Morris in Jaipur [New Dehli: The Queen’s Gallery, 2005] — the same attitude that animates David Mabb’s proj- 4 William Morris published several volumes of poetry associated ect. The project separates the design and the build: with the Pre-Raphaelite movement including: The Defense of 30. VIEÐBUÈIO NERINGA VILNIUJE VESTIBIULIS. Architektai A. ir V. Nasvyèiai, keramika L. Cieðkaitës / the design is credited as Lithuanian architecture and Guenevere and Other Poems [London: Bell & Daldy, 1858] The Earthly VESTIBULE OF NERINGA HOTEL IN VILNIUS. Architecture by A. and V. Nasvyèiai, ceramics by L. Cieðkaitë, 1961 the materiality of the resulting building is denoted as Paradise: A Poem (parts I-III) [London: F.S. Ellis, 1868–1870]. Soviet. As a rule the further from Moscow a building He also translated Icelandic mythic poetry including: The Story of was constructed the lower the grade of the building Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs [London: Ellis & White, material used. So extensive reconstruction and new 1877]. In 1890 Morris founded the specialist Kelmscott Press materials are required. The National Art Gallery is a famous for illuminating new editions of medieval poetry including symbol being rebuilt from the rubble. Painted on work of Geoffrey Chaucer. In 1877 he founded the Society for the Morris’s Daisy fabric, Mabb’s National Art Gallery Protection of Ancient Buildings, which is still active, that was in appears like it is garlanded with flowers. Its concrete many ways a forerunner of the National Trust. mass is caught in the orange-glow of sunset, produc- For references browse the website of the William Morris Society: ing a resolutely optimistic image. To paraphrase www.morrisociety.org Morris in “The Lesser Arts” (1882) it represents ‘a 5 The fragment continues: “Simple as that proposition is, and obvi- new art growing from the conditions of a new socie- ously right as I am sure it must seem to you, you will find when you ty’. A new society developing on the banks of the consider the matter, that it is a direct challenge to the death to the Neris River a short carpet ride from Mabb’s exhibition present system of labour in civilised countries.” from ‘Art and halls: the same banks on which the Sports Hall hud- Socialism’ (1884) see A.L. Morton (ed.) The Political Writing of dles uncertain of its fate. William Morris [London: Lawrence & Wishart, 1984]. 6 To be absolutely correct here one should remind that critique of SIMON REES the canon was frowned upon under the Soviet. 7 See Manfredo Tafuri Architecture and Utopia: Design and Capitalist Development [Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press, 1976]. 8 It is worth noting that the buildings, even if planned or initially designed during the period with which we are concerned, were built in a span of 20 years from the 1960s to 1980s. 9 Steve Edwards ‘The Colonisation of Utopia’ in David Mabb William Morris [Manchester: The University of Manchester, 2004].

38 39 in relation to remembering Soviet life and its cultural threatening one or another place. Especially as the heritage not as a wholly bad period in history but reconstruction of the city meets their needs to some rather as a ‘specific’ phenomenon characterised by extent, symbolises this time of significant changes and peculiar features with little in common with today. capitalisation. They are happy to be inheritors of How to deal with the ‘problem’ of Soviet era art is these new benefits “who have been nought we shall now in constant discussion in relation to its eventual buy all,” to paraphrase the American version of the presentation within the history of Lithuanian art of the well-known revolutionary song the “Internationale”. 20th century in the new national museum of modern Consumers are, of course, delighted with the new and contemporary art currently under construction in United Colors of Benetton shop in a reconstructed Vilnius (that Mabb has included in one of his paint- example of early post-war modernism in Lithuanian ings). Writing from the perspective of one of the pro- architecture, the cinema Vilnius (arch. J. Kaspera- fessionals currently shaping the museum’s mission it is vièius, 1964). Nobody, it seems, missed the indoor- difficult to predict what message the art of that peri- swimming-pool that stood right in the centre of the od will communicate to a contemporary audience? city from 1955 either. In its place, a fortress of presti- And what vision and reflection of Soviet Lithuanian gious apartments is being built with ‘the view’ to the culture will the museum propose (as a potentially symbol of Vilnius: the Gediminas Castle. Next to it, on powerful institution that influences social discourse). the same bank of the river Neris, the Concert and When Mabb became interested in Lithuanian mod- Sports Palace, with a construction ahead of its the ern crafts and design movements, which could be jux- time, is literally dying (arch. Z. Liandzbergis, E. Chlo- taposed with the conceptual legacies of William mauskas and J. Kriukelis; designed in 1964, realised in Morris that he has been exploring, he began by 1971). The population, who during Soviet times used researching a kaleidoscope of remarkable things. The to be rearing to go there to see basketball games, bal- object of his research was Lithuanian applied arts and let on ice, foreign pop-music concerts and New Year’s design objects from the late-1950s and early-1960s. Eve shows, is still guessing: will they demolish it or Objects started floating into our memory from obliv- not? On the same bank of the river, a reconstruction ion, even though their value has not yet been legit- and expansion of the former Museum of Revolution is imised: curtains patterned with geometrical and taking place (arch. G. Baravykas and V. Vielius: stylised ethnographic motifs, trapezoid-shaped tables designed in 1968, realised in 1980), which will house and embossed metal brooches, ceramic liqueur sets, the aforementioned new museum: the National photography albums bound in patterned leather. With Gallery of Art. Only one closing has caused a noise in this world of things, the ideology of the movement Lithuania: that of the popular cinema Lietuva (1965) that had created it came into focus and became a notable for its huge screen and audience, which used point of departure for Mabb’s project Art into Everyday to attend its independent film programmes and film Life. festivals. Pro-test Laboratory, initiated by the artists “To articulate the past historically does not mean to Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas, focused every- recognize it ‘the way it was’ (Ranke). It means to seize body’s attention on the destiny of the building and the hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of dan- institution that it housed, which, however, has not ger.”1 Walter Benjamin’s statement is an excellent saved Lietuva. Perhaps, the mission of contemporary illustration of contemporary society’s attitude art is not to save; rather the project is an (to remem- towards Lithuanian heritage of the Soviet period, ber Walter Benjamin once more) attempt to destroy especially architecture. In recent years, domestic cap- the automatic and routine perception of the place, ital that initially targeted only the suburbs has moved and awaken passion about the city and this issue. towards the centre. Older public buildings started to Today and the 1960s, in which ‘the buildings in dan- disappear almost imperceptibly (demolished or ger’ were born, share certain parallels. First of all,

31. LIETUVOS SKYRIUS TSRS PRAMONËS PARODOJE LONDONE. Dizaineris T. Baðinskas / rebuilt beyond recognition): a cinema, theatre, swim- both then and now there is a desire to reorganise rad- LITHUANIAN SECTION AT THE EXHIBITION OF USSR INDUSTRY IN LONDON. Design by T. Bašinskas, 1968 ming pool, and a furniture shop. Offices, flats, shop- ically and reconstruct the city and life in it. The turn of ping centres are rising in their place. Citizens who are the 1950s and 1960s marked the beginning of the yet to develop a mature sense of communal property ‘post-war’ modernist movement in Lithuanian archi- (not so long ago, all this belonged not to them, but to tecture, design and applied arts. Usually, this period is the state) are often too late to react to the danger strictly separated from the Stalinist post-war period.

40 41 based on guidelines relative to the new world-view. Its invasion of Lithuanian architecture/design was uni- versal: post-war reconstruction also prompted a total reorganisation of the environment. The post-war demolition of partially damaged build- ings and invasive renovation of Lithuanian old towns of that period was criticised as heavy-handed during the 1960s. Nevertheless, urban projects of the period were equally drastic. In 1962, state architectural plan- ning institutes of Minsk, Leningrad, Riga and Vilnius participating in the competition for the reconstruction of central Vilnius designed buildings of large dimen- sions and huge open spaces; thus they not only ignored the existing fabric of the centre, but also sug- gested to destroy ‘with gusto’ for the sake of the new (fig. 10). The perception of the city was as anti-histor- ical as that of the first post-war years. Moreover, while all environments were being reconstructed, there was a goal to cover it with an integrated and totalising style. Magazine columns propagated the new domestic culture, and mediated rules of good taste in the applied arts and also promoted special exhibitions (for instance, the exhibition of contempo- rary domestic furniture and utensils was held in a new block of flats in Antakalnis district, Vilnius, in 1959) didactically presenting the new concept of beauty. The reconstruction of environment that had spread in Lithuania at the turn of the decade merged organi- cally with the movement for the renewal of life (and its material shell) in the USSR. The changes in politics and economy brought by ‘Khrushchev’s thaw’ also 32. L. Strolis. SERVIZAS VYNUI / WINE SERVICE, 1959 awakened the hope for a revival of the spirit — grounded on the ideals of progress and dynamism. The wave of ‘futurist’ discourse in artist’s speeches and publications about quotidian culture is evidence of At a closer look, however, it is easy to notice concep- retroactive. The method of socialist realism in Soviet the insistence with which contemporary people’s tual links connecting them. Identification of the latter architecture and art, which formed in the 1930s and eyes were directed towards the future — rushed for- makes the direction and character of the very mod- reached Lithuania during the post-war period, com- ward by scientific and technological progress. The ori- 33. M. Babenskienë. AUDINIAI UÞUOLAIDOMS / FABRIC FOR CURTAINS, 1961 ernist changes specific. bined these affects. Guidelines for artistic form were entation towards the scientific and technological as The Stalinist ‘style of triumph’ was implanted into sought in the past, but the general ideological and well as the signs of the society’s relative liberalisation the Lithuanian architectural environment in an author- emotional attitudes were directed, on the contrary, was reflected in the standards brought to bear upon itarian way. Lithuanian urban planning and new the towards the future. The heroicisation of life-style and architecture and object design. design of public buildings were lead by architects from the reconstruction of its material environment were There was a general, state supervised and con- Soviet Russia or undertaken with their help and manifest in the task to create communism (even if dis- trolled, turn towards internationally oriented func- advice. Caught up in the general course of Soviet cul- placed to a distant future) declared by the Soviet tionalism. The composition of new buildings was ture, the official life of Lithuanian art was forced to state. In 1955 (Stalin d. 1953) the Party passed a sig- based on a continuous space opening to the outside. adjust during the first post-war decade and started nificant bill concerning the removal of excess in archi- Local natural materials were used in interiors: bricks, breathing the same atmosphere that prevailed tectural design and construction so the eclectic deco- wood, stone, light plaster. Decorative elements char- throughout the USSR. The atmosphere is usually con- rative style was refused in architecture though the acteristic of national domestic forms (and production) sidered to be conservative, and idiosyncratically general ideology of reconstruction remained intact, were used in interiors such as forged metal and

42 43 ceramics: that were often functional, of simple con- mass design of everyday things and interior design struction and plain design. (fig. 11 and 30). Furniture than to individual work, as the symbolical capital of design that barely had any pre-war traditions quickly the former was doubtlessly greater. The publications began to form. The leading force in furniture design promoted utilitarian industrially shaped ceramic, tex- was concentrated at the Experimental Construction tile, metal and leather objects decorated with uniform Bureau founded in Vilnius in 1957, which designed and geometric, stylised patterns that often included both prototypes for mass production and unique proj- national ethnographic characteristics. (The principal ects for public interiors. At that time, Lithuanian fur- designers to consider are Liudvikas Strolis, Jonas niture could be found not only in urban Lithuanian Mikënas, Juozas Adomonis, Aldona Lièkutë, Juozas interiors, but also all over the USSR and ‘socialist Balèikonis, Vladas Daujotas, Mina Babenskienë, friendly countries’; they were exhibited in Soviet Ramutë Jasudytë, Tiju Vaivadienë, Sofija Rimantienë). pavilions at various international exhibitions. (Fig. 14, 15, 32 and 33). The ‘art into everyday life’ Algimantas and Vytautas Nasvytis, Laima and Algirdas movement represented a daring start for modernist Stapulionis, Vytautas Beiga, Eugenijus Cukermanas, design in post-war Lithuania. In theory, these innova- Valerija Cukermanienë, Tadas Baginskas and others tions were related to the idea of creating a communist created the most remarkable examples of modern society and as an extension of the attempt to fence furniture (fig. 12, 13 and 31). Modernisation of applied the people from ‘bourgeois’ international influences. arts was stimulated by the proclaimed slogan “art into In reality, new ‘Western’ ideas started to penetrate everyday life”. The official purposes of this ideology architecture and applied arts in any case although they were, perhaps, best articulated by L. Šepetys the were adapted to Eastern European conditions. Minister of Culture of Lithuanian SSR in his book The International tourism became more active from the Beauty of Things (Daiktø groþis). He used as an epi- late-1950s and Lithuanian artists started to travel graph a phrase lifted from “the Party’s programme”: more, though with strictly supervised Soviet tourist The artistic dimension of an embellished domestic inte- groups. Initially travel extended to the countries of rior will inspire even more work and refine a human the communist bloc in Europe, and then to ‘socialist being2. friendly’ countries in Asia and Africa, over time travel The artistic design of applied art objects for every- to Western Europe also opened up. During their trav- day use (ceramics, textile, leather and metal) became els, artists and architects learned more about modern a priority. From the mid-1940s, art factories had Western culture and art. Periodicals would publish opened in the largest Lithuanian cities: Vilnius, Kaunas features from such travels: in 1956 only the one art and Klaipëda to produce socialist realist objects. From weekly Literatûra ir menas published artists’ impres- the 1950s their production facilities were improved sions from Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, and they turned to mass-producing dishes, vases, can- Sweden, India, and other countries. Moreover, arti- dle-sticks, decorated fabrics, leather bound albums, cles on modern Western design and architecture also wallets, handbags and jewelry according to the appeared in all-union magazines, especially in designs created by artists who were working there. Dekorativnoje iskusstvo SSSR (Decorative Arts in the The products were sold in the shops of the LSSR Art USSR) that had become a tribune for the new move- Fund Dailë that controlled the factories: that sold ment. Even the publications that took a critical stance applied arts as well as paintings, graphic arts, and towards ‘bourgeois fashion’, for instance the afore- small-scale sculpture. The shops performed the role mentioned book by L. Šepetys, used to provide useful of commercial galleries while their activities (the factual and illustrative information. Lithuanian artists selection of works for sale, prices as well as the con- (as representatives of the USSR approved by the tents of their expositions) were controlled by the Soviet Artists’ Union) also started to participate in state. Some artists, especially textile artists, also international exhibitions. Stimulated by this general 34. KAVINËS NERINGA VILNIUJE INTERJERAS. Architektai A. ir V. Nasvyèiai, sienø tapyba V. Jankausko ir V. Povilaièio / worked in industrial enterprises such as Kauno audini- wave the design turned towards the West. Dominant INTERIOR OF NERINGA CAFÉ IN VILNIUS. Architecture by A. and V. Nasvyèiai, wall-painting by V. Jankauskas ir V. Povilaitis, 1959 ai, Audëjas in Vilnius, and the Lentvaris carpet factory. influences emerged, including: Scandinavian architec- They designed fabrics for clothes, for interiors (cur- ture and design, and Central European decorative arts tains, furniture upholstery) and patterns for carpets. that could reach Lithuania more easily. The impor- The press of the 1960s, including specialist publica- tance of this influence is indexed by the admonitions tions on applied arts,3 dedicated more space to this by critics of the time: “… a complete break with the

44 45 traditions of Lithuanian ceramics often turns into curves of the lobby pool). The same guiding principles unique and beautiful things Soviet consumers became 1 Walter Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History” in unsuccessful imitations of Czech, German or Finnish (of diagonals and kidney shaping) flowed through the ever more appreciative of foreign ‘friends’. And on Illuminations, trans. Harry Zohn, NY: Schocken Books, 1969, pp. 255. ceramics”4 and so forth. arrangement of the ceramics and textiles employed in the symbolical scale of values, goods produced 2 L. Šepetys, Daiktø groþis, Vilnius: Vaga, p. 3. During this period, Western influence could be per- the space such as vases, plates, leather objects, wall domestically could not possibly equal imported goods. 3 Taikomoji dekoratyvine daile, Vilnius: Vaga, 1965. ceived in the design of objects and architecture of the paintings and ceramic panels. The prestige of locally designed things declined in 4 L. Cieðkaitë L. Ið muziejø - á buitá, Literatûra ir menas, 1962 03 17. Soviet Union. The international Youth Festival staged Historians of Lithuanian architecture label the interi- domestic environment. Thereby, Romanian and 5 P. Sparke, An Introduction to Design and Culture. 1900 to the Present in Moscow in 1957 — that included an international ors from the beginning of the 1960s as belonging to Yugoslavian furniture, German tableware and fabrics, [second edition], London and New York: Routledge, 2004, p. 200. exhibition of fine and applied arts — became a focal “the school of Lithuanian national interior”. The unify- and Czechoslovakian crystal occupied the most hon- 6 L. Šepetys, op. cit., p. 118. point of the promotion of modern expression. And an ing theme of national folklore or history was often orable places in Soviet flats. Lithuanian furniture 7 Å. Äåãîòü, „Îò òîâàðà ê òîâàðèùó“, in Ëîãîñ, 2000, # 5/6, c. 29- eponymous 1950s international style was chosen for used as the design-concept for an entire interior that designers and applied artists continued creating origi- 37, access through internet http://www.ruthenia.ru/logos/num- the Festival (appearing in posters, emblems, and would subordinate the purely utilitarian elements of nal objects for public spaces only. The stock of Dailë ber/2000_5_6/2000_5-6_04.htm architecture). A year after the Festival, in 1958, M. the environment, and focus its emotional impact. This shops could not satisfy mass demand — as it was no Ladur the artist in chief of Moscow city during the fes- was also a typical characteristic of interiors in the longer their purpose. These were rather the places to tival took over the reins of the aforementioned mag- neighboring states of Estonia and Latvia. The socialist acquire things of symbolical value: singular decora- azine Dekorativnoje iskusstvo SSSR. Consequently, the realist doctrine proclaimed the necessity of ‘socialist tions for the home environment. Artistic objects were event was afforded a great public resonance as the contents and national form’ and as such fostered a too expensive for mass production, and their uniform magazine popularised this tendency all over the Soviet national(ist) identity within design rather than a style did not satisfy the consumers’ desire for variety. Union. The resulting impact is what Soviet art histori- potentially cosmopolitan international orientation. William Morris and the associated 19th century ‘Arts ans call ‘festival’ style, aligning with the phrase canon- and Crafts’ movement suffered a similar fate to that of ised in Western art/design history in relation to the *** the decline of the ‘art into everyday life’ movement. 1951 Festival of Britain and the activities of the Festival The admiration for the ‘festival’ style and a valuing of David Mabb’s Lithuanian project has conjoined two Pattern Group. “The Festival of Britain, held on the “beauty permeated with the joy of life”, according to utopian design impulses: that related to Morris’s South Bank of the River Thames in 1951, represented L. Šepetys6, soon declined in Lithuania. By the mid- vision of entwined artistic and social reformism and a further attempt to unite the British nation through 1960s there were less and less expressions of joy over the ideology of reorganisation and reconstruction of its appreciation of the bright new future offered by a ‘Lithuanian national interiors’: and the focus of the Soviet life during the ‘thaw’. From our contemporary modern, designed environment.”5 modernisation of architecture moved from a concern perspective, is it equally utopian to expect that under The two festivals, six years apart, marking the with interiors to the whole building, a complex of the new wave of capitalist reconstruction the memo- recovery of post-war England and the ‘thaw’ of the buildings, and later to the grid of the street and the ry of the Soviet period of Lithuanian architecture, Soviet Union share conceptual and emotional paral- city. The priorities of applied arts turned radically craft, and design will not become to use the title of lels. It is this style of interior/object design that clear- towards individuated creation for exhibitions: William Morris’s novel — News From Nowhere? ly formed in Lithuania in the 1960s: a vein of European Lithuanian artists who had previously contributed ‘festival’ tendencies that reached it behind time. extensively to industrial enterprises and art factories LOLITA JABLONSKIENË Perhaps, the most representative example of this now engaged only in their own projects and actively style is the hotel and café Neringa in Vilnius, designed participated in exhibition culture. Mass production of by architects Algimantas and Vytautas Nasvytis in things and centralised distribution restricted the rise 1959 in a reconstructed 19th century building (fig. of Lithuanian design based on the tenets of simplicity 34). The café’s interior forms an aesthetic gestalt of and affordability. Soviet ideology returned to domi- decorative art and interior architecture, in the café’s nate the very notion of objects for everyday use and equipment and furniture design, the ceramic fountain, their value was again measured against utility and aes- ceramic objects, textile products, a wall painting and a thetic concerns were evacuated. This return can be low-relief sculpture. Essential to the ensemble is a typified according to research published by Ekaterina modernist concept of space and the well-integrated Degot on the domestic life of the USSR, in which she décor. All of the components are stylised with refer- writes that objects had to become not seducing com- ence to two main principles: linear simplification/ modities, but ’friends’: warm, friendly, careless about schematisation and free asymmetric composition. their appearance, honest, right and modest.7 Irregularly outlined and graphically constructed pieces Thereafter, the majority of mass produced domes- of furniture shaped as triangles, trapezoids and tic objects became exactly that: practical (right) and ellipses were designed (and have not survived) for the unattractive (modest). café. Analogous silhouettes were repeated in the In the end, the desires of those who were produc- architecture (including the ceiling lighting and the ing and consuming things did not coincide. Longing for

46 47 ------16. David Mabb. SOVIETINIØ SPALVØ DIA- ILLUSTRATION FOR L. GIRA’S BOOK HIGH IN I L I U S T R A C I J O S GRAMOS LINK / TOWARDS A SOVIET THE SKY NOT FALCONS WERE FLYING, 1963. B I O G R A F I J A COLOUR CHART, 2005. Sienø tapyba 7 akrilo I L L U S T R A T I O N S daþø spalvomis, kintamos dimensijos / Wall-paint- 29. Domicelë Tarabildienë. ILIUSTRACIJA L. GIROS B I O G R A P H Y ing with seven acrylic paint colours, dimensions RINKINIUI NE MARGI SAKALËLIAI / 1. David Mabb. SPORTO RÛMAI / THE SPORTS variable. ILLUSTRATION FOR L. GIRA’S BOOK HIGH IN ------HALL, 2005. Tapyba ant Williamo Morriso NACIONALINË DAILËS GALERIJA / THE THE SKY NOT FALCONS WERE FLYING, 1963. „Sausmedþio“ audinio / Oil paint on William NATIONAL ART GALLERY, 2005. Tapyba ant Morris “Honeysuckle” fabric, 142 x 90 cm. Williamo Morriso „Saulutës“ audinio / Oil paint on 30. VIEÐBUÈIO NERINGA VILNIUJE VESTIBIULIS. D AV I D Menininko nuosavybë / Courtesy the artist. William Morris “Daisy” fabric, 148 x 69 cm. Architektai A. ir V. Nasvyèiai, keramika L. Fotografija / Photo: Paulius Mazûras. Menininko nuosavybë / Courtesy the artist. Cieðkaitës / VESTIBULE OF NERINGA HOTEL M A B B Fotografijos / Photos: Paulius Mazûras. IN VILNIUS. Architecture by A. and V. Nasvyèiai, 2. William Morris. ceramics by L. Cieðkaitë, 1961. 17. DAVIDO MABBO PARODA MENAS KASDIENY- B O R N R E C E N T O N E P E R S O N E X H I B I T I O N S R E C E N T C A T A L O G U E S 3. KILIMAS SU LENINO ATVAIZDU, GRÛTO BEI ŠMC VILNIUJE / DAVID MABB’S EXHIBI- 31. LIETUVOS SKYRIUS TSRS PRAMONËS PARO- 1959 PARKAS / LENIN CARPET FROM GRÛTAS TION ART INTO EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE CAC DOJE LONDONE. Dizaineris T. Baðinskas / 2000 Canada is for idiots; you need class war, Latitude 53, 2001 Marnie Fleming David Mabb: The Decorating Business, PARK. Autoriaus fotografija / Photo the author, VILNIUS, 2005. Fotografija / Photo: Paulius LITHUANIAN SECTION AT THE EXHIBITION Edmonton, Alberta Steve Edwards, The Trouble with Morris, Matthew Higgs, 20 2005. Mazûras. OF USSR INDUSTRY IN LONDON. Design by T. E D U C A T I O N 2000 The Decorating Business, Oakville Galleries, Oakville, Questions in The Decorating Business Oakville Galleries, Ontario Bašinskas, 1968. Ontario 2003 James Patten, A Factory as It Might be or The Hall of 4. BASEINO TRAMPLINAS, SPORTO RÛMAI 18. DAVIDO MABBO PARODA MENAS KASDIENY- 2003 A Factory As It Might Be or The Hall Of Flowers, Art 1976-1977 Hastings College of Further Education, Flowers, David Mabb, Introductory notes on A Factory as It Might VILNIUJE / DIVING BOARD, THE SPORTS HALL BEI ŠMC VILNIUJE / DAVID MABB’S EXHIBI- 32. L. Strolis. SERVIZAS VYNUI / WINE SERVICE, Foundation Gallery of Windsor, Ontario be or The Hall of Flowers, Colin Mooers, Dialectics at a 2003 The Hall of the Modern, The Economist, London, pre- IN VILNIUS. Autoriaus fotografija / Photo the TION ART INTO EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE CAC 1959. 1977-1980 Goldsmiths College, BA (Hons) Fine Art Standstill: The Art of David Mabb, in A Factory as It Might be or author, 2005. VILNIUS, 2005. Fotografija / Photo: Paulius 1980-1981 Chelsea School of Art, MA Fine Art sented by the Contemporary Art Society The Hall of Flowers, The Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, 2004 Useless Work Versus Useless Toil, Leo Kamen Gallery, Mazûras. 33. M. Babenskienë. AUDINIAI UÞUOLAIDOMS / Ontario 5. Toronto 2004 Steve Edwards, The Colonisation of Utopia, Caroline ÁËJIMAS Á UAB KILIMAI LENTVARYJE / GATES OF FABRIC FOR CURTAINS, 1961. 2004 William Morris, “ministering to the swinish luxury of the Arscott, Four Walls: Morris and Ornament in William Morris, AB KILIMAI FACTORY IN LENTVARIS. Autoriaus 19. David Mabb. SPORTO RÛMAI / THE SPORTS rich” an exhibition by David Mabb, Whitworth Art Gallery, David Mabb, Whitworth Art Gallery, University of Manchester fotografija / Photo the author, 2005. HALL, 2005. Taftinginis vilnonis kilimas / Tufted 34. KAVINËS NERINGA VILNIUJE INTERJERAS. University of Manchester, Manchester 2005 David Mabb, Notes on William Morris in Jaipur: The wool carpet, 400 x 253,5 cm. Menininko Architektai A. ir V. Nasvyèiai, sienø tapyba V. 2005 Morris in Jaipur: The work of Art in the Context of Hand- Work of Art in the Context of Hand-made Reproduction, Peter 6. UÞPAKALINË KILIMO PUSË / BACK OF CAR- nuosavybë / Courtesy the artist. Fotografija / Jankausko ir V. Povilaièio / INTERIOR OF made Reproduction, Mandawa Haveli, Jaipur, part of Jaipur Nagy, Mabb takes Morris to Jaipur: The Whirligig of Influence in PET. Autoriaus fotografija / Photo the author, Photo: Paulius Mazûras. NERINGA CAFÉ IN VILNIUS. Architecture by A. Heritage International Festival, touring to The Queens Gallery, William Morris in Jaipur: The Work of Art in the Context of Hand- 2005. and V. Nasvyèiai, wall-painting by V. Jankauskas ir British Council, New Delhi made Reproduction, Nature Morte, New Delhi 20. David Mabb. LIETUVA, 2005. Taftinginis vilnonis V. Povilaitis, 1959. 2006 Smash the Bourgeoisie! Victory to the Decorating 7. Domicelë Tarabildienë. INICIALAI L. GIROS kilimas / Tufted wool carpet, 400 x 236,5 cm. Business! Leo Kamen Gallery, Toronto RINKINIUI NE MARGI SAKALËLIAI / INITIALS FOR Menininko nuosavybë / Courtesy the artist. 35. REKONSTRUOJAMAS NACIONALINËS DAILËS 2006 Art into Everyday Life, Contemporary Art Centre, L. GIRA’S BOOK HIGH IN THE SKY NOT FALCONS Fotografija / Photo: Paulius Mazûras. GALERIJOS PASTATAS VILNIUJE / BUILDING Vilnius WERE FLYING, 1963. OF THE NATIONAL ART GALLERY IN VILNIUS 21. DAVIDO MABBO PARODA MENAS KASDIENY- UNDER RECONSTRUCTION. Fotografija / ------8. Domicelë Tarabildienë. INICIALAI L. GIROS BEI ŠMC VILNIUJE / DAVID MABB’S EXHIBI- Photo: Mike Bode, 2005. V i r ð e l y j e / O n C o v e r : RINKINIUI NE MARGI SAKALËLIAI / INITIALS FOR TION ART INTO EVERYDAY LIFE AT THE CAC David Mabb. UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON PARDUOTUVË / UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON SHOP, 2005. Tapyba ant Williamo Morriso „Vaisiø“ audinio / Oil paint on William Morris “Fruit” L. GIRA’S BOOK HIGH IN THE SKY NOT FALCONS VILNIUS, 2005. Fotografija / Photo: Paulius V i r ð e l y j e / O n C o v e r : fabric, 114 x 94 cm. Menininko nuosavybë / Courtesy the artist. Fotografija / Photo: Paulius Mazûras WERE FLYING, 1963. Mazûras. David Mabb. KINO TEATRAS LIETUVA / LIETUVA CINEMA, 2005. Tapyba ant Williamo Morriso „Gluosnio ðakø“ audinio / Oil paint on William Morris “Willow Bough” fabric, 142 x 84 cm. David Mabb. UNITED COLORS OF BENETTON Menininko nuosavybë / Courtesy the artist. Fotografija / Photo: Paulius Mazûras 9. Domicelë Tarabildienë. INICIALAI L. GIROS 22. David Mabb. BENETTON PARDUOTUVË / THE PARDUOTUVË / UNITED COLORS OF ------RINKINIUI NE MARGI SAKALËLIAI / INITIALS FOR BENETTON SHOP, 2005. Taftinginis vilnonis kili- BENETTON SHOP, 2005. Tapyba ant Williamo Katalogas iðleistas parodos DAVID MABB: MENAS KASDIENYBEI Ðiuolaikinio meno centre proga L. GIRA’S BOOK HIGH IN THE SKY NOT FALCONS mas / Tufted wool carpet, 321 x 264 cm. Morriso „Vaisiø“ audinio / Oil paint on William Published on the occasion of the exhibition DAVID MABB: ART INTO EVERYDAY LIFE at the Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius, 2006 01 20 – 03 19 WERE FLYING, 1963. Menininko nuosavybë / Courtesy the artist. Morris “Fruit” fabric, 114 x 94 cm. Menininko Kuratorius / Curator: S i m o n R e e s Fotografija / Photo: Paulius Mazûras. nuosavybë / Courtesy the artist. Fotografija / 10. LUKIÐKIØ AIKÐTËS VILNIUJE REKONSTRUKCI- Photo: Paulius Mazûras. Pagrindinis parodos rëmëjas: Britø taryba JOS KONKURSO PROJEKTAS, 7-ojo deðimt- 23. BASEINAS, SPORTO RÛMAI VILNIUJE / Exhibition funder: British Council meèio pradþia / CONTEST PROJECT FOR THE SWIMMING POOL, THE SPORTS HALL IN David Mabb. KINO TEATRAS LIETUVA / LIETUVA RECONSTRUCTION OF LUKIÐKËS SQUARE IN VILNIUS. Autoriaus fotografija / Photo the author, CINEMA, 2005. Tapyba ant Williamo Morriso Paroda surengta kartu su tarptautine naujojo britø dizaino paroda MANO PASAULIS: NAUJASIS SUBJEKTYVUMAS DIZAINE. VILNIUS, early 1960s. 2005. „Gluosnio ðakø“ audinio / Oil paint on William The exhibition was staged in association with the international exhibition of new British design MY WORLD: NEW SUBJECTIVITY IN DESIGN Morris “Willow Bough” fabric, 142 x 84 cm. 11. VALGYKLOS ŠATRIJA KAUNE INTERJERAS. 24. SPORTO RÛMØ VILNIUJE FOJË / FOYER OF Menininko nuosavybë / Courtesy the artist. Parodos partneris: Lietuvos dailës muziejaus Ðiuolaikinës dailës informacijos centras Architektas A. Gordevièius, metalo plastika T. E. THE SPORTS HALL IN VILNIUS. Autoriaus Fotografija / Photo: Paulius Mazûras. Rëmëjai: UAB Kilimai, Vilniaus dailës akademijos Tekstilës katedra Vaivadienës / INTERIOR OF ŠATRIJA CANTEEN fotografija / Photo the author, 2005. Exhibition partner: The Contemporary Art Information Centre of The Lithuanian Art Museum IN KAUNAS. Architecture by A. Gordevièius, Exhibition supported by: AB Kilimai, Department of Textile Vilnius Academy of Fine Arts metal plastic by T. E. Vaivadienë, 1966. 25. Juozas Mikënas. Paminklas sovietiniams kosmo------nautams PIRMOSIOS KREGÞDËS, Vilnius / Katalogo leidëjas: Ðiuolaikinio meno centras 12. VIEÐBUÈIO KONAKRI MIESTE (GVINËJA) BAL- Monument for Soviet Cosmonauts FIRST Catalogue Publisher: Contemporary Art Centre DAI. Dizaineris V. Beiga / FURNITURE AT THE SWALLOWS in Vilnius, 1964. Autoriaus fotografi- Sudarytojas / Editor: S i m o n R e e s HOTEL IN CONAKRY CITY (GUINEA). Design ja / Photo the author, 2005. Dizainas / Design: D a i v a K i ð û n a i t ë by V. Beiga, 1963. Lietuviø kalbos redaktorë / Lithuanian Language Editor: L i n a r a D o v y d a i t y t ë %&# DARBININKË, GAMINANTI KILIMÀ / WORKER Tekstai / Texts: L o l i t a J a b l o n s k i e n ë , D a v i d M a b b , S i m o n R e e s 13. KOMPOZITORIØ NAMØ VILNIUJE INTERJERAS MAKING CARPET. Autoriaus fotografija / Photo Vertë / Translated by: A g n ë N a r u ð y t ë IR BALDAI. Architektas V. Èekanauskas / the author, 2005. INTERIOR AND FURNITURE AT THE Spaudë / Printed by: Sapnø Sala, Vilnius COMPOSERS HOUSE IN VILNIUS. Architecture %'# Vytautas Jurkûnas. ILIUSTRACIJA K. © Ðiuolaikinio meno centras, menininkas, tekstø autoriai, Vilnius / Contemporary Art Centre, the artist and text authors, Vilnius, 2006. by V. Èekanauskas, 1966. DONELAIÈIO METAMS / ILLUSTRATION FOR ISBN 9985-957-26-5 THE POEM THE SEASONS BY K. DONELAITIS, Ðiuolaikinio meno centras !"# P. Genienë. SERVIZAS GËRIMAMS / DRINKS 1956. Contemporary Art Centre SERVICE, 1962. Vokieèiø 2, LT-01130 Vilnius %(# Domicelë Tarabildienë. ILIUSTRACIJA L. GIROS Lithuania !$# V. Manomaitis. RANKINUKAS / HANDBAG, 1959. RINKINIUI NE MARGI SAKALËLIAI /

48 35. REKONSTRUOJAMAS NACIONALINËS DAILËS GALERIJOS PASTATAS VILNIUJE / BUILDING OF THE NATIONAL ART GALLERY IN VILNIUS UNDER RECONSTRUCTION. Fotografija / Photo: Mike Bode, 2005

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