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Reconstruction of Contested History VILNIUS, 1939–1949

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Reconstruction of Contested History VILNIUS, 1939–1949 peer-reviewed article 67 Reconstruction of contested history VILNIUS, 1939–1949 Vilnius residents gather near an advertising column on Didžioji Street at the start of the first Soviet occupation in September 1939. PHOTO: PAVEL TROSHKIN/ NATIONAL MUSEUM OF LITHUANIA by Giedrė Jankevičiūtė his article is framed in a context of the complex prob- abstract lem of the ways and possibilities to communicate dif- The narrative in this article is based on a reconstruction of ficult pasts through art, such as the trauma caused by my personal curatorial experience while working on the ex- World War II, particularly such related processes as hibition “A Difficult Age: Vilnius, 1939–1949”. The exhibition’s massive deportation, expatriation and colonization, and their chronological framework – 1939 to 1949 – was established consequences. All those issues still belong to the grey zone in the with a focus on historical realities and aimed to frame the histories of many Central and East European countries, includ- narrative of the guest exhibition. The public knowledge of ing the Baltic States, Lithuania among them. Those issues were the history of multi-national Vilnius is full of conscious and discussed in a productive and inspiring way at the symposium unconscious omissions, in large part caused by oblivion, but “Prisms of Silence”, as explained in the introduction of this Spe- no less by the unwillingness to remember, ignorance, and cial Issue. the refusal to know or even fear of finding out. The narrative The narrative in this article is based on a reconstruction of based on the history of visual art and artists’ lives is a way to my personal curatorial experience while working on the exhibi- bring up controversial topics and open new perspectives. tion called “A Difficult Age: Vilnius, 1939—1949”. The exhibition, KEYWORDS: Communism, occupation, Vilnius, Holocaust, which was scheduled to open on August 2020, was postponed to contested history, migration, art. January 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It is devoted to an Baltic Worlds 2020:4 Special Issue: Reading Silences, Entangling Histories 68 peer-reviewed article peer-reviewed article 69 IT IS IMPORTANT to note that the exhibition was conceived and is planned to be displayed by the private MO Museum in Vil- nius, that has been operating since 2018.2 It is not a secondary circumstance, as none of the public museums in Lithuania has enough enthusiasm or probably even courage to deal with this sensitive and uncomfortable subject. The reason for this cau- tious behavior is not only the general controversial attitude towards mid-twentieth-century history, but also a possible rejection from a certain part of the audience based on the reluctance to see artworks that raise uneasy questions and rep- resent an unacceptable historical reality. For example, some members of the older generation, who directly experienced LITHUANIA OF MUSEUM KHALIP/NATIONAL JAKOV PHOTO: PHOTO: PAVEL TROSHKIN/NATIONAL MUSEUM OF LITHUANIA OF MUSEUM TROSHKIN/NATIONAL PAVEL PHOTO: Soviet repressions or heard about this experience from their family members, refused to visit the exhibition “Under the Red Star: Lithuanian Art 1940—1941”, which I curated ten years ago, Gediminas Avenue near the Chamber of Indus- presenting propaganda works created by Lithuanian artists in try and Trade, where the Vilnius Field Command the years of the Soviet occupation and Soviet visual production Office had been established during the Nazi that circulated in Lithuania in that period.3 The main visitors occupation, after the entry of Soviet forces into of that exhibition were people of my generation, i.e. born after the city, July 1944. 1960 and younger, who perceived the presented historical pe- riod as a dramatic past that had painful consequences but was already over. The exhibition curated by Celant became not only a signifi- 2017), and one of Poland’s most prominent artists of the second The exhibition context cant cultural event of the year in Italy, but also one of the land- half of the 20th century, painter Andrzej Wróblewski (1927—1957), The baseline for the MO Museum’s decision to hold the exhibi- mark events of contemporary curatorial practices devoted to who was born and raised in Vilnius, and took the first steps of tion “A Difficult Age, Vilnius 1939—1949” is quite close to the rethinking the heritage of the era of European totalitarianisms. his artistic career there. In 1945, the Soviets forced Wróblewski position of the curators of the exhibition “Artige Kunst — Kunst It will remain in the history of curatorship not only because of together with his mother and brother (his father died in 1941 un- und Politik im Nazionalsozialismus”, held in Bochum, Rostock its conception, which basically generalizes the process taking der the Nazi occupation), as former Polish citizens, to move from and Regensburg, as it stated in the exhibition catalogue sum- place since the late 1970s,7 but also because of an exception- Vilnius, which was annexed to the Soviet Union, to the Republic Polish refugees at the Vilnius railway station, September 1939. ming up the idea of the show: “[...] museums, as places of cul- ally successful and effective collaboration between the curator, of Poland, which was under Communist rule, but somewhat tural, (art) historical, and socio-political education, absolutely the architects, the designers, the museum itself and the entire freer. All three artists are well known not only in Poland, but also can and should encourage debate on controversial issues.”4 It team of collaborators, which allowed internationally. During her creatively was the aim of sharpening society’s sensitivity to inconvenient the creation of a clear, powerful and “IT IS NOT SO SIMPLE most important years Szapocznikow extremely complex historical period — the decade that radically themes and offer new material for their reflection, built on this historically valid narrative provoking lived in Paris, while Wajda’s films, not changed life in Vilnius and the shape of the city itself. The aim particular understanding of the museum’s mission, that en- lively interest from the local and inter- TO APPROACH THIS once given an award at international was to re-create at least in part the image of the still unknown couraged the MO Museum to initiate an exhibition devoted to a national audience. MINEFIELD, WHERE THE film festivals, belong to the classics of past through the works of artists who were active in that period fragmentarily familiar and mythologized period in the history The case that I am presenting European cinema, and are perceived in Vilnius. It might seem a very simple task, but it is not, as the of Vilnius. The exhibition that I curated represents a tendency is, certainly, not comparable to the SAME PERSONALITIES and acclaimed in many countries as notion of the events of this decade and their consequences still that has become distinct in contemporary curatorial practices, above-mentioned German and Ital- ARE SEEN AS NATIONAL significant facts of reflection on cul- creates many controversies. In other words, public knowledge testifying to the efforts to give some clarity to the perception ian exhibitions from the viewpoint of ture and twentieth-century political of the history of multi-national Vilnius, particularly that of the and interpretations of a convoluted historical period, while at their scale, visibility or international HEROES BY ONE GROUP, history. Wróblewski’s work passed 20th century, is still full of conscious and unconscious omissions, the same time rewriting the national canon of the history of art. impact. However, it undoubtedly is a AND AS COWARDS AND beyond Poland’s borders in 2010. In in large part caused by oblivion, but no less by the unwillingness This aim can hardly be achieved without cooperation with spe- fragment of the mosaic reconstructing TRAITORS BY OTHERS.” that year, an exhibition of his works to remember, ignorance, and the refusal to know or even fear of cialists in political history. For example, the exhibition “Post the inconvenient European past, with- was held at the Van Abbemuseum in finding out. It is not so simple to approach this minefield, where Zang Tumb Tuuum. Art, Life, Politics: Italia 1918—1943” (2018, out which the big picture would remain incomplete. Eindhoven. In 2015, a famous exhibition of his two-sided paint- the same personalities are seen as national heroes by one group, curator Germano Celant), held at the Fondazione Prada in Mi- ings Recto-verso took place at the Warsaw Contemporary Art and as cowards and traitors by others. Passions run high, but lan, which corrected the canon of the mid-20th century history THE IDEA OF HOLDING an art exhibition devoted to Vilnius in the Museum, and in 2016, it travelled to the Museo Nacional Centro hopefully the narrative based on the history of visual art and art- of Italian art, was heavily based on research on both art and po- years of the occupation and terror in the MO Museum emerged de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid. ists’ lives can be helpful, as it is more universal compared to that litical history, in particular, historian Emilio Gentile’s research.5 after the museum decided to host the exhibition “Perspective However, bringing Rottenberg’s exhibition to Vilnius without seen from the angle of political history. The actual state of col- It is not by accident that the historical narrative accompanying of Adolescence: Szapocznikow, Wróblewski, Wajda” staged by showing how the artists presented there are related to Vilnius lective memory
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