We are pleased to present an insightful conversation with Arūnas Gelūnas, artist, cultural theorist, and Director General of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, who will be giving a keynote presentation at the 16th International Creativity and Culture 2025 conference. In this interview, Gelūnas shares his reflections on the enduring power of culture and creativity to provide resilience, meaning, and connection, even in the darkest periods of history.
As an artist, cultural theorist, and curator, could you provide examples of projects or exhibitions where the significance of cultural memory has been especially evident ?
Cultural memory is an integral part of being human. The animal world has neither cultural memory nor aesthetic appreciation, and without these two qualities, it would be difficult to call a person human. For almost seven years now, I have been heading one of the largest memory institutions in Lithuania – the Lithuanian National Museum of Art (LNDM) – whose collections today contain more than 262,000 exhibits. Each and every one of them is related to memory, whether it is very old, only a few decades or even years old, but in forming the museum's collection, the memory of the state is also preserved. Absolutely all of the exhibitions organised in our museum, whether curated by myself, my colleagues or guest curators, explore, examine and shed new light on the different layers of cultural memory.
I could give countless specific examples—many such exhibitions related to cultural memory are still running in the branches of the LNDM today—but I will give just a few truly classic examples: The exhibition “Vilnius–Wilno–Vilne 1918–1948. One City – Many Stories" (was exhibited at the National Art Gallery of the LNDM in 2023) was the first to present artistic documentation of Vilnius from the interwar period, the war, and the early postwar period, preserved in the memory institutions of Lithuania and Poland. .png)
At the same time, it can be said that such a project, which addresses a complex period in the relations between the two countries, opened a whole new page in Lithuanian-Polish cooperation. The exhibition I curated, “Protest Art: The Rebels of the Soviet Era” (currently on display at the Radvilas Palace Art Museum of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art), tells the story of famous Russian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Estonian, and Ukrainian artists who created during the Soviet occupation and were “disobedient” towards the Moscow authorities, their aspirations to dream boldly and experiment with new forms of art.
The exhibition "Do Not Create Yourself an Image. Commandments, Everyday Life, and Movements," organized in honor of the 100th anniversary of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research that was founded a century ago in Vilnius and later moved to New York (exhibition is still running today at the LNDM Vilnius Picture Gallery), aims to present the legacy of traditional Jewish art and the interrelationships between coexisting cultures reflected in the artistic space, but also unites them in a common goal to preserve, study, disseminate and immortalize knowledge about Litvak culture and history—one of the most important goals set by YIVO a century ago.
Here I have presented just three examples of LNDM exhibitions that explore and present cultural memory, but there are dozens or even hundreds of them from the last five years alone.
In your role as Director General of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, you focus on preserving cultural memory and identity. How do you believe creative industries and artists can contribute to maintaining local cultural identity amid globalization and technological advancements? How important is authenticity, and what practices can help ensure it is preserved ?
There are various ways and strategies that help contemporary creators communicate with their homeland and creatively express their cultural identity and local knowledge – from sensitive architectural interventions in the historical architectural environment to the use of traditional cultural elements in contemporary art. A perfect example of such artistic dialogue is Lina Lapelytė's performances, which sometimes use traditional Lithuanian folk instruments.
Globalisation is never total, the importance of local memory always remains, and the most sensitive artists are able to interpret this in an original way (often, technological progress does not hinder this, but only helps). On the other hand, there are also themes that are important to everyone, such as human rights, climate change, or loneliness, so it is great when themes and their artistic actualization unite and bring together artists from different nations rather than divide them.
Could you briefly share the key message you would like to convey to the Conference audience ?
Even in the darkest periods of history, culture and creativity continue to play a vital role. These two elements give people a stronger sense of meaning in life, as well as resilience, inner strength, and, I have no doubt, a deeper emotional connection to the country in which they live.
Gintarės Grigėnaitės's photo
