The alternative culture space loved by the people of Vilnius is coming back in the former detention center | Culture

The exhibition, which was visited by almost 10 thousand people in the former detention center last year, has been updated and supplemented. visitors, tells about life in Soviet Lithuania in the years 1965-1993: everyday attempts of ordinary people to survive, think, communicate, engage in various creative forms of life, despite the stagnation that tormented the household and existence.

As spring progresses, the inner courtyard will also await visitors, to which “Utopia”, representing informal culture, will return.

The curators of the exhibition are art critic Ernestas Parulskis, historians Assoc. Dr. Aurimas Švedas and dr. Valdemaras Klumbys, literary scholar prof. Dr. Dalia Satkauskytė – chose to reveal the history of the Soviet era of Lithuania in the exhibition through the prism of everyday life. Visitors walking through the cells of the Former Detention Center will be greeted by different thematic stories about the mechanisms, ideology and rituals that created the Soviet reality, economy and work, earnings and poverty, scarcity and fashion, the transformation of history into propaganda, lies and willful oblivion.

Photo by Greta Skaraitiene/BNS/Exhibition “Traps with central heating”

Those who visited the exhibition last year will discover a new thematic story “Gastronom” this year with an immersive experiential stall installation and a story about coffee in the Soviet era. The exhibition will be complemented by a comic about shopping in a Soviet gastronome created by Miglė Anušauskaitė.

“During the Soviet era, gastronomes performed many functions, but the most obvious of them, the sale of food products, was not the most important. The first place in the ranking of the functions of a gastronome would be the hope of the buyer to discover some rarely seen food in the store. And it was a hope based on logic, because the centralized supply of products provided gastronomes, especially the biggest ones, more generously than ordinary stores”, says E. Parulskis. And he adds that, when the expectations of the arrival came true, it was necessary to use other functions provided by the gastronome, such as learning social skills, queue logistics planning and patience: “Statistics say that the average person spent a quarter of their free time in Soviet queues.”

Photo by Greta Skaraitiene/BNS/Exhibition “Traps with central heating”

Until autumn, visitors will also be invited to the accompanying events of the exhibition: a screening of the documentary film “Mammoth Hunting” by director Aistė Stonytė, a discussion by artists Eglė Grėbliauskaitė and Agnė Gintalaitė, why society avoids multifaceted information and aims for binary oppositions such as “good” and “bad”. Vilnius University PhD student Ignė Rasickaitė’s lecture on psychology in the Soviet era, tours of the exhibition with curator Ernest Parulskis.

Photo by Greta Skaraitiene/BNS/Exhibition “Traps with central heating”

With the warm season in full swing, Utopia, already loved by the people of Vilnius, will return to the former detention center. In the courtyards of the Former Detention Center, which have an authentic and distinctive character, the alternative art and music center “Utopia” will be located for the second season, filling the cultural life of the city with non-standard concerts, fashion markets and gatherings of artists.

Photo by Greta Skaraitiene/BNS/Exhibition “Traps with central heating”

The exhibition “Trap with central heating” opens on April 24 at 6 p.m. In the former detention center, T.Kosciuškos st. 1, Vilnius, and will be open until the end of October. On the opening day from 6 p.m. everyone will be invited to spend time listening to DJ Mario Moretti’s performance and tasting compote, as well as to view the exhibition for free.