KCCC WELCOMES YOU ON MUSEUM NIGHT

On Saturday, the 20^th of May, Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre together with many European museums and galleries opens up for Museum Night and invites the residents and the guests of the city to spend a night together in exhibition halls and to search for signs of history in the city streets or to become witnesses of the birth of “Memory Garden – Wittė Vineyard” (orig. „Atminties sodas – Wittės vynuogynas“).

The International Council of Museums (ICOM) invites to celebrate the annual International Museum Day on the 18^th of May. Lithuania is also a part of the event “European Museum Night” which has been organised since the year 2005. The aim of the event is to welcome the community to museums at night – at the time when they are usually closed. This year Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre enrols itself in this even as well, and it has prepared a great number of events for this occasion.

KCCC Museum Night begins at 6 PM with the celebration of the planting of a Prussian grape in the yard of KCCC and the History Museum of Lithuania Minor; at 6:45 PM the enthusiasts of the game “Klaipėda City Detectives” and the history of Klaipėda, who are determined to find the most secretive corners of the old town, will be given a start. Night tours through the newly opened exhibition of Chinese contemporary art “Who am I? 798 Impressions”, prepared by Art Gallery Association of Beijing and dedicated expressly to Klaipėda – Lithuanian Capital of Culture, will begin at 7 PM. A single tour to take a closer look at this extraordinary exhibition might not be enough; therefore, it will be repeated at 9 PM. However, before that, at 8 PM, other guests of the port city are going to present their audiovisual project at KCCC Exhibition Hall – the participants of KCCC International Art Residency, Polish artists Jacek and Ewa Doroszenko. The program of Museum Night will be closed at 10 PM with the opening of the social exhibition “Local Symbols – the Face of Klaipėda?” and the tour through it with its authors, designers Lina Jaruševičiūtė and Virginijus Bakas.

Program of KCCC Museum Night

Saturday, the 20^th of May

6 PM: The ceremony of planting of the first grape “Luizė” of the project “Memory Garden – Wittė Vineyard” (orig. „Atminties sodas – Wittės vynuogynas“). (The yard of KCCC and the History Museum of Lithuania Minor, Didžioji Vandens str. 2).

The communities of Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre and the History Museum of Lithuania Minor came up with the idea of the project “Memory Garden – Wittė Vineyard” once confronted with the fact that Klaipėda old town residents know comparatively little about the area they live in. On the other hand, the old part of the city lacks green spaces and small cosy recreational zones which could become a pole of attraction. Especially since historically this part of the old town used to have quite large plots with lots of greenery. For example, a huge garden with exotic plants –grapes, fig trees and other fruit trees – of a postman Wittė used to flourish in the 18^th century near the current building of the History Museum of Lithuania Minor in Didžioji Vandens street.

The History Museum of Lithuania Minor and Klaipėda Culture Communication Centre evaluated their historical information and, taking into account the needs of visitors, are mobilising the community for the implementation of the project “Memory Garden – Wittė Vineyard”. It is planned to gradually plant grapes in a vertical way in the inner yard. During Museum Night, on the 20^th of May, the first grape – Prussian “Luizė” – will be planted in the yard of the old town.  

6.45 PM: The start of the team game “Klaipėda City Detectives” (KCCC Art Yard, Bažnyčių str. 4), 7.45 PM: The finish and team awards.

Attractive board game “Klaipėda City Detectives”, created in order to help the residents and the guests of Klaipėda to learn about the city and its maritime heritage at unexpected angles, was invented by KCCC Art Yard team with the help of specialists of various different areas and the residents of the city. The box of extremely high printing quality game consists of cards with 6 codified maritime heritage objects and old map fragments, facts, phrases, hints and puzzles assisting in finding them. On the occasion of Museum Night the residents and the guests of Klaipėda city are welcome to gather into teams and become the detectives of Klaipėda city. Each team will receive a game set and will have to find and capture 6 objects of maritime heritage, codified in the game, and 6 objects on the way, assemble a corresponding puzzle by every object they find and take a picture of it as fast as possible. The winner team will be the one which is the first and the most precise in completing all the tasks.

There can be up to 6 members in a team; digital photographing device is required.

Registration is necessary via E-mail: inga@kkkc.lt or phone: 8 618 14506.

7 PM and 9 PM: The tour through Chinese contemporary art exhibition “Who am I? 798 Impressions” (orig. „Kas aš? 798 įspūdžiai“) with the curator and artists. (KCCC Exhibition Hall, Didžioji Vandens str. 2).

On the 19^th of May, at 5 PM an exhibition of Chinese contemporary art “Who am I? 798 Impressions” is opening at KCCC Exhibition Hall prepared by Art Gallery Association of Beijing and dedicated expressly to Klaipėda – Lithuanian Capital of Culture, curator – the President of Art Gallery Association of Beijing Xin Dong Cheng.

The exposition of the exhibition of Chinese contemporary art “Who am I? 798 Impressions” consists of works spanning a wide range of art forms ˗ such as oil painting, photography, and video ˗ of the artists who are already accredited in the world and the young ones who are on the way to conquer the market, representing three generations of Chinese artists. The exhibition of the artists of Chinese contemporary art in Lithuania reveals an outstanding and important subset of Chinese art evolution. It is not a coincidence that in this exhibition the curator emphasises an example of Chinese creative industries ˗ the 798^th art zone, a gallery town, which was transformed out of a military factory. The changes of this district may as well be compared with the structure of Chinese society and the history of independently developing cultural segments: contrasting, teeming with life and unpredictable. On the occasion of Museum Night the guides for the tours through exhibition at 7 PM and 9 PM will be the curator itself, the President of Art Gallery Association of Beijing Xin Dong Cheng, and other Chinese artists who came to Lithuania.

8 PM: The presentation of the audiovisual project of the participants of the International Art Residency, Polish artists Jacek and Ewa Doroszenko (KCCC Exhibition Hall).

Polish artist duo, using interdisciplinary techniques, is mainly interested in the nature of art media and modern approach towards the surroundings and nature. The artists are especially focused on natural decorations; i.e. landscape and its texture, reconstruction and presentation using new technologies. The artist duo studies bilingual visual and aural range and possibilities of landscape during the residency in Klaipėda; they make records and sound compositions, take photographs and create an installation out of all the collected material, which will be presented at Museum Night event.

10 PM: The opening of the social exhibition “Local Symbols – the Face of Klaipėda?” (orig. „Vietiniai simboliai – Klaipėdos veidas?”) and the tour with artists. (KCCC Exhibition Hall).

The present face of Klaipėda city and generally formed rigid images, which became identity icons of the city, will be presented at the exhibition of unconventional form. The exposition will consist of images, collected and collated in pairs by designers Lina Jaruševičiūtė and Virginijus Bakas, which depict the settled city representation zones with captured objects from different periods. The aim of the social survey is to find out the opinion of the community of the city and to encourage it to get a critical review of the priorities of the image of the city. Klaipėda city community, which analysed and defined its personal attitude towards the identity of Klaipėda in a creative workshop of photography “Klaipėda Postcard” (orig. “Klaipėdos atvirlaiškis”) is going to participate in the exhibition as an equal partner. The insights of the citizens, which became postcards, will be the part of the social exhibition “Local Symbols – the Face of Klaipėda?”.

The entrance to all the events is free. Welcome to spend the night together!