In 2025 January 24 - February 16 the exhibition "Contact Activity" by Arvydas Kmieliauskas-Moškus (1966–1991) will be open in Šiauliai Art Gallery.
The opening of the exhibition is in 2025 January 24, 5:00 p.m. Admission is free during the opening of the exhibition.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Each era has its own color and flavor, and history is like a communication cable consisting of endless interwoven threads.
What were the 90s like? That extraordinary, tumultuous time? The wall falls, Berlin embraces Berlin and becomes one. The face of Polish solidarity is a simple mustachioed shipyard worker, playwright (former stagehand) in Prague calling for spring. Lithuania – basketboll team „Žalgiris”, festival „Rock march” and movie „How we played the revolution”.
This is the time when the architect takes the stage, and then allows himself to extend the absurd performance in the Moscow TV studio, which finally blows the roof off all the officials. It is a time when poets make laws, they don’t even create – they dream, and the professor, with the help of samurai determination, indulges himself in the very center of the twilight tower. The people blow the silenced enemy tanks straight to the moon with their songs. It is a time of fairy tales, boundless expectations, faith, new beginnings (everything is possible!), it is the time of eternal youth. This is freedom, the freedom of youth, as lively as the first day, when there is only a bright space in front of your eyes and the long-repressed joy of filling it yourself.
And what happened here, at our place in Šiauliai? Among the super factories, colorful sweaters, crammed to the roof on buses heading east, wild parties, the first „BIX” concerts and dim street lighting, somewhere out there, maybe in Rėkyva?
Do you remember „Chestnut”? A cafe where students of the Faculty of Fine Arts and all kinds of famous characters used to gather. The first „informal-non-format” exhibition in Šiauliai county Povilas Višinskis public library? Or the exhibition „Not a chair” in Šiauliai Cultural Center? TV show „Raus”, „Helijus”? Experimental film festival in Vilties st. in the attic? And all the other dancing birds of the night, shaking the lid with their intense vibration?
Who remembers Moškus? An underground poet in a leather jacket. Who was he? A painter without any formal art studies? A street child who grew up on the benches of Southern courtyards, a scion of a wide family of artists? Bix’s poet, as presented by Nerius Pečiūra in his book „I and the Screwdriver”? A philosopher who searched for wisdom in the endless speeches behind the scenes of the Šiauliai State Drama Theater of that time? An ordinary „Elnias” factory worker, a teller of legends about Taškentas district? A mystic, who read the scriptures and raised his hands to the sky-planes? A man who painted in his little room for three years. My friend, with whom we created the „PIP” (post-industrial paradise) manifesto during the putsch in Moscow.
Manifesto – P I P!!!!!! – „He loves the whole world, keeps in touch”! Yes, I am who I choose to be, no matter the circumstances.
The Moscow putsch was blown away by the wind (then enemy tanks). Evening came and morning dawned. A new day has come.
Then we organized an exhibition – without posters, without authors, without titles. Only creativity, life and nothing else. And then he left.
…
35 years have passed. Looking back today, I realize how all these extraordinary events marked my life.
And this exhibition is another look at a person who embodied the spirit of the 90s, the face of my generation – our eternal youth.
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IN MEMORIAM
Arvydas Kmieliauskas-Moškus (1966–1991).
And to all those who left us, those who quietly, and occasionally noisily, created the history of our city.
– Ugnius Ratnikas
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The opening event of the exhibition is open to the public, filming and photography can be done. By participating in the event, you agree to be seen in photos and videos of the event and are informed that these photos and videos may be published publicly.
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