Kaunas Artists’ House for the 23rd time is organizing the election of the most memorable Kaunas’ artist. Creators’ unions and cultural organizations nominated nine artists from who a special committee, that was specifically formed for this competition, will elect the most distinguished artist of 2020.
Nominees for the competition are: architect and guide Algimantas Grigas (nominated by public institution “Kaunas 2022”), architects Šarūnas Kiaunė ir Asta Kiaunienė (Lithuanian Architects’ Union, Kaunas Branch), choreographer and teacher Birutė Letukaitė (Kaunas Dance Theatre “Aura”), director Gytis Padegimas (National Kaunas Drama Theatre), video artist and director Marius Paplauskas (Association of Performing Arts critics), dancer and choreographer Vilma Pitrinaitė (Contemporary Dance Association), dancer and choreographer Mantas Stabačinskas (Kaunas Biennial), photo-artist Donatas Stankevičius (Lithuanian Union of Art Photographers, Kaunas Branch), performance artist Vaida Tamoševičiūtė (gallery “Meno parkas”).
The winner of the nomination will be chosen by a committee composed of experts in dance, theatre, photography, cinema and architecture: theatrologist and contemporary dance critic Silvija Čižaitė-Rudokienė, theatrologist doc. Dr. Rūta Mažeikienė, photo-artist and art researcher Dr. Tomas Pabedinskas, cinema and theatre director Jonas Tertelis, architecturologist doc. Dr. Jūratė Tutlytė.
The most memorable artist of Kaunas in 2020 will be announced on 25th of February. The winner will be awarded a one-time grant.
During the summer of 2020 Mantas Stabačinskas together with Vasara Visockaitė, Kaunas Biennial and “MagiC Carpets” accomplished a project Creative movement laboratory in which they worked together with people with disabilities centre “Korys” and created an open creative space for participants to improvise, freely dance and to become a part of dance community.
When speaking about the project and what he learned from it Mantas mentioned: “Sometimes people with complex disabilities have fewer complexes than we do. Today I thought that many wake up every day with complexes that are formed by our society that requires perfection. There is no such thing among these people, and if they do have it, their complexes are quite different. We should more often distance ourselves from all of the prevailing complexes and think more simply. From these people I learned to enjoy and be open.”
Creative movement laboratory recently was nominated for the most memorable Kaunas’ cultural initiative election and already has been presented with awards from initiative “Kaunas visiems” (Kaunas City Municipality) and “European Community Award” (“MagiC Carpets”).
The project was supported by Lithuanian Council for Culture.