Post Office, photo P.T.Laurinaitis 2020
On January 22, Kaunas 2022 – European Capital of Culture Architecture and Heritage Program “Modernism for the Future” opened the exhibition “Modernism for the Future 360/365” at Kaunas Central Post Office.
The former Kaunas Central Post Office opens its doors again and becomes the Kaunas 2022 event space – meetings with developers, exhibitions and installations will take place here this year. The cooperation agreement signed together with Lithuanian Post office will allow to see the built palace from a different, culture-filled, angle. The Post Palace is an object of cultural heritage of exceptional historical and cultural value, representing the architecture of Kaunas modernism, so the first exhibition for the opening of the spaces was chosen not by chance. This is the international exhibition MoFu 360/365, which invites to celebrate modernism and the European Capital of Culture in Kaunas.
Five partners from modernist cities – Kaunas, Lviv, Brno, Kortrijk and Tel Aviv over recent years have undertaken an extremely rich and extraordinary journey. The result of this international collaboration is an exhibition of artworks filled with hundreds of personal stories about the spectacular growth of society in the last century, and the characterful architecture that reflects it invites everyone to celebrate Modernism and the European Capital of Culture year in Kaunas.
The exhibition creates a coherent narrative about modernist architecture as a phenomenon and the cities of Kaunas, Lviv, Brno, Kortrijk and Tel Aviv represents this topic from the perspectives of the Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe and beyond. Also multiple experiences, each reflecting a narrative about the distinct layer of modernist architecture and its characteristics, including authentic testimonies of local residents is analysed and the potential of modernist architecture is discussed. In the exhibition, the number 360 symbolizes all possible perspectives on Modernism: cultural, political, economic, and so on. Meanwhile, the number 365 refers to our attention to everyday heritage. 26 artists of the exhibition from Kaunas, Lviv, Brno, Kortrijk and Tel Aviv drew inspiration from churches, museums as well as residential buildings of the Modernist period and created 18 projects interpreting their history and value today.
It is no coincidence that the exhibition is presented in the Kaunas Central Post Office, which symbolizes the contradictory positions of modernism in contemporary society. The project team invites everyone to explore and reflect on other stories of a similar and more successful fate.
Kaunas Central Post Office in the interwar period. Photo from LCVA Photographic Documentation Department.
Smart Rehabilitation project team at the Post Office 2021