#23
A City’ Joints and Muscles: About the Links Between Architecture and Art

The 23rd series of talks invites us to take a look at the body of a city as a living organism, whose muscles and joints often become stiff, while the blood vessels and the lymphatic system become clogged. The city has no time for preventive measures, stretching exercises and key lifestyle changes, so in order to quickly rejuvenate itself or get rid of its problems faster, it turns to reckless means, choosing to go under the knife instead of consulting a therapist. Perhaps if it submitted itself to the prescribed course of therapy, it could get rid of some of the psychosomatic disorders caused by past trauma and anxiety about the future that are holding the city back from creating a new life quality.

During the series of talks held in collaboration with the curators at the National Gallery of Art, art practices in the city’s public spaces could become a means of therapy, a massage for the body and the mind. Art and architecture share a long history. Particularly in the recent years, there have been a lot of square and park renewal projects, as well as projects for new monuments. The series of lectures invites us to bring our attention to the global trend where public spaces are turning from objects of political representation through sculpture into marks of communal self-expression that do not conform to any single media. In this series of talks, based on different experiences and artistic practices, the collisions of architecture and art practices are considered as a way to reveal the overlap between city expansion and the memory of the city, setting in motion the stiff life functions of the organism.

Project is presented by: Lithuanian Council for Culture, Danish Cultural Institute, Polish Institute in Vilnius.
Partner: National Gallery of Art.