Conditions/narratives of dissidence through architecture in Lithuania

The Conversation is chaired by
MARIJA DRĖMAITĖ

This conversation will argue about acts of dissidence through architecture in Lithuania. Two architects and architecture historians will share their diverse experience and forms of practice as they were navigating through the extreme political and social changes that have effected architecture and urban planning, first after the collapse of communism and Lithuania’s independence from the Soviet Union, and shortly after, under the new values and economic interests of the neo-liberal market.

Prof. Jonas Minkevicius will present largely unknown and marginal architectural practices in Lithuania that produced daring and creative acts that could be described as important stepping stones for the political change in late 1980s. These practices also marked the dissolution of state run architecture institutions and reforms of the architectural profession.

Algirdas Kauspedas, after quitting his job at the state run Institute of Architecture formed the rock band ‘Antis’ (antis – duck stands for fabricated media sensation). Despite the success of the singing revolution at the times he came back to his profession aspiring to give architectural form for a newly emerging property market.

Audrys Karalius is an architect who in the early 1990s transformed his architectural practice and began publishing activities calling for new critical practices of architecture in Lithuania. His main interest is to place architecture in the centre of civic processes. Currently his active critical voice calls to rethink the ‘house’ as the vehicle for change.