LPA during The Lithuanian Cultural Season in France and Paris Photo
The Forms of Things, The Forms of Skulls, Forms of Love
Lithuanian photographs from the collections of the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Centre Pompidou, and the Lithuanian Photographers Association
Grand Palais, 3 avenue du Général Eisenhower, 75008 Paris
Beginning in the late 1970s, when Lithuania had been under Soviet rule for three decades, more than 1,600 prints entered the collections of what is today the BnF (Bibliothèque nationale de France) thanks to donations from the 22 photographers. This body of work, centred on a generation of photographers who worked mainly in the 1960s to 1980s, reveals a highly expressive scene characterised by eternal, metaphysical themes. Pantheistic relationship with nature, close connections between humans and the animal kingdom, cohabitation of generations, and existential angst: These works furnish a poignant illustration of a country whose dense forests, spirit of resistance, and passion for poetry have come together to forge a powerful and multifaceted identity. Though not well known by the public today, the Lithuanian School of Photography had at the time a unique reputation throughout the Soviet Union and beyond, opposing to the dictates of ‘socialist realism’ a sensitive and polysemous representation of reality.
Recently, as part of preparations for the Season of Lithuania in France, the Centre Pompidou initiated a series of acquisitions of Lithuanian photography, creating a pendant to the BnF collections, bringing together artists from the subsequent generation (mainly the 1980s and 1990s). Breaking away from their elders, while still contending with state coercion despite the political “thaw”, these artists stand out for their scepticism, their reserve or, on the contrary, their brashness. Everyday life is at times transfigured into curious fragments, at others into tragicomic compositions; boredom into mystical experience; solitude into a theatre of intimacy. Experimentation, performance, and a mise en abyme of the medium reshape the contours of photography. Women photographers take a stand.
Selected prints from these two ensembles are complemented by prints from the collection of the Lithuanian Photographers Association – a historical institution and partner of the project – as well as by a few contemporary works that demonstrate the vitality of a scene more conscious than ever of its history. Each of these works enters into its own dialogue with the preceding generations. But the painful memories of the country’s recent past, reactivated by the present crises, as well as a new awareness of global environmental issues, have changed artistic practices and photographers’ gaze on their world.
The exhibition title is borrowed from a poem by Mantas Balakauskas (born in 1989).
A special edition of FOTOGRAFIJA magazine was created for the event.
Exhibition curator: Sonia Voss
The collection can be discovered on the first floor of the Grand Palais in the Salon d’Honneur.
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Antanas Sutkus. Friends of France
Hotel La Louisiane, 60 rue de Seine 75006
In the summer of 1965, Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir made a visit to Lithuania. Although it lasted only a week, this visit, culminating in an excursion on foot through the dunes of Nida, left an indelible impression on those who met the two intellectuals on this occasion. Through the photographs of the young Antanas Sutkus, who was part of the delegation authorized to accompany the illustrious visitors, the event also came to occupy a significant place in Lithuania’s collective memory. A milestone in the relations between two countries, a catalyzer of reflections on freedom and cultural identity, this remarkable series of photographs is endowed with a philosophical and political dimension, quite apart from its artistic qualities. In a distinction rarely accorded to this artistic medium, one of Sutkus’ photographs of Sartre would even inspire two sculptures – one of them long exhibited in front of the BnF in Paris, the other planted in the landscape of Nida. This image, however, has always come down to us in truncated form. The original print restores the presence of Simone de Beauvoir at the side of her companion.
Exhibition produced in partnership with the Lithuanian photographers Association, in the framework of the Season of Lithuania in France 2024.
Hôtel La Louisiane
The Hôtel La Louisiane, 60 rue de Seine in the heart of Saint Germain-des-Prés, has built its identity in a setting full of chaos, freedom and nonsensical yet precious chatter. Since the days of Rimbaud and Verlaine, artists, creators and travelers in search of new experiences have taken up residence here for brief stays - among those who have lived here: Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Juliette Gréco, Lucian Freud, Albertine Sarrazin, Syd Barret, Keith Haring, Quentin Tarantino and other contemporaries to whom Hôtel La Louisiane owes its discretion.
