Lithuanian Season in France 2024 | National Museum of Lithuania 

The Lithuanian Season in France 2024 is a partnership programme between Lithuania and France designed to introduce contemporary Lithuania and its culture to the French public through diverse cultural and artistic expressions, debates and presentations. The project aims to initiate long-term cooperation between Lithuanian institutions and creators and their French partners. “The Other Same” being the overarching idea of the Season’s programme, it is an invitation to see oneself in others through the project’s activities in France. Having brought together artists, thinkers and public figures, the programme will embrace a wide range of contemporary cultural phenomena, media and relevant themes, engaging in creative exploration and reflecting on the past, present and possible future scenarios.

Please find the upcoming events in the programme below and on the website of Saison Lituanie.

The Centre Pompidou, in cooperation with the National Museum of Lithuania, presents Kazys Varnelis’ work to the French public. Kazys Varnelis is a Lithuanian émigré artist and master of Op Art. The exhibition showcases sixteen of his paintings and sculptures created between 1956 and 1996, with the focus on his most significant period – the 1960s and 1970s.

A bilingual catalogue in French and English accompanies the exhibition, situating Kazys Varnelis’ works in the context of other renowned artists – Victor Vasarely, Frank Stella, and Stefan Gierowski. The installation “Ethnographic Op Art” to be opened at the Vasarely Foundation in Aix-en-Provence serves as a conceptual extension of the exhibition.

Date: 14/09/2024 – 06/01/2025

Venue: Centre Pompidou, Paris

Curators: Michel Gauthier, Indrė Urbelytė

Partners: Vasarely Foundation, Centre Pompidou

The National Museum of Lithuania and the Vasarely Foundation invite you to cross the line between professional and folk art and plunge into the symphony of optic shapes, bright colours and contemporary sounds.

Kazys Varnelis (1917–2010) is the most celebrated Lithuanian representative of Op Art. The son of a weaver, from early age, Kazys was deeply influenced by the geometry of folk fabrics, contrasting colours and meditative rhythms of his mothers’ weaving loom. Although we cannot tell when optic ornaments found their way into folk art, surviving textiles testify to a centuries-old tradition of vibrant optic ornaments. Inspired by weaving looms, young Lithuanian composer Matas Samulionis has created an audio installation as the backdrop for the exhibition.

This exhibition is an extension and enrichment of the exhibition “Kazys Varnelis, Lithuanian Op Classicist” on display at the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Date: 02/10/2024 – 19/01/2025

Venue: Fondation Vasarely, 1 Avenue Marcel Pagnol, Aix-en-Provence

Curator Indrė Urbelytė

Architect Ieva Cicėnaitė

Sound engineer Roberto Becerra

The Louvre Museum and the National Museum of Lithuania offer a roundtable on the role of museums in times of war, with participating experts from Lithuania, Ukraine, Poland, and France.

In October 2024, the Louvre Museum and the National Museum of Lithuania will hold a roundtable discussion at the Dominique-Vivant Denon Centre of the Louvre Museum. The event will explore the roles of museums in times of war in Europe, particularly in Lithuania. The Russian war against Ukraine makes us rethink sensitive identity and border issues in the fields of culture and art and revives painful memories from the occupations in the region. Museums play an important role during crises – not only by informing the public but also by preserving cultural memory. The debate among Lithuanian, Polish and Ukrainian experts will be moderated by Maximilien Durand, Director of the Department of Byzantine and Eastern Christian Art of the Louvre Museum. 

Date: 16 October 2024 (registration required) 

Venue: Dominique-Vivant Denon Centre, Louvre Museum, Porte des Arts, Paris 

Participants: Giedrė Jankevičiūtė (Lithuanian Culture Research Institute), Indrė Urbelytė (National Museum of Lithuania), Aistė Bimbirytė (Lithuanian National Museum of Art), Mirosław Piotr Kruk (National Museum in Kraków), ​Ewa Manikowska (Institute of Art, Polish Academy of Sciences), ​Constantin Sigov (National University, Kyiv-Mohyla Academy)  

Moderator: Maximilien Durand (Louvre Museum)  

“Partisans’ songs” is a trilingual storytelling performance in French, Lithuanian and Ukrainian that weaves together stories of women in the French, Lithuanian and Ukrainian resistance movements in a poetic, musical and moving way. Some of these women were and are still fighting with weapons, while others are fighting with pens, songs and crochet hooks.

The performers will feature an exhibit from the National Museum of Lithuania, the replica of the handkerchief embroidered by partisan liaison Pranė Vasiliauskaitė, recreated by its experts from the Museum’s Ethnic Culture Department.

What does it mean to resist? How do you fight in the face of injustice and oppression? Those are questions that remain profoundly relevant today…

Date: 21–22/09/2024

Venue: Museum of Resistance and Deportation of Isère, Grenoble

Authors and performers: Ariane Pawin, Milda Varnauskaitė, Maryna Voznyuk

Participants of MARTA, the programme for museum skills development being implemented by the National Museum of Lithuania, will enjoy an opportunity to visit storage facilities of the Louvre Museum. This will be a three-day programme aimed at finding solutions for the management, transportation and protection of museum collections. The study visit is part of the long-term cooperation agreement singed between the National Museum of Lithuania and the Louvre Museum this year.