The Lithuanian Season in France, which starts this autumn, has attracted more than 500 artists, experts and performers from both countries, who will organise over 300 different events in different cities, from poetry readings at the Pompidou Art Centre to photography exhibitions in Paris metro stations.
In all, some 130 projects have been selected to be presented in 30 French cities between September 12 and the end of the year.
“In the run-up to the Season, we have watched existing partnerships grow stronger and new ones forge. This creates a huge effect, and we have experienced that culture opens the door to themes and areas that are not related to culture, but are relevant and meaningful,” Julija Reklaitė, head of the Lithuanian Culture Institute, said in a statement on Monday.
According to Virginija Vitkienė, commissioner of the Lithuanian Season in France 2024, the events will allow the French to get to know Lithuanian culture, art and history in more detail, and will open up even wider opportunities for long-term partnership between the two countries.
“It is particularly pleasing that the programme is dominated by contemporary art, new forms of theatre, music projects, meetings with writers and thinkers, debate cycles dictated by geopolitical realities, economic and educational events, and, of course, gastronomy projects, which will allow people not only to see, to hear, but also to taste Lithuania,” said Vitkienė.
The opening weekend of the season from September 12–14 will be packed with events in Paris. The Pompidou Centre, in collaboration with the MO Museum in Vilnius, will open an exhibition showcasing Lithuania’s art since the 1960s.
The opening weekend will also see the celebration of Poetry Day at the Pompidou Centre, featuring the poems of Jonas Mekas and new French translations of his poetry, concerts by Lithuanian choirs in public spaces in Paris, and the premiere of a new work by Lina Lapelytė.
Radio Vilnius will be inviting Parisians to to the Gaite Lyrique cultural centre with a programme of Lithuanian electronic music artists.
A joint project of the National Library of France, the Paris Metro, the Lithuanian Union of Photographers and Kaunas Photography Gallery will start on September 12 and will last until the end of the Lithuanian season in seven Paris metro stations that will be decorated with large-format works by Lithuanian photographers.
In the run-up to the Season, between April and June, the Embassy of Lithuania in France is organising dozens of events under the name of the Prelude to the Season.
The Lithuanian Season in France is implemented by the Lithuanian Culture Institute and the French Institute in Paris.
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