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Vitrum Balticum 2017. Trap!

Memory. Processes. New stories

This year, Vitrum Balticum 2017. Trap! – divided into three thematic sections: memory, processes and new stories. Separate parts of the program will be presented in the art galleries of Kaunas city, at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, Kaunas Faculty glass studio and at the former glass factory in Aleksotas.

This year's festival conceptually reflects on the subject of memory, past and history. Its common topic and unifying axis is the concept of time. The participating artists operate in aspects of continuity and particular transformation of time and space; they interpret the past and question the influence of memory culture on artistic narratives created today. The choice of this year's festival's motto - Trap - is intentional. At first it may sound playful, but in fact it appeals to complex and intricate jumps between the past, present and future.

In contemporary culture, past becomes one of the main elements of identity production and recognition. However, such concepts as memory, truth, reality are relative and perceived subjectively.

In the current expansive era of multi-realities and virtuality, we are constantly faced with the problem of sensing and identifying what's real. Unable to find objective ways to define truth, reality and realness, alternatively, we rely on our empirical experience. In the production of collective history, each person acts by presenting individual stories that form and reflect a fragmented, divided reality. This existence is best illustrated by the metaphor of a broken mirror; the contemporary world could be defined as a kingdom of crooked mirrors. These metaphors will be explored at length in the events of the triennial.

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