Five photo exhibitions were opened in Dubingai, telling the history of the town Culture

The gallery consists of five photo exhibitions, displayed on the facades of the once active, now abandoned buildings of the town: the old Dubingiai church, a former school, a Border Police post that operated between the wars, a food and household goods store built in the Soviet era, and a former milk buying point.

According to the designer and curator of the exhibitions, A.Rusteikienė: “The aim of the exhibitions is to revive historical memory. These photo galleries are like a memory museum of Dubingii, a cultural-historical map that invites you to get to know Dubingii.” The exhibitions will be open until the end of the year. The gallery exhibits the works of famous photographers and historical photographs from state and private archives.

“Focus of education and culture in Dubingiai: the history of the school is not forgotten”

It is a retrospective visual and verbal narrative surrounding the building of the old Dubingiai school – the focus of education, culture and civic education at that time. The exhibition introduces the audience to the active life that once took place at the school, the local history museum established by the history teacher Liongina Giedrytė, the students’ activities, holidays, the pedagogues who worked there, and their contribution to the development of self-awareness, patriotism and nationalism of the people of this region.

The 22 stands present not only the history of the school, the local history museum, but also fragments of local folklore, a gallery of portraits of pioneers, students who graduated from high schools, teachers, some important moments for the town: painful post-war events, 1938. the fate of the summer house built on the mound according to the project of engineer Povilas Jurėnas.

The school has been operating in this building since 1860. until 1966, it currently belongs to Vilnius University and is completely disappearing. This exhibition hopes to draw the attention of the public and decision-makers to the cultural heritage object in critical condition, hoping for real steps to help bring the building to a new life. The sponsor of this exhibition is Molėtai district municipality.

“Chronicle of the Dubingia region: Dubingians”. Photographer – Jonas Giedrys

The place of the exhibition reminds us that near Dubingiai in 1918-1938 there was a demarcation line, as it is displayed on a shed where the Border Police post and library were located in the interwar period. The exhibition includes photos of local photographer Jonas Giedris, taken since 1957. A. Rusteikienei, the patroness of the Dubingiai church, managed to save them from the oblivion of time. During the construction of the new church in Dubingiai, Aurelija was looking for photos of the old, burnt church and thus met the only local amateur photographer Jonas Giedrius.

J. Giedrys recorded the everyday life and holidays, work and rest, community and family life of Dubingiai and Dubingians for many years. A.Rusteikienė digitized nearly 600 photos from the photographer’s archive and in 2017 organized an exhibition of the same name in the visitor center of Asveja Regional Park.

As A.Rusteikienė says: “The townspeople do not calmly pass this exhibition – they gather, look for familiar faces, remember those who left Anapilin or left to seek happiness in foreign countries. However, this exposition is no less interesting and valuable for the guests of Dubingi. This is a unique live video story about the peculiarities of Soviet-era life, household, work, entertainment and holidays.”

“Time has spoken.” Photographer – Edis Jurčys (USA-Lithuania).

Those passing by the food and household goods store built during the Soviet era, which only recently ceased to operate, will surely be stopped by the attentive eyes of Dubingiai elders. These are the works of the well-known photo artist Edjis Jurtis, who lives and works in America. in 2021 the photographer was visiting Dubingiai, the old residents of the town kindly opened the door of their house to him, thus a small but eloquent portrait gallery was born.

The writer Elvyra Kučinskaitei came up with the idea of ​​hurrying to capture not only the images of the old people, but also the household, life stories, and memories of the events that took place in the town – she listened to the old stories of Dubingiški for several years and recorded them.

“This is how cheeses are born.” The photographer is Asta Sabonytė

This exhibition is about the traditions of dairy farming that have been continued in Dubingiai until now. Because the town is home to cheese maker Elena Petrauskienė and her daughter Renata Sakovskaja, who are still cultivating this difficult skill. And her moments were captured in her work by photographer Asta Sabonytė. And, of course, it is not by chance that the exhibition is displayed on the building where the Milk Purchase Point was established after the restoration of Independence.

A. Rusteikienė tells about this idea: “In 2015 I organized an artist plein air in Dubingai. One of its components was a photo plein air organized by the famous photographer Vidmantas Balkūnas. He invited a group of young photographers, including Asta Sabonytė. In the same year, the cycle created by her about Dubingiai sūrininki “Kaip gimsta sūraii” was published in the media. These photos, both then and now, having stood the test of time, I found them very authentic, lively, very suitable for the “Open Air Gallery”. A. Sabonytė gladly agreed to exhibit this cycle free of charge.”

“Views of the Old Dubingai Church”

The walls of the old Dubingiai church are decorated by the art researcher, dr. Skirmantė Smilingytė-Žeimienė exhibition of collected historical photographs and dr. Information stands prepared by A.Rusteikienė. Both art historians have thoroughly researched the history of Dubingiai church.

Still in 2018 S.Smilingytė-Žeimienė organized the exhibition “Dubingiai town and church” in the tavern of Dubingiai. Images from the past”. Some of the photographs come to life again in this exhibition, and the authentic space of the old church gives them great evocativeness.

“Iconographic material about this area and its church is not plentiful, I looked for it in the national Lithuanian museums and archives, library manuscripts,” said S. Smilingytė-Žeimienė. The scientist managed to collect the most images from the 20th century. 3-7 decades. Some of them in 1950 it was captured by the architect Antanas Rupeikas, the author of several photographs from the 1970s – the aforementioned Jonas Giedrys from Dubinga, the authorship of some of the photographs could not be ascertained.

Next to this exhibition, the information stands prepared by A.Rusteikienė are displayed – an aesthetic visual and verbal story about the development of Dubingiai Church up to the present day.