Monika Gimbutaitė. Welcome to Fall Madness | Culture

After the summer lull, everyone starts to remind themselves of themselves. Invitations, Facebook events and press releases are on the attack. There are so many of the latter that media channels in this period more often start to resemble bulletin boards for premieres, exhibition openings, festival programs, book presentations, discussions and lecture series. This year, even a double dose awaits us: the trailers of the Lithuanian season in France will also contribute.

At first, the beginning of the cultural autumn is enthusiastic, even full of a kind of excitement. It’s nice to replace summer idleness with a cultural marathon. Although it often becomes difficult already in September to catch up everywhere you want, there is still the excitement of running from event to event and joking with the acquaintances you meet, how trying to experience the beginning of the cultural season in Vilnius is a full-time job.

And then you can’t really guess anything anymore. Energy and patience are running out until one day another “must see” recommendation causes more irritation than interest. In November, you realize that you would rather spend the evening on the sofa watching a casual detective or reality show. Stand up with your culture!

Why is it that there is so much of everything at once that it almost inevitably leads to oversaturation? Performing arts institutions have a historically formed tradition of seasons. And what is the excuse of the rest?

There are even several reasons. And all of them are prosaic.

I have already mentioned one, conditioned by the country’s cultural policy and funding calendar. The non-governmental cultural sector is dependent on project funding, which in Lithuania is tied to the budget year. This means that it is necessary to pay for the received funds (and implement the projects) by the end of the year. In the absence of opportunities to obtain phased funding, broken down over several years (the Lithuanian Culture Council, which offered such an option for a while, basically refused it), there are practically no other ways – only to postpone our activities in the fall. Because the projects you get at the beginning of the year take time to implement.

Different sectors also have their own factors. For example, the location of film festivals in Lithuania is determined not only by the usual seasonality (in summer, of course, few people are attracted to dark cinema halls) or international dynamics (when are the big festivals presenting the most important premieres of the year), but also by the local market. In the country, the most important festival player, which receives the most attention from the audience, is Kino pavasaris. No one wants to be right in front of it or right after it, because that way they risk being overshadowed by competitors’ communications or losing the interest of a cinema-weary audience.

So it’s autumn again – there is so much cinema in Vilnius at this time that from the end of summer, if you go to a non-commercial cinema, you can almost be sure that some kind of festival is taking place.

It is true that choosing riskier time or geographical decisions can be a draw. This is evidenced by the BLON animation and computer games festival celebrating its anniversary this year, which is not held in the capital, like the vast majority of film festivals in the country, but in Klaipėda. Or the Vilnius Short Film Festival, which dared to move from the meat grinder of autumn events to a much less stressful beginning of the year.

However, individual cases do not change the general trend yet. Autumn continues to be – and probably will be – a busy period culturally.

While considering how to make it as easy as possible for everyone, I remembered that when I was still working in the editorial office, I sometimes received calls from a representative of a cultural institution. He used to ask if, on the day when he was planning a press conference or some other event not yet tied to a specific date, his colleagues were not organizing something important – not only from the represented field, but also from other fields of culture.

I still think how good this move is, serving both colleagues and the organization itself. And at the same time testifying to the understanding, which sometimes one would like more in the field of culture. The understanding that today you are forced to compete not only in your garden, but with all areas of culture – your audience is mostly the same Vilnius bubble with limited time and financial resources.

Therefore, it is possible to try, as far as possible, to take each other into account more often, to harmonize, not to duplicate. It is possible to dare to break some constants of cultural life, such as the still common belief that the best day for an event is Thursday (maybe for the best if 10 other colleagues of yours don’t think the same). New geographies and audiences, not yet saturated with cultural abundance, can be sought.

And for consumers of culture, who are preparing for personal cultural marathons, it is also good to remember that moderation is important, and that culture that is forcibly stuffed has never benefited anyone. Sometimes, instead of trying to compete with the number of performances visited, films watched or books read, it makes much more sense to really delve into one work. Or even make a pause, after which everything will light up again.

So welcome to fall madness. Don’t forget that you can get out of it.