The exhibition of the Lithuanian National Museum opened in France: bedspreads, sounds of weaving and Kazys Varnelis | Culture

This exhibition (curated by Indrė Urbelytė) is part of the “Chroniques” biennial. It offers viewers a unique experience where ethnographic examples of Lithuanian folk art interact with modern optical compositions and the sounds of contemporary music. In this way, it is desired to combine modern, folk and contemporary art into a whole.

Traditional Lithuanian bedspreads, a work of optical art by Kazios Varnelis are exhibited in Provence, and the exhibition is complemented by a sound installation by the composer M.Samulionis, created based on the sounds of weaving looms. By simultaneously exhibiting the works of contemporary artists and folk art creators, the aim is to reveal the deep connection between tradition and modernism and to emphasize the changes in the place of textiles in the contemporary art world.

Photo of the organizers/”Ethnographic Opart” exhibition at the Vazareli Foundation

The founder of the Vasarely Foundation (Victor Vasarely, 1908-1997) is a world-renowned opart creator. The exhibition at the Vazarelis Foundation is part of the Lithuanian National Museum’s season in France, continuing the French acquaintance with the Lithuanian master of opart K. Varnelius. At the beginning of September, an exhibition dedicated to the work of K. Varnelis was opened at the Pompidou Center in Paris.

This ongoing project is an expression of cooperation between Pompidou, the Lithuanian National Museum and the Vasarelis Foundation.

Kazys Varnelis: optical art and heritage of Lithuanian tradition

According to the head of the Lithuanian National Museum, Rūta Kačkutas, exhibiting the “Ethnographic Opart” exhibition at the Vazarelis Foundation is important not only because it presents the rich and at the same time delicate tradition of Lithuanian textiles to the world, but also because it forges ties with institutions that nurture Opart, such as the Vazarelis Foundation.

“It is important to note that this exhibition – like the recent exhibition at the Pompidou Center in Paris – is accompanied by a catalog in French and English. It presents the works of K. Varnelis in the context of the works of other famous creators of optical and minimalist art – Victor Vasarely, Frank Stella, Stefan Gierowski”, says the general director of the museum.

Kazys Varnelis (1917–2010), one of the most famous creators of optical art in Lithuania, often said that he was greatly influenced by his native environment and the creativity of his parents. His mother, Teofilė Domarkaitė-Varnelienė, was a well-known weaver whose work gave Varnelis an early understanding of color contrast, geometry and structure; his father, Kazys Varnelis the elder, was a folk artist, a diviner and a self-taught painter, from whom his son inherited his creative drive and visual language.

“Varnel himself always emphasized that he was greatly influenced by his hometown. He rarely revealed what was hidden in his compositions, but he once admitted that the paintings repeated the architectural elements of his parents’ house – roofs, lintels, intersecting logs. So juxtaposing opera and folk art was a very natural step for us. It is interesting that the “Ethnographic Opartas”, already exhibited in the house-museum of Kazios Varnelis, arrived at the Vazarelis Foundation in a changed state – the musical track of M.Samulionis’s exhibition has been developed into an independent sound installation, and Kazios Varnelis’ 1970s works complement the exhibition. painting”, the curator of the exhibition I.Urbelytė points out.

According to R. Kačkutė, it is important to note that the museum performs an important mission in the context of the exhibition at the Vazarelis Foundation – it preserves, restores and copies the textile works of Lithuanian weavers.

Photo of the Lithuanian National Museum/”Ethnographic Opart” exhibition at the Vazarelis Foundation

“The works of ancient Lithuanian weavers are not as long-lasting as, say, paintings or woodwork. They decay faster, so they need careful care, conscious craftsmanship, in order to preserve these works for future generations. Bedspreads, or divons as they are beautifully called, require the involvement of museum workers, which is why this exhibition could not take place without the employees of the Textile Restoration Department of the Lithuanian National Museum,” says the general director of the museum.

The place of textiles in the context of contemporary art: revival and new interpretations

Textiles, long considered a “feminine” or “secondary” art, have been experiencing something of a renaissance in recent years.

“We often see textiles as a domestic or less valuable form of art, but in exhibitions like this one we try to show that there is a dialogue between folk and professional art, and textile patterns and rhythms can be equivalent to other types of art,” says I.Urbelytė. According to her, “Ethnografinis opartas” experiments with the place of textiles in the hierarchy of art; by juxtaposing the weavers’ works with the creative principles of optical art, the aim is to broaden the understanding of how elements of folk art can become part of the contemporary art field.

Textiles in contemporary art are also becoming an example of sustainability. “We can learn from folk art how to make long-lasting, high-quality objects that last for decades. They are not an object of short-term consumption. The use of textiles can help to understand how crafts can be applied in solving modern environmental problems”, says I.Urbelytė.

A musical dialogue between textiles and optical art

The sound installation in the exhibition is another way to recreate the atmosphere of the old weaving traditions. “Composer Matas Samulionis created a sound composition based on the sounds of weaving, which he recorded in the textile workshop of the Lithuanian National Museum. These sounds, linked both to Varnelis’s work and to the rhythmicity of textile patterns, allow visitors to experience the connection between textiles and optical art with all their senses,” says the curator of the exhibition.

The “Ethnographic Opart” exhibition was opened at the Lithuanian National Museum Photo/Vazarelis Foundation

M.Samulionis’ work “Shwytintys kvadratai” was created for the exhibition “Ethnographic Opartas”, held in 2022. In the house-museum of Kazios Varnelis.

“The original audio material was the recordings of authentic Lithuanian weaving machines, which were processed in such a way that the human ear would not perceive them as everyday working sounds, but as living rhythmic figures, thus responding to the “rhythmicity” of K. Varnelis’ works. These records of weaving looms and the works of K. Varnelis became a certain artistic basis, which the whole work was composed by imitating or contradicting it. The entire soundtrack is a 4-part audio journey that reveals a contemporary sound artist’s approach to the nuances of optical art, while not neglecting the traditions of Lithuanian sound. In a certain sense, this piece is one of the experiments in the modernization of Lithuanian folklore,” says composer M. Samulionis.

The exceptional architecture of the spaces of the Vasarelis Foundation gave the composer a unique opportunity to look at his work in a new way.

Based on the architecture of the foundation, “Shwytintys kvadratai” takes on a new sound form – ambisonics. This is a spherical surround sound format. It includes not only the horizontal plane, but also the sound sources located above the listeners. Unlike some other surround sound formats, in the context of ambisonic sound, sound sources are not played directly through specific speakers. In this case, a system of 16 identical speakers creates a sound field, so each speaker is not only a sound-reproducing object, but also a part of the overall system. The ambisonic system creates a unique experience where the listener can physically follow the sound sources, change their physical position in space or simply stand still as the surrounding speaker is constantly changing – and thus experience the piece a little differently every time. This is how the nuances of optical art are also answered, when the work of art itself changes according to the physical position of the viewer,” explains the composer.

The exhibition “Ethnographic Opartas” at the Vasarely Foundation (Fondation Vasarely) in Aix-en-Provence in France will be open until January 19, 2025.