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On the 25th of January, Karolina Jakaitė will be presenting her research on Lithuanians at Earls Court London’68 at "The Night of Ideas", organised by the French Institute.

In the presentation, Karolina Jakaitė will talk about the 1968 exhibition, Lithuanian pavilion and the Soviet tank invasion in Prague that happened at the time of the exhibition. Even though Lithuania was presented as one of the republics of the Soviet Union in London exhibition, there were some noticeable signs and symbols of nationalism in the works of the artists. A young architect Tomas Baginskas created a modern concept of the pavilion and Algimantas Stoškus presented an extraordinary creation called ‘Vilnius, capital of Lithuania’, which was later reviewed in an article in The Times called ‘Lithuanian in Earls Court’.

2018, the 50th anniversary of the Paris protests of May 1968, is the occasion to compare the history of those revolutionary moments that appear essential to collective understandings in Europe and beyond. How do we come to create our specific myths of revolution – what is the work being done by these myths in our collective memory – and what uses do we make today of the idea of revolution? For Lithuanian artists, the 1968 exhibition became a very memorable event not only because of the opportunity to experience the colourful and vibrant London life, but also because of the unexpected end of the exhibition. The exhibition was meant to happen until the 24th of August, but on the night of the 20th of August Soviet tanks entered Czechoslovakia. When the Prague events started, the left-wing London newspapers kept inviting people to see the famous Soviet exhibits, however in the meantime, there were already some protests in central London that wanted the exhibition to be ended completely.

Join us for a discussion about the importance of the 1968 exhibition.

Time: 19:00 – 20:45.

Address: Institut français du Royaume-Uni, 17 Queensberry Place, London, SW72DT