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Algimantas Kunčius - Vilnius Rhymes - National Assembly for Wales Cardiff, 19-23 September 2007 Curators: Agnė Narušytė, Indrė Daunytė Exhibition Vilnius Rhymes presents the capital of Lithuania through the eyes of an exquisite photographer Algimantas Kunčius (b. 1939) who has a profound understanding of the photographic medium and is renowned for his subtle ‘silvery’ printing technique. Photographs taken during the period from 1963 to 2006 reveal not only the changing city, but also its evanescent moods. The audience is invited to walk the streets of the old town in the 1960s and early 70s with the photographer who tried to capture the workings of history, movements of light and almost imperceptible events into his ‘piggybank’: from the broken rhythm of fences in the foreground to the nostalgic swing of baroque towers in the distance. Together with a little boy peering through the sweet factory window, we experience the sounds and odours of memory.

Then, in late 1970s and 1980s, the photographer allows us a glimpse of private spaces and looks close-up at strange invasions of nature into the ‘cultured’ body of the city. From 1991, when Lithuania became an independent state again, Kunčius set out to record the fast transformation of Vilnius: changing its old stony ‘garments’ into glassy surfaces reflecting the clouds. The exhibition presents an ongoing process in an eternal city. Vilnius is always recognisably the same, but always different: some of its shapes and views recorded by Kunčius have already vanished, and can be experienced only through photographs.

Kunčius’ photographs evoke the echo of the unique Vilnius spirit that now exists only in the works of art.

For more info, please contact Indrė Daunytė indre@lithuanianembassy.co.uk