After Socialist Modernism. A collaborative project on architecture by the National Art Museum of Ukraine
Lithuanian National Museum of Art is proud to be involved as partner in a project titled After Socialist Modernism, which was initiated by Oleksandr Anisimov and launched in autumn 2021 by the National Art Museum of Ukraine. This project recognises the lack of representation of the tremendously influential, cultural and social shifts of the last decade of the Soviet Union and the Eastern Bloc. Postmodern, regionalized national tendencies across the arts in Socialist bloc gained much impulse, no less did architecture, producing a variety of drafts and built projects. Absence of knowledge about the value of the architecture from this period poses a great risk to the built heritage, as it is often neglected and subsequently demolished, rebuilt or left to decay. Its significance and urban qualities are vague and still associated with the totalitarian regime rather than the origins of a new social order and contemporary culture.
To find the answers to the problem described, the organisers of the project are implementing a joint program of scientific and educational events, including public lectures, publication, online-excursions and a website. Joint efforts aim to bring the conversation about modernism and postmodernism in Ukraine and Lithuania into a broader (European) context and to make our heritage and its reassessment more visible to the world.
The already implemented highlight of the project was a conference joined with a public research project After Socialist Modernism. Design, Architecture and Urban planning of the 1980-s of the National Art Museum of Ukraine. The organisers of the conference expected to combine both the renewed discourses on postcolonial research in postmodern architecture and original archival inquiries in order to produce a more coherent understanding of the period. Lithuanian case studies were presented by researchers prof. dr. Marija Drėmaitė and dr. Martynas Mankus, curator of the National Gallery of Art Eglė Juocevičiūtė presented Gallery’s experience in showcasing the research into the Lithuanian postmodernism.
Before introducing you to any further activities taking place in 2022, we want to extend an invitation to explore the subjects of interest that were covered during the conference as well as to follow the news about the upcoming events in Kyiv and Vilnius. The programme will include interviews, publication, and discussions, most of which will be available online.
This project is created as a collaboration between the National Art Museum of Ukraine, Lithuanian National Museum of Art, Zabolotny State Scientific library of Architecture and Construction, journal MICS: city, history, culture and society, NGO „Understanding Soviet Podil“, Center for Urban Studies.
After Socialist Modernism is supported by the European Union under the House of Europe programme.
