WALLS TELL STORIES: THE STREET ART ROUTE

Ah, do you really believe
Oblivion has the final say in what is to be forgotten?
For it is often an image from the ashes rising
And stand in flesh, in full reality
Forever framed for every day to come.

Hirsh Osherovitch, 1968

–

The work of Tadas Vincaitis-Plūgas reminds the life of Kaunas Jews, which was once alive and now forgotten.

The street artwork is inspired by interwar photography, in which we see a girl – Rosian Bagriansky with her mother Gerta. Rosian was born in 1935. Her father, Paulius Bagriansky, was a thriving textile businessman, her mother a pianist who graduated in Paris, and, after the war, she was a concertmaster at the Musical Theater. The family survived the Holocaust.
More about Rosian’s story here.

The artwork is complemented by a poem by Hirsh Osherovitch (1908–1994), one of the most famous Lithuanian Jewish poets.

Hirsh Osherovitch was born in Panevėžys, studied law at Kaunas University, where he started his creative activities, also worked in Yiddish-language newspapers. He evacuated to the Soviet Union at the beginning of World War II. After the war, he settled in Vilnius and wrote for a Yiddish-language Moscow newspaper. 1949 poet was arrested for “anti-Soviet”, “nationalist-Zionist” activities and deported to Siberia. He returned in 1956 and continued his literary activities in Vilnius. The literary works of Hirsh Osherovitch were translated from Yiddish into Lithuanian by the most famous Lithuanian poets. 1971 he emigrated to Israel, where he continued his creative work, was awarded significant literary prizes.

Author: Tadas Vincaitis-Plūgas, 2020

A. Mickevičiaus str. 30, Kaunas

Perhaps only migrating birds know –
suspended between earth and sky –
the heartache of two homelands.

With you, I was transplanted twice,
with you, pine trees, I grew –
roots in two disparate landscapes.
Lea Goldberg, 1955

The poet Lea Goldberg (1911–1970) once lived in the house Kęstučio str. 18 (non-surviving) in Kaunas. Almost at the same place where street artwork by Linas Kaziulionis appeared in 2020. Lea Goldberg is one of the best-known Jewish writers in the world, unfortunately little known in her first homeland. Her poetry, written in Hebrew, has not been translated into Lithuanian, whereas Lithuania left a deep imprint on the poet’s life and work as well as her personality.

Lea Goldberg’s poetry is laden with carefully thought images of Lithuania, both straightforward and metaphorical. Almost all of her most famous poems, which have become popular songs in Israel, actually talk about the poet’s first homeland – Lithuania and Kaunas…

The artwork incorporates Lea Goldberg’s poem “Pine” in Lithuanian (translated by Lara Lempert) and Hebrew. Here the poet compares herself to a pine that has taken root in two homelands. She remembers the first of them and stresses that both Israel and Lithuania are equally important in her heart.
More about Lea Goldberg here.

Author: Linas Kaziulionis kart7, 2020

Kęstučio str. 16B, Kaunas

Kaunas Old Cemetery or the so-called Ramybės (Tranquility) park is a unique place in Kaunas. Four denominations coexisted in this small area until World War II: Evangelical Lutherans, Muslims, Orthodox, and Catholics. The most famous Kaunas residents were also buried here – the scientists, artists, writers, politicians, generals, and others.

During the Soviet era, the cemetery had become a place of silent resistance – during All Souls Day, the Kaunasians gathered here to honor the memory of their loved ones, and at the same time – to remember the freedom of Lithuania. Eventually, the Soviet authorities ordered to destroy the cemetery. Monuments were demolished, among them – the famous “For Those Who Died for the Homeland” (sculptor Juozas Zikaras, architect Vladimiras Dubeneckis). People had to move the remains of their loved ones to other cemeteries. However, the remains of many people of different nationalities and religions remained in a place that was ruthlessly redesigned and renamed Ramybės Park.

This street artwork by Tadas Šimkus is dedicated to the memory of the All Souls Day events in Kaunas in 1956.

On November 2, 1956, about 10 thousand people gathered in Kaunas Old Cemetery to sing patriotic songs and religious psalms. One could hear outcries “Freedom for Lithuania” and “Hands off Hungary” in the crowd. The events were inspired by the Hungarian Revolution.
People braid at least two Lithuanian flags from the scarves and shawls.

The artwork symbolizes the relentless resistance in us, reminds us of the events of the past and the struggle not only for oneself but also for common human values and freedoms.

More about events of All Souls Day here.

Author: Tadas Šimkus, 2019

Trakų str. 35, Kaunas

This artwork is intended to remind of this painful page in Kaunas history – the relocation of the cemetery, when city residents had to say goodbye to their dead relatives once again.

The artwork is inspired by a mystical story told by Vilija, who lives next to the cemetery: “One family here buried a girl who died very young. When the grave was excavated and they opened the coffin, the girl looked like sleeping. She was very, very beautiful. A lot of people were working here at the time and saw it, it was a big event. As soon as the mother touched that girl, her body turned to dust, and her long, beautiful hair remained loose lying in the coffin. Everyone saw how mother was brushing those hairs with a comb, and cried, and cried with every sweep … ”

The motifs of the woodcut of the Lithuanian artist Dalia Stalauskienė are invoked in the artwork.

Author: Tadas Šimkus, 2019

Vytauto str. 44, Kaunas

Spring in Kaunas
dirt
and puddles of sunshine
spilled on street corners.
       Henry Parland, 1932

The remains of one of the most famous Swedish-Finnish modernists, writer Henry Parland (1908–1930), who lived in Kaunas, still rest in the Kaunas Old Cemetery. Tadas Šimkus’ street artwork “Henry Parland” reminds this historical personality.

Henry Parland was born in Vyborg. His parents were worried about the young poet’s reputation – he quickly became famous in his homeland and immersed himself in bohemian life. Thus they sent Henry to live in Kaunas with his uncle, the philosopher, professor of Kaunas university Vasily Seseman.

As soon as he arrived in this city, Henry Parland wrote to his parents: “Kaunas is not a hole at all, as you thought, but a city with beautiful nature and endless space with electricity, buses, Jews and plenty of poor coffee.” The writer worked as a secretary in the Swedish consulate in Kaunas. Also, he started writing his first novel To Pieces but did not manage to finish it. He died of scarlet fever at the age of only 22.

More about Henry Parland here.

Author: Tadas Šimkus, 2019
Kaunas Old Cemetery (Ramybės park), Kaunas

This street artwork is inspired by authentic interwar photography taken in Kačerginė before World War II. It symbolizes the rich history of Kačerginė – a former resort, once such a vibrant life by the river.

In the photo, we see a group of friends: Yehuda Zupovitz, Hirsh Kadushin, Liola Bermann, an unknown person, and Jasha Langleben. Some of them were famous Kaunasians important to the history of the city.

Yehuda Zupovitz (1916–1944) was born in Jonava. He studied engineering in Kaunas. He joined one of the Zionist movements, where he met Hirsh Kadushin. After graduation, he worked as an engineer and was a reserve officer in the Lithuanian Armed Forces. In 1941 he married Dita Katz. The couple settled in the house where the Courtyard Gallery is located today (founder – artist Vytenis Jakas). During World War II, Yehuda Zupovitz together with his two brothers became policemen of the Kaunas ghetto and actively supported the underground ghetto resistance movement. He helped to hide the ghetto archive, as well as photographs by Hirsh Kadushin. In March 1944 he was arrested and killed in the IX Fort.

Hirsh Kadushin (George Kadish) (1910–1997) was born in Raseiniai. He was a teacher and self-taught inventor who taught at Kaunas Hebrew Gymnasium. When the Jews of Kaunas were forced to move into the ghetto in Vilijampolė in the summer of 1941, Hirsh Kadushin undertook an important mission – to record the crimes of the Nazis. With his self-made camera, he made more than 1,000 photographs that testify to the life of the Kaunas ghetto. Most of them were made through a hole in his coat. At the end of the war, when the Nazis began to look for a photographer, he hid his archives in the ghetto territory. Thanks to Hirsh Kadushin, today the history of the Kaunas ghetto is probably the most documented in Europe. After the war, Hirsh Kadushin changed his name to Kadish (Kadish is a prayer of the Jewish liturgy, one of its kinds is the Kadish of mourning). He moved to the West, at first lived in the Landsberg refugee camp in Germany, and photographed the life there. Later he went to the United States, where he lived until the end of his life.

Author: Vytenis Jakas, 2020

J. Janonio str. 2, Kačerginė