Exhibition of Polish photographer at Lithuanian Parliament to remind of Vilnius events of 1991

On January 10 at 9 AM the second building of the Parliament of Lithuania starts the opening of the exhibition “Lithuania, January 1991” of works by Polish photographer Mariusz Forecki (entrance from A. Goštauto street, next to the remains of the barricades). The exhibition will be presented by the Member of Lithuanian Parliament Rasa Juknevičienė, Kaunas Photo festival directoe Mindaugas Kavaliauskas in presence of the artist. Admission free, until January 22, 2014.

On the same day at 5 PM, Prospektas Gallery (Gedimino str. 43, Vilnius) will host a presentation of Mariusz Forecki’s work. The photographer will tell his life story illustrating it with pictures from the early days of the fall of the iron curtain until present. Free entrance. Duration of the event – one hour.

All pictures of the post © Mariusz Forecki.

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Mariusz Forecki ( b.1962) is a Polish photographer, living in Poznan. He is one of the rare European photographers, who followed the after-effects of the fall of the iron curtain consistently capturing the changes of life not only in his own country Poland, but in other countries of the Eastern block.

 

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Forecki started his career started as a photo reporter, traveling and closely watching the historic episodes of the collapse of Soviet Union – in Karabakh, Armenia, Lithuania and later in the first Chechen war.

The Soviet assault of Vilnius, capital of freshly re-established Lithuania, on January 13, 1991 (that claimed 13 human lives) was one of the unheard stories of the 20th century. In the global media it was overshadowed by the star of the Gulf war. During the events of 1991 January, a young Polish photographer Mariusz Forecki was in Vilnius. He was one of the very few photographers and perhaps the only foreign photographer, who was inside of the Parliament, during the Soviet assault on Vilnius.

Mariusz Forecki is known for his photo albums such as “I Love Poland“, „W Pracy“ (at work) and also by his creation method, which he calls “out off topic”, which consists of establishing personal and sincere connection with people and translating the human experience of the “main topic” and respect. On the other hand, Forecki creates images of the themes, while not only being in the epicenter of events, but also near the thematic lines, roles are played by the ordinary people. The moods and acts of the ordinary people from the crowd who made a living circle around the parliament suggested decisive moments for Mariusz Forecki’s photography and became precious moments of the history of the newly re-born independent country of Lithuania.

In fact, this is why in this photographic stories from January of 1991, one can spot not only “central personalities” such as politicians, but people also the powerful crowd, the real defenders of the newly re-established Lithuanian state. Their moods and actions became decisive moments in images of Mariusz Forecki, and significant records of the modern history of Lithuania.

The exhibition of Forecki’s works in the Seimas (Parliament of the Republic of Lithuania) is the premiere exhibition of material, that was resting in the archives of the photographer, while a part of negatives were lost with newspaper, which does not exist anymore.

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The images that survived were freshly scanned and will be shown for the first time in the place of their creation 23 years before.
An interesting detail – Mariusz Forecki is Poland citizen, but his mother was from Kybartai, Lithuania. In 1944, along with tens of thousands of Lithuanians,the family was fearing Soviet repressions, and followed the moving front West-wards. Most reached Germany from where, after the end of the WWII they reached USA, Canada of Australia, but the family of M.Forecki’s mother settled in Poznan, Poland.

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In spring KAUNAS PHOTO 2014 will invite M. Forecki to create a series of work of his mother’s home city Kybartai, and Lithuanian – Russian border. The photography exhibitions will be arranged in autumn in Kaunas and Kybartai.

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Organizers of Mariusz Forecki exhibition “Lithuania. January 1991”:
11th KAUNAS PHOTO festival
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Rasa Juknevičienė, member of Seimas of  the Republic of Lithuania.

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Curator of the Exhibition –
Mindaugas Kavaliauskas,
Director of KAUNAS PHOTO festival

Organisers of KAUNAS PHOTO festival:
VšĮ Šviesos raštas
Lithuanian Photographers Association: Kaunas department

The main sponsors of KAUNAS PHOTO:
The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania
Kaunas city municipality

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