Winter will conclude with Vilnius baroque frozen in ice

16.02.2009 06:07 | Lithuania

On February 21-28, the City Hall Square in Vilnius will feature Icy Baroque.

It is a glowing city of ice. It is four or five metre-high ice copies of the most spectacular baroque buildings of Vilnius. It is also magnificent visual projections and the whole bunch of the best of the Lithuanian club music, and at the same time it is a never ending chatter of children from all over Lithuania. Or maybe it is just another project of the Lithuanian architectural heritage and a part of the Living History programme of Vilnius – European Capital of Culture 2009.

“The idea of this project was born from the wish to animate the frozen wintry Vilnius the residents of which walk fast in their grey shoes in the greyest possible mud from home to work and from work to home wrapped up in their grey coats and still greyer scarves from October to April. Vilnius in winter is a planet of multicoloured cars, smelly buses and colourless people. The main reason of that lies in the fact that we do not live in public spaces. And this is surprising, as public spaces cover the major part of our city. Thanks to the New Year and the Shrove Tuesday celebrations as well as St. Casimir Fair for reminding us that life doesn’t end with TV, kitchen and your favourite bar. And this year (let’s hope) we will extend our thanks to Icy Baroque as well”, - Mykolas Vildžiūnas, a stage director and one of the authors of the project, sounds rather optimistic.

For the whole week the visitors will be able to admire the most significant baroque buildings of Vilnius concentrated in one place and interrelated historically and stylistically. At the same time it will be another stimulus to take another (or maybe the first) stroll along the streets of the capital searching for the authentic buildings in Vilnius depicted by ice sculptures.

“Even though the seven glowing ice sculptures are the pivot of the project, visitors will also be lured by equally attractive activities taking place in the project space during the project. There’s still time left until February 21, and the programme of the project is being daily supplemented with new events and the surnames of participants, shining as ice itself; however, let’s talk about the programme a little bit later. I have several key words for you (to keep you interested in following the project news): visual projections on ice, the legend of Vilnius in rap style, a live choir, an exhibition of children’s drawings, theatrical tours, etc.”, - Katerina Samoilovic, the coordinator of project Icy Baroque, is very secretive, yet enthusiastic about her plans.

Information (updated daily) about the project, sculptors and musicians involved in the project, and other important facts and impressions can be found in the Internet diary at www.ledinisbarokas.lt.

The project organiser VšĮ Kaukių akademija urges to mark the last week of February as Icy Baroque in your diary and to get ready for acquaintance with the old baroque of Vilnius on February 21-28.