Land and Environmental Art Exhibition Initium Vilnensis

Vilnius College of Technologies and Design collaborating with Vilnius Castles State Cultural Reserve and organising Land and Environmental Art Exhibition INITIUM VILNENSIS.

"Initium Vilnensis" means the beginning of Vilnius in Old Latin. A symposium on land and environmental art under the same name is being organised on 24/27 April 2023 to celebrate the 700th anniversary of Vilnius. It invites to recall the glorious history of our city, and to convey it through the prism of creativity in the heart of Vilnius – the Vilnius Castles State Cultural Reserve. It was on these hills that the city was born and developed, the first fortresses grew and our rulers reigned. The geology, archaeology and historical themes of the birth of Vilnius have inspired artists from different fields to collaborate on this creative project.

During the symposium, representatives of artistic academic communities from three countries (Lithuania, Poland and Latvia) will explore the territory of the castles and a retrospective of Vilnius' 700 years of existence. In the land art exhibition, the artists will reveal their artistic approach to the origins of the city's formation, the beginnings of our capital city, the greatness of the rulers... As the Vilnius Castle Cultural Reserve is a very important and sensitive historical site, where not only the archaeological, cultural, but also natural heritage is cherished, it is precisely this branch of conceptual, interdisciplinary art that is used for implementing the artistic ideas. The authors choose to interact sustainably and consciously with the environment and its natural resources, thus creating a kind of reflection of the heritage of the local memory.