4 August 2022

Architecture of Lust

Architecture of Lust

 

“Architecture of Lust” is the concluding exhibition of a five-year research project that probes into the murky underbelly of architecture. The research moves from the imaginary of the urban, to the symbolic of the spatial, and eventually to the impeccable real of the material. Using archival documents, urban tales, photo documentation, theories, gossip and artistic interpretations, the project aims to reveal lust as an omnipresent force permeating architecture. Kaunas and its celebrated modernist architecture became a playground for such exploration. 

 

In many ways, the city is considered to be a success story of embodied modernity. However, as the research moved through thoughtfully planned streets, eye-catching villas and enticing wooden houses, the tissue of the city fissured, revealing territories of the numinous and otherworldly. Sites of disenchanted modernity became muddled and slowly re-enchanted. From gates of hell opening in passageways of the new town to the esoteric rituals of local bohème—the urban fabric proved to be ripe with uncharted lust.  

 

Within the scenography of an old wooden house’s attic, “Architecture of Lust” confesses the secrets of a lustful city. It whispers stories of seduction, transgression and the surreptitious past. At the same time, the exhibition cherishes the living and heterogenous city; a city fervidly resisting the rationale of the present. 

Architecture of Lust | Photo: Lukas Mykolaitis
Architecture of Lust | Photo: Lukas Mykolaitis
Architecture of Lust | Photo: Lukas Mykolaitis
Architecture of Lust | Photo: Lukas Mykolaitis
Architecture of Lust | Photo: Lukas Mykolaitis
Architecture of Lust | Photo: Lukas Mykolaitis
Architecture of Lust | Photo: Lukas Mykolaitis
Architecture of Lust | Photo: Lukas Mykolaitis
Architecture of Lust | Photo: Lukas Mykolaitis
Architecture of Lust | Photo: Lukas Mykolaitis

 

Team:

Exhibition architect: Artūras Čertovas 

Coordination: Margarita Žigutytė

Design: 0ffsh0.re  

Translations: Austėja Banytė

Editing: Dovydas Laurinaitis, Goda Aksamitauskaitė

 

Organisers: Architects Association of Lithuania Kaunas Chapter; Modernism for the Future

Partners: K.I.N.A.S. “Panemune”; Kaunas Artist House; M.K.Čiurlionis museum of Art; L.Truikys ir M.Rakauskaitė House-Museum; Rupert; Architextūra 

Special thanks to Aistė Liuka Jonaitytė and volunteers Domas Ramažauskas, Gustė Januškauskaitė

 

Project presented by Kaunas European Capital of Culture 2022 

Partly funded: Lithuanian Council for Culture 

Imprint

ArtistAistė Ambrazevičiūtė, Inside Job (Ula Lucińska & Michał Knychaus), Lukas Mykolaitis, Julie Favreau, Liudas Truikys
ExhibitionArchitecture of Lust
Place / venue K.I.N.A.S “Panemune”, Kaunas, Lithuania
Dates13.05-12.06.2022
Curated byTautvydas Urbelis
PhotosLukas Mykolaitis
Index

See also