Kaunas as European Capital of Culture 2022: A City Reborn Through Myth and Memory

Kaunas, Lithuania, is the European Capital of Culture for 2022, sharing the title with Esch-sur-Alzette (Luxembourg) and Novi Sad (Serbia). The city has created a new mythology around the 'Beast of Kaunas,' revealed to be the city itself, as a way to confront its traumatic 20th-century history under Nazi and Soviet occupations. The year-long program is structured in three acts: The Confusion (January), The Confluence (May), and The Contract (November), directed by British curator Chris Baldwin. The opening event featured a 34-minute musical composition by Antanas Jasenka with choir, slam poetry, and contemporary dance, performed outdoors in freezing temperatures before 40,000 attendees. Over 1,000 volunteers participated. Key exhibitions include a William Kentridge retrospective at the Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis National Museum of Art, featuring a site-specific work 'Those who never arrived' that merges a South African landscape with a Jewish cemetery. Yoko Ono's installation 'EX IT' occupies the National Bank with wooden coffins sprouting pine and birch trees. The 13th Kaunas Biennial, titled 'Once upon another time… They lived differently,' is held in a basketball sports hall. The city is also seeking UNESCO recognition for its modernist architecture, with 44 buildings designated as European cultural heritage sites. Kaunas faces geopolitical challenges, sharing borders with Russia's Kaliningrad Oblast and Belarus.