Villa Lituania: Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas' Pigeon Diplomacy at Museo delle Civiltà

The Lithuanian artist duo Nomeda & Gediminas Urbonas present 'Villa Lituania' at the Museo delle Civiltà in Rome, curated by Matteo Lucchetti. The project revisits the contested history of Villa Lituania, a building constructed in 1912 by architects Pio and Marcello Piacentini in Rome's Nomentano district. It housed the Lithuanian Embassy from 1937 to 1940, when it was confiscated by the Soviet Union, later becoming the Russian Consulate. The artists use archival footage and interviews to explore diplomatic tensions, centering on the tradition of carrier pigeons used since ancient Egypt and Persia. In 2007, for the 52nd Venice Biennale, they proposed a dovecote in the Russian Consulate's garden to receive peace-bearing pigeons from the Lithuanian Pavilion. After Russian authorities refused, architect Massimiliano Fuksas offered space at his Nuvola congress center in EUR, but the plan failed. The pigeons were released to return home. The exhibition features a dovecote resembling Villa Lituania with video projections tracing the project's evolution. The show coincides with the 40th anniversary of the death of Stasys Lozoraitis Sr., Lithuanian Foreign Minister who lived at the villa from 1939 to 1940. Lucchetti frames the work as cultural reparation through animal perspective, emphasizing the pigeon's instinct to return home, symbolizing alternative paths to healing a painful history.