A CONVERSATION WITH RIMANTAS VIEDRYNAITIS, VMU LECTURER OF PHILOSOPHY
How long / since when have you been living in Kaunas? Which of its places are the most special for you?
I was born in the Jewish hospital in front of the Priest Seminary and Kaunas Castle. It is sad, but it does not look so great right now. That building has a very interesting history: it was a Jewish hospital, and it was a brothel during the war and later a maternity ward, where women would tease the priests with naked breasts. I don't know, I feel some emotional connection with that place. The first months of my life were also spent in Kaunas as my parents rented rooms behind the "Inkaras" [factory]. Later I moved to other places more beautiful than the outskirts of Inkaras. That would include Veliuona, Seredžius, where I spent my early childhood. Actually, I took a lot of things from those places. I don't know how, but the first impressions somewhat "decide" what will happen to you in life and shape the way you look at things.
In my childhood, my favourite pastime was to sit on a high hill and adore the faraway landscapes. I don't know whether it means to feel like the master of the world, but it certainly affects the way you look at life. It is hard to imagine such occupation in a city, even though Kaunas is geographically suitable for that. My favourite places in Kaunas are open spaces rather than the closed ones. E.g.: The mound in the oakwood of Aukštieji Šančiai. Now this place is maintained, with a view to Nemunas. Also, Aleksotas, Žaliakalnis and Milikonys hills, from which you can see the city underneath your feet.
Maybe you became closer to Kaunas when you started attending school?
I started attending kindergarten and school in Babtai, a town in Kaunas District. There is a large Nevėžis River valley close to it. I usually spent my summers in Seredžius. Kaunas was the closest town, where I started walking around on my own rather early. I explored Kaunas alone rather well. When you travel alone, the joy is greater. In childhood, I liked travelling very much. Of course, my parents were concerned, because they did not find me often. And if they did, usually it was very far. I used to drive several kilometres with my tricycle and people used to bring me back. The joy of travelling was associated not with running away from home but with driving and not knowing what awaits behind the corner. Look for undiscovered streets: that was my game. I do the same in the city. I go and look for unseen, undiscovered streets like a player in some labyrinth.
What places of Kaunas would you call exceptional and what memories are related to them?
The centre of Kaunas is catacomb-like, because you can enter all of its yards and see interesting things. In V. Putvinskio Street, when you enter a yard next to Pompėja [Restaurant] (a house No. 38 next to the stairs), you see something you would not have expected from its façade. When you see these places for the first time, you experience the real joy of discovery. And when you pass them a lot of times, this joy is no longer here. Thinking is a very similar activity. You walk the streets of your thoughts and if you manage to find some streets that you have not seen before, it is the greatest joy and advantage of thinking. Parks of Kaunas are also impressive, be it the Oakwood park or Šančiai. The old cemetery and Ramybės Park are too artificial. But there are places on the slopes, where you can walk in summer and winter with certain risk to tumble down, which are very pleasant. I used to like walking at night looking for adventures. Of course, this did not always end happily. The saddest experiences are from Žaliakalnis, where I was taught some lessons by the locals.
There is a direct connection with this place (we are talking in the currently renovated garden of Kaunas Museum of War). In K. Donelaičio Street 77, apartment No. 7, I spent the first two years of my studies straight in front of the bell. It was a part of my life. For me, Kaunas is Žaliakalnis, Šančiai, the Centre and maybe the Old Town. Neither Vilijampolė nor other new districts that I have lived in are Kaunas for me, they are something additional. The heart of the city is the New Town and the Old Town, places that have a perceptible emotional charge.
Which city events have remained in your memory as the most memorable ones?
I don't know, because events taking place in the city are similar to the needs of the folks for "bread and circuses". Maybe some events are invisible in the city. For example, those related to Zigmantas Kiaupa and his environment: to people who investigate the history of Kaunas. (Note: Z. Kiaupa is a professor at VMU, from 1996, the chairman of the editorial board of Kauno istorijos metraštis (Kaunas History Annals) in 2010, he published a book Kauno istorija: nuo seniausių laikų iki 1655 metų (The History of Kaunas: from the ancient times to 1655); in 2014, he was announced as the Honorary Citizen of Kaunas). Tradition was born that turned into a series of Kaunas History Annals, that was an event. The Interwar Lithuania did no create such an event. Only it does not become better visible or understood, because its form is scientific. Scientific discourse belongs for a narrow circle of people. The same texts, of course, after changing their form, were published in a wider context. They really increased the consciousness of Kaunas.
Another great thing was the re-establishment of Vytautas Magnus University. These two things are related, because I cannot imagine Kaunas History Annals without VMU. They simply would not have existed because there were no people interested in it. Another thing is the continuation of a certain tradition. There appeared an opportunity to connect the Interwar Kaunas with the new Kaunas. In my opinion, the re-establishment of VMU has served as this connection. And to what extent it failed, is not important. The most important thing is that it happened. It is also important that teachers who remember the old Kaunas were teaching in the re-established university. This university probably has the least of the Soviet spirit as compared to those that have a longer tradition.
What VMU was like when you started your studies here? How has it changed and could change in the future?
Earlier, there were fewer faculties. At the beginning, during the first year, theological students were studying together with philosophers, because there were so little students. At that time and for the next 5-7 years, higher education was not that popular for sure. In 1997, the Gariūnai syndrome was still prevalent. Initiative people were thinking: why do I need education, I'd rather create a business. Segmentation in universities appeared later, when attempts were made to appeal to the market demand due to better-sounding names, establishment of institutes, etc. But it does not optimise the activities and does not bring benefit, and, more importantly, it is not related to the university's mission.
Of course, there are ideas related to university and city's integration, something is happening in this area. I have to praise our historians because they did a lot. And the things that the Faculty of Art is currently doing, i.e. events open to the city. Even though they are just the buds, something will probably become of that. University's mission should be humanitarian, it should be open. This should be used better. I understand that audiences are not massive, but one does not need to fool oneself and think that residents of Kaunas will suddenly flood the university. All lectures can be open, as the programmes have been announced. Maybe it is too daring. Someone could tell that if it is for free, why others have to pay, etc. But then the university would actually be the centre of the city.
There are really people who would like to come, but do not have the courage. I understand that it might become difficult to deliver lectures, when various people gather. Of course, there is certain risk when you open up. Older people, in any case, are more adequate. If they came, they would probably stay in the lecture until the end. If they do not like it, they will not come here the next time. Actually, they could have established the Third Age University for a small fee. (Note: TAU is an informal educational institution for elders). I have always asked for it and said that this could be the strong side of VMU to attract people and it would pay off.
The Little Academy of Philosophy (Note: an informal educational programme for school students created by VMU Department of Philosophy). It is youth brave enough to come to lectures having no idea what awaits them here. They are not taught philosophy at school. This year, it was completed by twenty students and there were fifty applicants, so people are interested. I cannot imagine that in a civilized country, there can be secondary education without philosophy. Truth to be told, ethics has been developed as an alternative to religion, but things taught in them have nothing to do with philosophy. Even though I was lucky, because I had a good teacher. Students should have at least the basics of philosophy. E.g. when we speak about the basics of civilisation, what it is if not philosophy? And usually they have selectively chosen knowledge that they learn for one time and then forget. It means that thinking does not function because it is not performance of operations, no synthesis.
Which persons important to Kaunas seem to you somewhat forgotten today?
Once again, we can remember Z. Kiaupa and people that did something significant in their life and decided to give something to the city. There are many of them and names are not important. We can speak about the city as a space where there are various centres that do not allow for it to walk away and disappear. It does not matter wherever these people are, in academic or artistic sphere, or whether they are art collectors, they perform the integrating function. The condition for a city to survive does not also include public spaces or tangible things, but also people who manage to create and rally something around themselves. For example, both in Lithuania and in Kaunas, Tomas Sodeika is an impressive person. This is evident only from his charges whom he maybe has not educated but still influenced so much: it is important where they are now, what are they doing, in which places of the world they create and gather people around them. There are people who do not work in the academic field, carry out voluntary actions but in terms of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's Citadelle, they control the world.
I remember another case, that of Gintaras Beresnevičius. He maintained a strong connection of the cultural and literary life with Kaunasians. VMU had a compulsory subject of The World-view of Ancient Lithuanians. In other words, it was a course about from where we came from. Its idea was good, but it eventually turned into a weird thing called The Becoming of Modern Lithuania. In my opinion, it is not clever to think that we are aliens who landed from the sky or tabula rasa Europeans, stripped of all the traces of their past. We are who we are only thanks to the people who lived thousands of years ago. It is sad that we do not know our ancient history that could serve as a basis for everything. It is not enough to concentrate only on the political and cultural situation of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania or the 20th century. It is no coincidence that V. Kavolis and A. J. Greimas considered it their task to think of the ancient backgrounds of civilizations. Then it is possible to understand that everyone of us have roots, look and find very interesting things in them. Maybe theories by Gimbutienė and Beresnevičius about the ancient Europe and the Baltic culture do not always seem very scientifically proven. But they are very productive because they encourage to look in ourselves things that we do not even register.
Why was G. Beresnevičius interested in poets? Because they did not understand what their works were broadcasting. Through language and world-view, they pass such things that can be found in the hints about the old Baltic world-view, about numinous events close to the aesthetic event. Then it is possible to understand that symbols depicted in the old cultures or texts are similar to those the poets write in words, just expressed in another form. Yes, such things are common, and they are not exceptional only in the Baltic Culture, they are important in the universal human sense. Of course, if we think that we are all like the others, i.e. anything special, the question why language or Lithuanian culture is needed becomes irrelevant. However, certain exceptional things, memory alive in our culture or slipping through the poetic text is very valuable. And probably French and Germans do not have such things. The old culture is replaced by cultural artefacts. In this case, the relation with the numinous experience is no longer direct, but rather becomes a relation with the cultural object, it is reflected, and used for inspiration. It is a similar case with people who come to France, where the great artists painted pictures. They pay money to come close to Monet and others. And in each place, while not equal to others, but such places can open up in one way or another.
Even though it is obvious that we should learn a lot from them. Sometimes I think how a well-maintained New Town of Kaunas could look like, it would be a really fantastic place. I am very happy about it and glad that Arūnas shows the initiative. (Note: a reference to the intentions to add Kaunas Modernist Interwar Architecture to the UNESCO World Heritage Site List by Arūnas Gelūnas, current Lithuanian Ambassador to UNESCO). Yet if international observers came, they would be very surprised and wonder whether it is possible to save something from our heritage. I think that it is still possible but there is so much to do. Moreover, I think Arūnas associates himself more with the Kavolis tradition, but, in my opinion, he would not be who he is without Sodeika as well.
Which works of art remind you Kaunas, its identity and history most?
One must remember La Traviata. But the evil residents of Vilnius stole this tradition from Kaunas. Moved it to Vilnius and then killed it. (Note: Giuseppe Verdi's opera was first shown in Kaunas in 1920). Things that can be called as a cultural follow-up, a work of art, repeated year after year, can be called pakazucha. Kaunas ladies and gentlemen come to show themselves. I doubt that it is a cultural event. Now I frequently go to Kaunas National Drama Theatre. Truth to be told, when G. Varnas was creating here, it was the best [theatre] Kaunas has ever had. And when the theatre tries to meet market needs, it degenerates. Ten years ago, there were more of the theatrical life. When I found out that Stancikas became the head of the theatre, I first thought about Šventežeris. It is an old cultural play, and our school brought us to see it three times and we had to be very happy because of this artistic expression. Yes, Amerika Pirtyje and Šventežeris are a part of history, but how should it be called? Restorative animation. When things are made to remind of the old original, but who needs it? If you are an artist, you must have a message. And if you do not have it, then do not create. The fact that people go to the theatre show that there is some need. But could it be that this need rises from art-unrelated things, i.e. simply to go out? Or is it related to some hunger? I would like to think that this is the case. Certain performances were real events, they changed something in the theatre. Of course, all performances cannot be like that. Later after such "breaking" performances, a brand is created, it is followed, and it becomes an imitation and simulation, but it happens everywhere.
It is very great that we have almost full exposition of Čiurlionis in Kaunas. His museum is a place, first visited by all cultured people who come to town. Čiurlionis is always alive. Only in his case, I am always frustrated by the abundance of his works. In one hall, one Čiurlionis painting would be enough, but when there are so many of them, it scares me. Of course, you may sit down and look at one, but others are distracting. I understand that for a child his paintings are not convincing. I remember from my childhood that his reproductions were used to illustrate some children's books. I have not seen this for a long time. Karalių Pasaka (Fairy-Tale of Kings) has remained as one of the first children's books stuck in my mind. His other paintings were also embedded into the cultural context as very own, without any reaction of rejection. It appears when it is said that Čiurlionis is a coryphaeus, something unique, very original, that he is only one, genial, etc. Of course, he is not the only one, there are other great artists that we do not know. Usually their works are abroad or in collector vaults, so we do not see them. But the work of art gains its actual meaning only when it is visible. So, it should be forbidden for private collectors to store and not to exhibit the paintings.
Also, Nemunas at its time, when the father of A. Kubilius published his famous article, and it was a manifesto of my generation, of the generation of your parents. (An article by V. Kubilius "The Riddles of Talent" published in Nemunas in 1972). Nemunas is photography, poetry, literature and a very strong collective that was not afraid to take risks even during the years of complete censorship. Kubilius' article was scandalous, because it was against the principles of socialist realism. Even though right now it seems as a case of gentle expression, back then, his article was a great excess. Also, the first publications of nudity: the generation of the most prominent photographers grew up next to Nemunas. So did poets, who are now the winners of the National Prize. Currently the financial situation of Nemunas is poor and of course that it does not have a chance to stay in the market. All similar publications and not only them should be funded. In a normal country, the city should have a clear understanding that this thing is necessary for us, but somehow it is not. The current situation of culture can be described like this: create art, be managers and remain profitable. It is the same as to say that philosophy and literature must pay off. It will pay off tenfold, hundredfold, when people with good education will become the centres of culture. Now it seems that people in politics and universities are those who came back from seven years in Gariūnai. And their perception about what is important and what is needed is Gariūnesque: to buy cheaper and sell for more. In culture and education, there are not prospects with such attitude. Was Van Gogh a profitable artist? Simply there are patrons, people understanding why and for what culture is needed. Or there are not. And if they do not exist... Yes, we can detest snobs, but a cultured, Western snob is the type who plays an important role in the cultural process. The like to see their name together with other patrons. Maybe we need people like that? And this is why our business is all miserable, because a normal businessman projects into a very far future. The future is the people who carry the great good and Kaunas lacks these people very much.