Fashion Contrast

Myth and Mystery

Vilnius in Lithuania has increasingly been attracting tourists to its pleasant surroundings, it is a city that is full of interest, vitality and history. The town is full of stylish Baroque architecture along its narrow streets, each full of secret alleyways and peaceful hidden courtyards.

Vilnius is not swamped by masses of high-rise tower blocks or gigantic megalithic buildings but retains a compact and cosy village like atmosphere. Dotted all around Vilnius are many sculptures, statues and monuments, some are classical legends, others are of historical figures and events. Walking around the city you will come across many erected, sometimes more than once, to celebrate Vilnius’s history and founders.

Statues and Sculpture of Vilnius

The Monument to the Barricades, further down Gedimino, at the Parliament Buildings are the remains of the obstructions erected during the 1991 uprising against Soviet oppression. They have been protected in a glass case and are the subject to political comment and graffiti.

The Holocaust Remembered

Chiune Sigihara’s statue in front of the Holocaust Museum celebrates the life of this Japanese consulate worker who between 1939 and 1940, being disgusted with the treatment of Lituania Jews, issued passes for them to escape. His actions managed to save some 6,000 lives in a city where many were sent to their deaths. There is also another monument complete with cherry trees, dedicated to Sigihara opposite the Reval Hotel Lietuva.

This museum along with the KGB Museum documents mans inhumanity against each other, which took place over the 50 plus years of repression that the people of Vilnius suffered.

Reformers, Authors and Founders

The statue of Dr Tsemach Shabad, who was a member of the Jewish Peoples Party and social reformer, stands on the edge of the former ghetto.

Romain Gary, the prizewinning French author who at the age of 14 moved to Vilnius with his mother. He served as a distinguished pilot in the Free French Air Force during WWII and went on to write the screenplay for the epic war movie “The Longest Day”. Gary’s statue is of a little boy with a Wellington boot, representative of an event in his Vilnius childhood when he attempted to eat his footwear to impress the girl next door.

The statue of Grand Duke Gediminias in Cathedral Square was unveiled in 1996 and is a modern interpretation of the city’s medieval founder. After a dream about an iron wolf whilst he was hunting one day, Gediminias decided to build an impregnable castle, around which the town of Vilnius and Lithuania eventually grew.

Myth and Mystery

Statue of the Three Muses, situated outside the National Theatre in Gedimino Street are quite disturbing statues. Fabricated in black steel with golden, eyeless faces they stare out across the street.

Statue of Elektra stood on the shores of the river Neris until in the 1950’s when its was smashed. In 1994 the government in Vilnius unveiled a new replica.

Tree Crosses on the Hill, standing stoically on top of Germinias Hill they represent three Franciscan monks who where martyred and thrown into the river here. The statues were first created in the 18^th century, these fell down in 1869 and the Tzarist authorities refused permission to replace them. In 1916 they were once again standing over Vilnius and lasted through two world wars. However, in 1951 during the Cold War, Soviet troops pulled these down. After independence the present copies were made to commemorate the city’s newfound freedoms. You reach this loft position on Germinias Hill by taking a nice, if somewhat steep walk, through a wooded landscape and where there is a wonderful view looking down on the bright red, rooftops of the old city.

Where to Stay

Radisson Blu continue to open more hotels in Lithuania and have two presitigious hotels in Vilnius. Housed in a 22-storey high rise, the Radisson Blu Hotel Lietuva, Vilnius is the city’s tallest accommodation. Centrally located in the Lithuanian capital’s bustling business district, the lively upscale hotel is only a 10-minute walk from the famed Old Town and is an ample location for exploring all that Vilnius has to offer on the artistic side.

So this last week we have been fairly quiet thanks to some much needed rest. We have done a little bit of traveling to various places – including the “Mediterranean” of the UK.

One of the day trips I managed to do was one to the Banksy exhibition at the Bristol City Museum just out of Clifton, near that cool bridge built by Brunel.

Now I’m fairly open minded when it comes to exhibition and more importantly queuing – which seemed to be what the exhibition was about. We had to queue to actually get into a queue and subsequently by the time we actually made it into the queue, it was filled with the annoying family types who really shouldn’t have brought there children. Generally these people are the sorts who believe continual moving around in the queue is acceptable and a large amount of ice cream will make the children quiet; it doesn’t.

OK, so after 3 hours we made it into the exhibition and where greeted by the sight of a vans covered in a kinda ice cream

Which housed the information center and as I noticed the ‘info guys’ where on Twitter and Facebook.

Scattered around where various bastardisations of famous statues – this was kinda cool. They included that famous David statue.

Now I spoke earlier about the ‘annoying families’ who frequent these controversial art shows, now what really irritates me about artists like Banksy is the following which will turn up to a show of this calibre are middle class, middle aged people who will only see the work he has done on its face value. They are the ones who will phone the Police and seek to turn graffiti art into a endangered species, very similar in a metaphorical sense to a rat, as Banksy frequently references in his work, the rats, are a kinda underworld type character, who the ‘bourgeoisie’ seem to want to get rid of, the ‘freaks of society’.

Now I enjoyed the art especially the “Di Faced Tenner” which was fairly cool and pretty ironic.

If only Bristol Museum had made the investments of having a better queuing system as 3 hours is a long time to wait for an exhibition that can only really last for roughly an hour. Oh, and Gawping at this kind of art is not cool when your wearing a tucked in polo shirt and shorts whilst referring to it as ground breaking… What is ground breaking is that you where allowed to have the privilege.