Event description
The bell tower of Vilnius Cathedral has been open to visitors for ten years. To celebrate the anniversary, on 15 May, the installation "Windtime" by artist Žilvinas Kempinas, created especially for this place, will be opened. This work is the first dialogue between contemporary art and the old tower. "In autumn 2023, I was invited to create a work in the bell tower of the Cathedral. Although the building is very complicated due to its wooden slabs, stairs and open windows, I could not resist the temptation to make a site-specific installation in such a special space. It was important to me that the work did not interfere with the character of the bell tower itself - that it didn't compete with it, didn't overwhelm it, didn't obstruct the view of it. The aim was to create a complementary harmony, where the work highlights the architecture and the architecture highlights the work," says Kempinas. "Windward combines ideas of height, verticality, light, time, materiality, temporality; taming the wind of the city, it employs it to fan the magnetic bands and create a snarl the likes of which the walls of this tower have never heard. The glossy black bands bring out the ancient architecture - after all, the bell tower's ground-floor brickwork dates back to the 13th century. The kinetic sculpture, 700 (+1) vertical magnetic bands, like the grooves of a tree trunk, represent the years of Vilnius, merging into a single physical body: both monumental and ephemeral. The exhibition will be open until 1 October in the bell tower of Vilnius Cathedral (Cathedral bell tower, a. 2).