Did you know that you can travel around Europe without leaving Lithuania? Let's go on a journey with set designer and artist Mstislav Dobužinski (1875-1957). We will see the European countries as the artist saw them almost 100 years ago, and we will start our journey in sunny Italy.
Dubuzinski Dobrzynski visited Italy for the first time in 1901, and travelled there many times afterwards, recording the cities in drawings and watercolours. His work was exhibited at exhibitions and the Venice Biennale. Dobuzinski's memoirs of Italy were published in book form. He even lived in Italian cities for several years, creating sets for theatres in Milan and Naples. In the Lithuanian theatre, he immortalised the sunny Venice and the participants of the colourful carnival in Riccardo Drigo's ballet Arlekinada (1935).
"I know nothing more wonderful than to walk down empty streets for the first time, at night, in an unfamiliar city, to plunge alone into the depths of a sleeping city, to walk without thinking, to discover something unexpected, to discover joyfully places unseen and long loved, and to feel the horror of being lost in the labyrinth of the streets," wrote M.
The impressions and images of travel, transformed in their own way, often found their way into book illustrations and stage designs. The theatre gave Dobužinskis almost unlimited opportunities not only to visit different countries, but also, as if travelling through time, to visit them in different eras. In this way, the theatre brought together the artist's two passions - travel and his love of the past.
New exhibitions "I'm leaving! Mstislav Dobužinksy's Travel Guide" (Italy) opens at the Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Film Museum on Friday, 7 June, 18:00. In autumn, we will once again board the Dobužinsky travel train and visit France, Germany and Lithuania. So let's follow in the footsteps of a genius wanderer who never stopped moving!
