11 October 2018

A. Vasilenko’s Photography Exhibition “This is Vilnius” Opens at National Library

Andrejus Vasilenko is best known for his urban exploration project entitled “This is Vilnius”. The project started back in 2014 as the author’s personal blog on Facebook which has already racked up nearly 7,000 followers. The project aims to capture the city of Vilnius, to tell alternative stories of the city, and to raise public awareness of the fine-art/investigative/documentary genre of photography. The visitors who flocked to see Andrejus Vasilenko’s personal exhibition hosted at the National Library (which was the first presentation of the project in the city of Vilnius) thanked the photographer “for the opportunity to discover a different Vilnius”.

When opening the exhibition, Prof. Dr. Renaldas Gudauskas, Director General of the National Library, pointed out that “time, light and plot” were the key words embodying A. Vasilenko’s works. “For me, Andrejus’s photographs represents documentary painting. I am very excited about the fact that our House of Books, or People’s House, attracts over a thousand visitors on a daily basis who come to the library not only to read books but also to explore modern art exhibitions, rare films or unique music recordings, and that the National Library provides them with opportunities to directly engage with creators and authors. By the way, the personal exhibition of Andrejus is not the first example of successful cooperation between the photographer and the National Library. Less than a year ago, Andrejus who worked for the New York Times captured the priceless Jewish documentary heritage documents of historical value stored at the National Library which have been discovered in the St. George Church where they had been hidden during World War II.

The author of the exhibition said that he is currently working hard on his future book which will include over 150 photographs of Vilnius, and he invited those in attendance to visit the exhibition on a casual day and experience this exhibition in solitude. “If you take time to absorb the images of Vilnius depicted in my works, you get a totally different experience. And it doesn’t matter that the works included in the exhibition are not numerous. Each work tells a unique story. The exhibition ‘This is Vilnius’ hosted at the National Library is a thought-provoking question rather than a statement,” said A. Vasilenko who is involved in contemporary art and architecture photography projects.

Andrejus Vasilenko (born 1985) is a Lithuanian photographer who currently lives and works in Vilnius. His works have been exhibited in various contemporary art centres including the Whitechapel Gallery in London and Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius. A. Vasilenko won a creative residency at Diaphane, a photography centre in Beauvais, France, for his project “This is Vilnius” at Kaunas Photo Festival 2017. A. Vasilenko’s works will be exhibited at the Photaumanles exhibition in Beauvais until the end of this year. A. Vasilenko’s personal exhibition based on his project “This is Vilnius” was opened in September this year at Kaunas Old Town Library during Kaunas Photo Festival.

The exhibition will be on display at the National Library until 9 November.

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