MARKERS. KAUNAS

Kaunas – a city that, during the interwar period, entered a race with Europe and won. A city
once known as “Little Paris”. A city whose modernist architecture is now recognised worldwide – in 2023, Kaunas Modernism was granted UNESCO World Heritage status as one of the most remarkable examples of early regionalism in the history of architecture.

This performance-tour invites you not only to see, but also to hear, feel, and experience.

It is a revival of a project first created in 2017 – a synthesis of sound, movement, and
architecture that allows audiences to immerse themselves in interwar Kaunas through the
stories of its buildings and the people who lived within them. Here, politics, diplomatic intrigue, cultural breakthrough, and the everyday pulse of the city converge.

Through headphones, narratives transport listeners into an era shaped by figures such as
Antanas Smetona, Augustinas Voldemaras, Chiune Sugihara, Magdalena Avietėnaitė, and many others. Their lives, decisions, and the spirit of the time intertwine with the biographies of the buildings themselves – for every modernist structure here possesses its own character, ambition, and story.

The route becomes a living map of the city: Vytautas the Great War Museum Garden – Unity
Square – S. Daukantas Street – Laisvės Avenue. Over the course of just over an hour, the city reveals itself as an ambitious, optimistic, and creative European centre.

What makes this project unique is that the audience is not a passive observer. Voices heard
through headphones (performed by R. Zemkauskas, G. Padegimas, B. Letukaitė, J. Kančienė, and others) merge with original music and the live movement of ULNA dancers. Professional dancers from the ULNA troupe, together with students of the Kaunas Mikas Petrauskas School of Performing Arts, transform architectural forms into a physical experience – embodying the clarity, rhythm, and dynamism of modernism through movement.

This is not simply a tour. It is an opportunity to step, for one hour, into a city that reinvented
itself – boldly, modernly, and with a European spirit.