At 6 pm, Thursday, 29 May, the Vytautas Kasiulis Museum of Art of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art invites to a significant cultural event – the opening of the world-renowned French artist Tania Mouraud’s exhibit In Honour of a Reborn Pain. Inspired by the poetry born in the ghetto of Vilnius and by Litvak culture, the exhibition invites into a profound and awareness-alerting dialogue on historical traumas, collective memory and the painful issues of our times.   

Born in 1942 in Paris, during World War II, Tania Mouraud is one of the most prominent contemporary French artists. She has dedicated her over-six-decade career to explore the relationships of an individual and society, the situation of a woman-creator, the power of language, the consequences of war, contemporary ecological crises, and collective memory. Her art, embracing multiple media – painting and photography, videoart, sound and text installation, invites the viewer to stop for a deeper contemplation of these complex historical themes.     

In the exhibition In Hounour of a Reborn Pain the artist uses as her source the poems written by Avrom Sutzkever, Rivka Basman and Chaim Grade, and by other poets composed in the Vilnius ghetto, to evoke the history of Vilnius. Her text installations that contain words translated into images present the viewer with a task to dig into deep-hidden meanings hinted at by these graphic signs, to uncover and revisit history. A catallogue accompanying the unique event will be presented at the opening of the exhibition.    

“This exhibition by Tania Mouraud, one of the leading figures on the French art scene today, is not only a calligraphy exhibition or a project of minimalist art. It is a game of the mots mêlés that provokes the public to evoke the memory of the wounds of history and to uncover the Yiddish layers of Vilnius, then take this historical experience to the reading of the present-day situation. I trust the Lithuanian art-loving public will accept this challenge and decode the visual riddles of the celebrated artist,” Dr Arūnas Gelūnas, director general of the LNMA, the conceiver of the exhibition, says.  

“Tania Mouraud in her art talks of historical traumas, alerting, simultaneously, to the present-day dramas and tragedies, the danger of oblivion and of memory. It is a great honour to us to receive in the spaces of our museum the artist of the international stature showcasing her art at the world’s top museums,” Ilona Mažeikienė, director of the Vytautas Kasiulis Museum of Art, adds.   

Mouraud’s works in Vilnius, besides being an artistic expression, are also a form of protest against oblivion, violence and indifference. The exhibition weaves together the memory of the Holocaust, the heritage of Litvak culture, and the painful present-day events: from the new manifestations of antisemitism to the genocide of the Ukrainian nation and the tragedy of climate change. Such works by the artist like her video Once Upon a Time point to fragile cohabitation of human beings and nature, while her graphic signs, evocative of burnt trees and ruins, invite to contemplate the pain of loss and the opportunities to rebuild.   

Tania Mouraud, the artist of Jewish and Romanian heritage, fuses in her art her personal experience with the global themes. In the 1960s, she abandoned traditional painting by burning, in public, her paintings and started creating innovative text installations based on Yiddish characters and verbal phrases. In collaboration with the pioneer of minimalist music La Monte Young and the video artist Thierry Kuntzel she gained an internation acclaim. The artist’s work has been on display at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, MoMA Museum in New York and other prestigious venues. Mouraud has been decorated with the Order of the Legion of Honour, the National Order of Merit, and other significant awards.  

From 29 May through 10 June, the Radvila Palace Museum of Art of the LNMA, offers a rare opportunity to see a video piece by Tania Mouraud Ad Infinitum (2008). At 5 pm Friday, 30 May, the museum invites to a screening of Ad Infinitum attended by the artist – an event moderated by Dr Arūnas Gelūnas, director general of the LNMA. This meditational film shot on a boat in Baja’s Bay, Mexico, captures graceful movements of whales and invites the public to contemplate the majesty of nature. The work not only reflects Mouraud’s concern with the theme of ecology, but also expands the narrative of the exhibition In Honour of a Reborn Pain while increasing awareness to the fragility of cohabitation of human beings with nature.  

The work and the entire Mouraud’s artistic production is there not only for admiration – it brings the public to consider the consequences of human activity.  

The exhibition In Honour of a Reborn Pain opens at 6 pm 29 May at the Vytautas Kasiulis Museum of Art of the LNMA. It will be open for visiting until 9 November.  

Architect Amandine Mineo 

Graphic designer Ula Šimulynaitė 

Coordinator Birutė Pankūnaitė 

Translators: Miglė Anušauskaitė, Charles Dobzynski, Rachel Ertel, Aleksandra Fominaitė, Alex Z. Foreman, Akvilė Grigoravičiūtė, Barbara Harshav, Benjamin Harshav, Sabine Huynh, Irena Jomantienė, Laurynas Katkus, Mindaugas Kvietkauskas, Jean-Rene Lassalle, Eliyahu Mishulovin, Tania Mouraud, Zelda Kahan Newman, Roslyn Bresnick Perry, Lina Rimkuvienė, Heather Valencia 

Copy editors: Laura Patiomkinaitė, Caroline Giugni 

Exhibition organizer Vytautas Kasiulis Museum of Art 

Sponsor Prancūzų institutas Lietuvoje 

Information partners: LRT, JCDecaux Lietuva