Design in jazz rhythms – Tadas Baginskas’s exhibition at the Museum of Applied Art and Design

The Museum of Applied Art and Design invites to the exhibition Tadas Baginskas. Design Counterpoints. The event celebrates the 90th anniversary of the architect and designer Tadas Baginskas, one of the foremost figures of the Lithuanian design scene.  

The display spans a career of over sixty years, featuring pieces of architecture and lightning, interior designs and conceptions of exhibition design, examples of graphic design and architectural drawings. Conceived around the theme of musical motifs intertwined in Baginskas’s creative work, the exhibition develops different narrative threads featuring other creatives and collective projects, which reflect the importance of collaboration in Baginskas’s career. Of joined projects, many have been realized with his wife, glass and stained-glass artist Ginta Baginskienė. Her artwork and the couple’s collaborations are extensively presented in the display.

 “My biggest treasure are the people I have met – among them are my Teachers, my pupils and students, and my colleagues. The milieu I have explored as an observer – now, as a story-teller,” Baginskas speaks of the importance of creative links emerging in the exhibition. 

One exhibition, different voices

According to the exhibition’s chief curator, Dr Karolina Jakaitė, the idea of the event has been inspired by Baginskas‘s vinyl collection, his audio equipment as well as by jazz and dance rhythms – part and parcel of his life. 

“Our decision on the concept finally settled on our initial idea: we will seek to identify recurring musical links and harmonies. Hence the term of counterpoint in the title. This approach opened the door to other creators now included in the exhibition,” she says. 

Counterpoint weaves together several independent melodies played simultaneously. The nickname of Modern Jazz Quartet, attached to a group of young architects, Baginskas among them, by Kaunas-based brother architects Algimantas and Vytautas Nasvyčiai, was not for nothing. 

“The exhibition seems to have emerged from a free jazz rhythm that carried us along the exhibition building process: inspired by the covers of the vinyl records and by music we occasionally listened to, including some rather radical avant-guard. Yet most importantly, we have listened to the stories by Baginskas and have arranged them for the exhibition audience to discover,” Jakaitė says.

The breadth of multilayered Baginskas’s creativity 

Baginskas has employed a diversity of materials to realize his ideas – from wood, plastic or glass – to amber and precious stones. He combined his architectural and design practice with pedagogy. Baginskas as design professor has drawn together different generations of designers, contributing significantly to the emerging concept of contemporary design in Lithuania.  

“This is not a completely traditional retrospective. There is plenty of improvisation and experiment about it. As a design historian, I always feel like researching my subject matter. This exhibition, too, presents some discoveries, and includes some reconstructions. However, to me, the most enjoyable part of it are contemporary interpretations and dedications to Baginskas and his zespól – the word he used to refer to the circle of his closest friends and colleagues. We, the creators of the exhibition, have also built a kind of zespól – the three curators making the core of if in collaboration with other team members and plenty of other helping hands,” Jakaitė shares the experience of the exhibition team. 

Attempts have been made to locate authentic artefacts for the display, yet many are lost or inaccessible. Therefore, fragments of extant objects or parts of such are presented embedded in contemporary interpretations. The idea of counterpoint emerges as a key motif of the exhibition and places it within a broader context of duality of existence, the anonymity of a design object, interactions and contradictions of different perspectives. Insightful quotes by Baginskas guide the viewer through the exhibition narrative.     

The exhibition Tadas Baginskas. Design Counterpoints will be on until 23 August at the Museum of Applied Art and Design of the LNMA. Baginskas’s creative biography bridges Kaunas and Vilnius, architecture and design, pedagogy and collaboration, conceptualizing design as a process of linking humans, ideas and environments. The exhibition will be accompanied by tours and education events offering an opportunity of a deeper familiarization with the prominent figure of Lithuanian design and with his milieu. 

Featured artists and designers: Tadas Baginskas, Ginta Baginskienė, Vytautas Brėdikis, Eugenijus Antanas Cukermanas, Vytautas Gečas, Juozas Gelguda, Vaidilutė Grušeckaitė, Antanas Kazakauskas, Mantas Lesauskas, Dainius Liškevičius, Vytautas Puzeras, Vladas Suncovas, Algimantas Stoškus, Šarūnas Šlektavičius, Lijana Turskytė, Teodoras Kazimieras Valaitis, Kazimiera Zimblytė

Chief curator: Dr Karolina Jakaitė

Curators: Julijus Balčikonis, Živilė Intaitė, Karolina Jakaitė

Consultants and researchers: Dr Rasa Dargužaitė, Dr Aistė Dičkalnytė, Gražina Gurnevičiūtė, Dr Rasa Janulevičiūtė

Architect Vytautas Gečas

Graphic designer Aurelija Slapšytė

Coordinator Mažvydas Truklickas

Restorers: Arūnas Baublys, Ramūnas Gilys, Lukas Rakauskas, Donatas Stasiulis, Darius Varnas

Sound installation conceived by Šarūnas Nakas

Lithuanian text proofing Dr Ilona Čiužauskaitė

Translator Laima Bezginaitė

 

Financed by: Lithuanian Council for Culture

Partners: Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuanian Design Association, LAPAS Publishing House