Lietuva in brief - 2010-05-26

An exhibition entitled ‘George Maciunas: Father of SoHo’ will open on June 1 in Vilnius, a city that seeks to become the 21st century’s capital of Fluxus; the exhibition will run until September 1, 2010, reports LETA. George Maciunas, Lithuanian-American architect and visionary founder of the Fluxus art movement, conceived the idea of establishing cooperative buildings in New York City where people could freely work and create. Rare documents, structural maps and correspondence with officials detail the excruciating process Maciunas underwent to legalize SoHo that transformed the entire downtown area. Visual works by renowned Fluxus artists Shigeko Kubota and Larry Miller will be shown along with those of filmmaker Jeffrey Perkins and photographer Peter Moore. “The SoHo phenomenon was an important creative initiative that made a significant impact on social urban development in New York. It is compelling in its grand scope and should be appreciated by both a local audience as well as an international one,” stated Arturas Zuokas, founder of the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center.

President Dalia Grybauskaite’s popularity continues unabated, as in April, as previously, Lithuanian residents showed they trusted their president the most, reports ELTA. The head of state was mentioned first, by four out of every ten respondents, in a survey. According to the survey, conducted by the market research company Baltijos Tyrimai on April 20-26, respondents were asked to indicate what Lithuanian public figures they trusted most. The respondents named the persons by themselves; they were not given any preliminary list. They named 73 public figures in total. A quarter (23 percent) said that there were no public figures they could trust, or they declined to answer the question completely. Among those polled, 42 percent gave the most favorable rating to President Grybauskaite. The list also included Seimas Speaker Irena Degutiene, MP Algirdas Butkevicius, leader of the Social Democrats, and ex-President Valdas Adamkus.