MO Museum

The building, which MO Museum is situated in, was designed by a well-known American architect Daniel Libeskind. The greatest works of his include: the Jewish Museum in Berlin, Denver Art Museum, Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco, Museum of Military History in Dresden and others. D. Libeskind is also the head architect of the rebuilt One World Trade Center.[11]

The design project of MO Museum building was implemented in partnership with “Studio Libeskind”, which is a renowned architecture studio, as well as Lithuanian architecture office “DO architects”. This project was the first one in collaboration with “Studio Libeskind” in the Baltic states.[12]

The main aim of building MO Museum was to establish symbolic cultural gates that lead from the medieval Old Town to the modern New Town of 18th century.[12] Mo Museum also revived one of the culturally iconic spaces of Vilnius, in which “Lietuvos” cinema was situated.[7]

Demolition of “Lietuvos” cinema was started in February, 2017.[13] Construction of MO Museum was started later that same year with a symbolic act of a time capsule being buried under the museum.[14]

The premises of MO Museum are meant to accommodate anyone's interests and wishes to spend leisure time in various ways. The entrance hall with an events hall, the gift shop as well as the restaurant “MO Bistro” are located on the first floor, the small exhibition room as well as the reading room on the second floor while the main exhibition room is located on the third floor. One of the most important architectural details of the museum is the spiral staircase, which often tends to be captured by various photographers as well as links the museum with the past experiences of its founders.[7]

The museum also holds premises for the public to relax at. The sculpture garden as well as the terrace are located next to the museum and are always open for the guests.[12]

The collection of the Mo Museum is composed of work by numerous Lithuanian and local modern artists, dated from 1960s and the period of “thaw” to the present day and the culture of independent Lithuania.[15]

Painting

The core of the collection is painting, which consists of works by approximately 250 artists. The collection dates back to the modern interwar period and consists of works by modern interwar painters such as Antanas Gudaitis, Leonas Katinas, and Algirdas Petrulis. It goes on to showcase the counter-social-realist, colorful, expressive and decorative painting of 1970s creators such as Jonas Švažas, Vincas Kisarauskas, Vincentas Gečoir and others. Artworks of the 1980s follow, with neo-expressionist painting of artists such as Antanas Martinaitis, Algimantas Jonas Kuras, Kostas Dereškevičius and others. The collection also includes abstract painting, with works by Linas Katinas, Eugenijus Cukermanas and Laima Drazdauskaitė. The Mo Museum holds pieces of 1990s’ neo-expressionists Alfonsas Vilpišauskas, Arūnas Vaitkūnas, Jonas Gasiūno, and others. Artworks created within the past two decades include works in categories that include expressionist, by Alonas Štelmanas; realistic, by Jovita Aukštikalnytė; neoromantic, by Patricija Jurkšaitytė and Eglė Gineitytė; neo-academicist, by Paulius Juška and Žygimantas Augustinas; and conceptual variations of realism by Eglė Ridikaitė and Agnė Jonkutė.

Graphics and Photography

Graphic art as well as photography that form a part of MO's collection date from the 1960s to works of the present day. The collection includes the humanist works of school photographers Antanas Sutkus, Aleksandras Macijauskas, Romualdas Rakauskas, while Alfonsas Budvytis and Vytautas Balčytis are representatives of later generations.

Video art

The collection of video art contains documentary works made while using strategies of social studies (Artūras Raila, Robertas Antinis), as well as expressions of individual surrealist reality (Jurga Barilaitė, Evaldas Jansas, Svajonė and Paulius Stanikai).

Sculpture

Numerous pieces of sculpture and objects are part of the museum's sculpture holdings. It includes works by Petras Mazūra, Mindaugas Navakas and Gediminas Akstinas.

Artists of the Young Generation

The collection also contains works made by artists of the young generation (Andrius Zakarauskas, Linas Jusionis, Adomo Danusevičius, Eglė Karpavičiūtė, Monika Furmanavičiūtė and others). These have received positive comments from the public and approval from numerous art critics.

Art critic Raminta Jurenaite helps gather the collection of the MO Museum with the assistance of recommendations made by other art critics. All the works in the collection are professionally restored and safely stored in one of the MO's vaults.

Presentation and publicity of the artworks is a priority of the MO Museum. Therefore, interviews are often conducted with the artists, and audioguides are created and recorded.[16]

Literatų street

The project of “Literatų street“ was implemented in partnership with a curator Eglė Vertelkaitė as well as over a 100 of different artists in the Old Town of Vilnius. More than 200 plates, made by different artists, were installed on the wall of Literatų street to represent the wide prospect of Lithuanian literature.[17] More information on the project and its artists‘ works can be found in a book „Literatų street. Kuktūrinis gidas“ (2014), which was assembled and written by Milda Ivanauskienė, the director of MO Museum.[18][19]

Vilniaus talking statutes

Mo Museum released a cultural guide “The path of Vilnius statues” to help the public get to know the capital through introduction to sculptures and monuments of Vilnius.[20] The idea was renewed in 2015 by introducing a project “Vilnius talking statues”, when 15 of local statues were made interactive. This way Vilnius became the fourth city in the international project, amongst other world's megalopolises such as New York or Copenhagen. Audios’ texts on sculptures were written by famous Lithuanian writers and red to record by professional actors.[21][19]

The history of culture

The ambitious project “The history of culture”, which included history on modernization of Lithuanian art, photography, scenography, literature, film, music and other fields of culture, was introduced in 2010. The unique archive of Lithuanian culture history was prepared in partnership with Lithuanian art critics, historians and theorists of culture, architecture and literature. This project is designated to be of use not only for researchers of various fields of culture but for teachers, students and pupils as well.[22]

Laboratory of art

An unusual project, dedicated for management of personnel, “Laboratory of art” was implemented in collaboration with a modern biotechnology company “Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics” in 2016. Participants visited workspaces of the artists, attended creative workshops prepared by art critics, were introduced to the specifics of MO Museum's vaults. 3 month-long partnership with “Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics” resulted in an exhibition “Bridges”, which was curated by 16 scientists from various fields such as scientific research, manufacture and administration.[23]

Travelling museum

The team of MO Museum visited over a couple of tens of schools and communities in Vilnius with the project “Travelling museum” in 2010. They attempted to achieve a different point of view towards creativity, arts education as well as the relationship between arts world and the lifestyle of people. The team conducted numerous lessons and meetings during which the participants were able to get to know the Lithuanian culture in non-traditional forms and ways.[19]

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