From Industrial Heritage to Ecology: Conversations on Urban Change Continue in Panevėžys

At the turn of summer and autumn, the architectural space “Urban Change Pavilion” will once again become a meeting place where architects, artists, researchers and cultural professionals from Lithuania and abroad, together with the people of Panevėžys and city visitors, will discuss the processes transforming the city’s urban space and cultural environment.

The programme, curated by landscape architect and researcher Povilas Marozas, will feature four conversations with artists, researchers and curators from Lithuania and abroad. This time, the focus will be on artistic practices in public spaces, industrial heritage and ideas of modernism, ecology, and the role of urban institutions. The speakers will share their work and insights, followed by moderated discussions.

The aim of the public programme of the “Urban Change Pavilion” is to discuss the urban and cultural changes that have already taken place in Panevėžys and to look towards the city’s future by drawing on the experiences and practices of other cities: how decisions transforming public and cultural spaces can better engage residents, address social and cultural challenges, and respond to a rapidly changing ecological environment.

“Urban Change Pavilion”. Photo by sesupe.com

“Over the past decade, the architecture, public spaces and cultural life of Panevėžys have undergone significant transformation. At the pavilion, we want not only to talk about these changes, but also to create conditions for critically reflecting on them – from different professional, geographical and cultural perspectives,” says P. Marozas, curator of the pavilion’s public programme.

Povilas Marozas

Public Programme Meetings

The first meeting, on August 29 at 4 p.m., will focus on the relationship between art and the city. P. Marozas will be in conversation with artist, writer and curator Paulina Pukytė, and artist and educator Stefan Pedersen. The conversation will be held in English.

Paulina Pukytė will present contemporary art projects in public space and the public sphere that she has curated, including the 2017 Kaunas Biennial and “Phenomenon M”, held in Klaipėda in 2024.

Drawing on public art projects at Gothenburg Central Station in Sweden and his experience in interdisciplinary education in Stockholm, Stefan Pedersen will speak about art that is not simply placed within the city, but instead transforms the city’s infrastructure itself – both physical and institutional – into creative material.

On September 4 at 6 p.m., the lecture “Industry and Modernism: From Ideas of Progress to Industrial Heritage” will be given by architectural historian, professor and exhibition curator Marija Drėmaitė. Drawing on her book The Meteor of Progress and the history of the Panevėžys sugar factory, she will examine the emergence of the factory as an example of modern architecture, the implementation of ideas of progress, and the increasingly relevant questions of preserving and reinterpreting industrial heritage today.

The meeting will provide an opportunity to look at Panevėžys’ industrial history within the broader context of Lithuanian modernism and 20th-century architecture. The lecture will be held in Lithuanian.

On September 5, the programme will continue with two conversations about urban ecology and the role of cultural institutions within the city. At 4 p.m., the discussion “The City and Ecology” will take place, during which P. Marozas will talk with architect and researcher Indrė Umbrasaitė and landscape architect and urbanist Daniel Rea. The relationship between the city and ecology will be explored from two perspectives – research and practice. The conversation will be held in English.

Drawing on her research and professional experience in Austria and Lithuania, Indrė Umbrasaitė will discuss how the climate crisis, digitalisation and artificial intelligence are changing our relationship with the environment and the places where we live. Daniel Rea, founder of the London-based landscape architecture and urban design studio “Periscope”, will present an approach in which ecological processes, landscape, local character and people’s lives become equal participants in the design process.

On the same day, at 6 p.m., the programme will turn its attention to the role of cultural institutions in the city. What is the role of a contemporary art institution today? How can it transform the cultural, physical and social fabric of a city? Where does an institution’s responsibility begin and end?

These questions will be discussed with Stockholm-based curator Martí Manen, former director of “Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation”, and Valentinas Klimašauskas, director of the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC). Their international experience, gained in different cultural environments, will provide an opportunity to view a cultural institution not merely as a place for presenting art, but also as an active urban actor capable of initiating new relationships, bringing communities together and contributing to the formation of public discourse. The conversation will be held in English.

“Urban Change Pavilion”. Photo by sesupe.com

The “Urban Change Pavilion” is located next to the “Stasys Museum”, at Respublikos St. 40. All public programme events are free of charge.

The pavilion was designed by the architectural studio “Isora x Lozuraityte Studio for Architecture” in collaboration with designer Nerijus Rimkus.

The project is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and the Municipality of Panevėžys City.