Lithuanian culture festival marks ties in Tbilisi's Mziuri Park
A still from Lithuanian-Georgian filmmaker Marija Kavtaradze's 2018 feature 'Summer Survivors', to be screened at the festival. Image via IMDB.
Tweet 
Share
A two-day festival of Lithuanian art and culture is on at Mziuri Park, one of Tbilisi's favourite recreational areas, with music, cinema and sports of the country introduced to locals as part of Georgia's Independence Day celebrations this week.
Launching later today, the Window to Lithuania festival brings bands and screenings representing creative industries and cultural heritage of the nation, with a "synthesis of Lithuanian art" brought by organisers to mark ties between the two countries.
As part of the programme, the Skamp band of "electronic multipart songs" will be joined by local musical artists and the audience in performances of Sutartinės polyphonic songs originating in northeast Lithuania, led by Viktoras Diavara of the band.
Contemporary jazz sound by the Big Band of the Lithuanian National Defence Volunteer Force will also take to the stage with Captain Ričardas Čiupkovas, to mark three decades of its public performances. Comprising 30 members and founded as the first official wind band of the armed forces, the group has performed in countries from Belgium to Afghanistan.
On the cinema side of events, a selection of fiction and documentary works will be screened to those flocking to the park over the two days. Among the picks are Lithuanian-Georgian director Marija Kavtaradze's 2018 feature Summer Survivors, a road drama that earned Best Lithuanian Film and Best Actor prizes at the 2019 Vilnius International Film Festival, in addition to honours at other festivals.
This event is a gift from Lithuania to the city of Tbilisi on the occasion of Georgia’s Independence Day
- Andrius Kalindra, Lithuanian Ambassador to Georgia
Filmmaker Giedrė Žickytė's documentary How We Played the Revolution, where the director's lens follow a New Year's Eve musical prank growing into a national cause of independence in the 1980s, and director Marius Markevičius' The Other Dream Team - the story of the 1992 national basketball team of the country that became a symbol of the independence movement - will also be screened.
Animated films for children, display of Lithuanian photographers' works and the country's national costumes, a performance of electronic music involving singer and guitarist Victor Diawara and local musicians, are other activities and performances of the two-day celebration in Mziuri.
Organised by the Labas and Rūta Lithuanian communities of Georgia, the event is funded by the Lithuanian Culture Council and the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to Georgia. The event is partnered by Tbilisi City Municipality and will run through Friday and Saturday in the park located at 21, Chavchavadze Avenue in the capital.
Locals and visitors of the Lithuanian city of Klaipeda are invited to an exhibition tracing the development of Georgian contemporary art through works by a group of Georgian creators.
The National Museum of Georgia and Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania will hold a photo exhibition titled The Scenes of Vilnius – Van Dyke Brown Prints. The photos were taken by 55-year-old Lithuanian painter and sculptor Saulius Paukstys.
Georgia and Lithuania are celebrating bilateral cultural and historical ties by hosting a unique exhibition showcasing old texts and other archives. Lithuania’s second largest city Kaunas is hosting the special exhibition titled Lithuania and Georgia in archival sources.
The visitors of Lithuania’s capital city Vilnius can now walk on Georgians Street – Kartvelu Street from now on.
Kakha Kaladze, the mayor of Tbilisi, has revealed the Mziuri park, a popular recreational destination in the capital, will expand following the purchase of an area of up to 18,000 square metres by the city hall.