Exhibition "The Wanderings of Moses" dedicated to the memory of Lithuanian Jews opens at the National Museum in Kielce
On 14th of March 2023 The National Museum in Kielce has launched an exhibition of the project "The Wanderings of Moses”.
The exhibition features the works of more than twenty authors from Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine and Israel, Belarus and et al. Adam Jacovsky, Solomon Teitelbaum, Ilya Bereznickas, Raimondas Savickas, Algirdas Mikutis, Daiva Kairevičiūtė, Mindaugas Šnipas, Tatjana Kazimierėnienė, Aleksandra Jacovskytė, Juozas Kalinauskas, Aloyzas Janušauskas, Rimas Keturka, Leo Ray, Ewa Polkhe, Dimitrij Gutov, Madara Gulbis, Matvei Vaizberg, Vladimir Tsesler, Pinchas Fischel, Natalia Borisova, Natasha Gerasimenko, Lilia Tatarinova - each of them interpreted the only surviving fragment of the sculpture "Moses of Plateliai" differently; it is the original head of Moses (it fell down in 2016), built by one of Lithuania's most famous folk artists, Jakovas Bunka, in 1986 in memory of the thirty Jews murdered during the Second World War. The head of the six-metre oak sculpture "Moses of Plateliai" by Daumantas Todes was restored and its plaster casts became the basis for the exhibition "Moses' Wanderings".
The Kielce exhibition also features a replica of "Moses of Plateliai", custom-carved for the exhibition by woodworker Antanas Vaškys.
At the opening of the exhibition, the initiator and curator of the exhibition, patron of the arts, chairman of the Council of Ethnic Communities, emphasized: "It is a message of gratitude to the generation that has passed away and to the generation that is about to do so”. Jakovas Bunka was a remarkable personality. A Jewish folk artist who devoted his entire life and work to commemorating the Jews murdered in Lithuania. Not only did he carved Jewish figures but he also created the Kaušėnai Memorial of the murdered Jews of Plungė, as well as he wrote a book "The History of Plungė Jews" and was an Honorary Citizen of Plungė, the chevalier of Knight’s Cross of the Grand Duke Gediminas Order of Lithuania. I am glad that the work he initiated is now being continued by others". Meanwhile, the Ambassador to Poland Eduardas Borisovas said that "the exhibition is also dedicated to Vilnius 700th anniversary because Jews were a large part of the city's population".
The opening of the exhibition was attended by the Director of the Kielce National Museum, Professor Robert Kotowski, Director of the Arts Festival "Między stronami" and President of the Jan Karski Society Bogdan Bialek, Director of the Kielce History Museum Grzegorz Macągowski and others.
The exhibition "The Wanderings of Moses" has already been exhibited at the Žiežmariai Synagogue, the Lithuanian National Martynas Mažvydas Library in Vilnius and Felix Mendelshon’s House in Olsztyn.
In the city of tragic history, where in 1946 one of the most horrific pogroms in Polish history took place against Jewish survivors of World War II, the exhibition will travel from Kielce to Ukraine, where it will be exhibited at the Babi Yar Memorial.
The exhibition was supported by the Lithuanian Culture Institute, the Department of National Minorities under the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in the Republic of Poland and the Consulate of the Republic of Lithuania in Seinai.
The exhibition curated by the Doctor of Art History Artur Ptak, who is visiting Lithuania as part of the Lithuanian Cultural Institute's programme, will be exhibited at the National Museum in Kielce until 16 April.
Find more information about the exhibition here:
https://mnki.pl/mdk/pl/aktualnosci/pokaz/1723,wedrowka_mojzesza,1
Rasa Rimickaitė, Cultural Attaché of the Republic of Lithuania to the Republic of Poland
Photo by Małgorzata Stępnik / MNKi
