Maybe to Viršuliškės?

21 05 2022–31 07 2022

Viršuliškės – one of the smallest districts in Vilnius. With this exhibition we began a new series of VM studies dedicated to the seemingly boring districts of the capital.

Viršuliškės is all at once a village with a history reaching back to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, an important detail in the radiofication of the city, a place with exceptional ties to the culture of Jewish Vilnius, and a residential district that was developed in the 1970s as a result of the city’s expansion to the west.

The exhibition itself was an exceptional one. It was the first VM exhibition not to take place in the Old Town and the first to be divided into three parts. The first part was set up inside a trolleybus that stood near the trolleybus depot on Viršilų Street and on an adjacent lot fence on Viršuliškių Alley. It presented the history of the old village of Viršuliškės and the later development of its territory. The second part told the story of how the Soviet district of Viršuliškės came to be and was located on the basement floor of a 12-storey building on 43 Viršuliškės Street. The third part is a walking route through the district itself that will guide you through the area’s most interesting locations.

Local residents provided invaluable assistance in the reconstruction of the district’s history and we are infinitely grateful for their time, memories and the artefacts they have lent to the exhibition.

Curator: Povilas Andrius Stepavičius

Architect: Povilas Marozas

Graphic design and illustrations: Laura Grigaliūnaitė, Vanda Padimanskaitė

Technicians: Kazimieras Sližys, Stanislovas Lučunas

Friends and sponsors:

Lietuvos kultūros taryba

Vilniaus miesto savivaldybė

Vlinius 700

Omberg Group

Gatvės gyvos

Vilniaus viešasis transportas

Neakivaizdinis Vilnius

Photo by Saulius Žiūra