On Wednesday in Kaunas, at the Reading Room of the National Institute of Architecture, Dr Oxana Gourinovitch, a researcher at RWTH Aachen University, will present the book Raising the Curtain: Operatic Modernism in the Soviet Republics. The book offers an in-depth overview and comparative analysis of one of Lithuania’s most iconic buildings – the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre in Vilnius.
The mentioned Nijolė Bučiūtė’s 1974 building is compared in the book (Raising the Curtain: Operatic Modernism in the Soviet Republics; Lithuanian: Uždanga pakyla: operinis modernizmas Sovietų respublikose) with the Belarusian State Academic Musical Theatre in Minsk, designed by another woman architect, Oksana Tkachuk, and completed in 1981.
In the publication, the researcher examines how modernist architecture shaped and communicated the self-image of “new nations” – Belarus and Lithuania – shedding light on long-ignored nation-building processes in the Soviet Union and the role construction played in them. This helps to illuminate the forces that led to the regime’s collapse, bringing architecture’s role and connections to the foreground.
The book was published by Spector Books, a renowned architecture publishing house based in Leipzig. The presentation will be moderated by architect Matas Šiupšinskas – a journalist, author of academic and publicist articles, radio programme producer, and Head of the Architecture Fund’s criticism platform Aikštėje.
Oxana Gourinovitch is a Belarusian architectural historian, curator, and architect based in Germany. A significant part of her research focuses on Soviet-era architecture and cultural institutions in the former Soviet republics. In her academic work, she often explores how modernist architecture and performative spaces shaped post-war national identities in Eastern Europe.
The book presentation, with the author in attendance, will take place at the Reading Room of the National Institute of Architecture in Kaunas, on Kęstučio Street. 19. The event starts at 17:00. The event is organised by the National Institute of Architecture and the Architecture Fund. The discussion will be held in English.
