Vilnius Action Workshop + Exhibition: BOXING

2017, 24 September – 1 October

Collaboration with Agne Kucerenkaite during the Vilnius Action Workshop resulted in a project about Vilnius Jewish Boxing Community. Many champions and Olympic contenders were Jewish, and so is the current vice-president of the Lithuanian Professional Boxing Federation. As elsewhere in the world, boxing was (and is) a way for young men to escape from the ghettoes of the big cities. Boxing was (and is) a way to struggle against prejudice, deprivation, and poverty, and prevail. In the synagogue on Geliu street (exhibition space), which is still under reconstruction, the boxing ring was built. Besides, there was shown a video interview with Romas Gudziauskas, a president of Lithuanian Professional Boxing Federation.

More about the workshop:
The synagogue on Gėlių street is one of only eight such buildings to survive in Vilnius. It is currently undergoing extensive restoration works. A team of young designers was brought to address some important questions concerning the re-emergence of the building into the life of 21st-century Vilnius. It will likely play a role in the continuity of Jewish life in the city, but its future function is as yet undetermined. The presentation will consist of ideas, associations, and suggestions, not of definitive projects. They are all in some way connected to the long history of the building and of Jewish presence in Lithuania, but they are not intended as memorials. Instead, the presentations intend to serve as starting points for future projects, concerning questions that occupy many communities in the globalized world: how to weave strands of culture, tradition, heritage, religion, identity, and history into the fabric of contemporary life? 

Project management:
Vytautas Gečas (Performative Design Association, Vilnius)
Koen Kleijn (Design Academy Eindhoven)

Supported by:
Lithuanian Council for Culture
Lithuanian Jewish Community
Performative design association