Art creation in the Kaunas ghetto: Issues of the representation of reality

Giedrė Jankevičiūtė Nerijus Šepetys

The publication documents the exhibition held at the Historical Presidency, focused on the work of artists in the Kaunas Ghetto. The story of the life and work of four artists recalls the history of the Kaunas Ghetto, reveals its unknown pages, and presents the efforts of people imprisoned in the ghetto to preserve their testimonies and memories of reality, using photography, works of art and design. A separate part of the catalogue is the memory of the ghetto and its formation. Perhaps for the first time, the authors of the publication touch on the issue of the relationship between the original, copy and substitute, gathering and publicizing visual testimonies of the history of the ghetto. The research, which culminated in the exhibition and its publication, was conducted at the Faculty of History of Vilnius University.

The history of the Kaunas ghetto remains a haunting, unhealed and therefore unsettling wound in our history. It is this haunting anxiety mixed with academic curiosity that prompted us to unite for a joint study, which, as we hoped, would help answer at least some of the unanswered or doubtful questions about the Holocaust in Lithuania and specifically in Kaunas.