Ladislas Starewitch

   La gallerie Meno Parkass propose, à Kaunas, une nouvelle exposition et des projections de films autour de Ladislas Starewitch du 2 au 30 juin 2022. Cette manifestation prolonge et complète l’exposition qui s’est tenue à Vilnius en décembre dernier.
   Ces deux manifestations, auxquelles nous n'avons pas été associés, sont accompagnées d’une publication (Krzysztof Stanisławski : Władisław Starewicz – Pionier animmacji / Władisław Starewicz – A pioneer of animation, ka Warszawa – Kaunas 2019) dont le principal intérêt, pour nous, est la publication de photographies réalisées par L. Starewitch durant ses années lituaniennes pour la Société d'Agriculture de Varsovie et publiées dans des journaux en langue polonaise en 1911-1912-1913.
   Kaunas est évidemment une ville essentielle dans la vie et l’œuvre de L. Starewitch. Il y a vécu de 1886 à 1912 environ, ce sont ses années de formation, d’entrée dans la vie active et de ses débuts dans le cinéma… Nous avons retracé dans un article publié en 2015 le contexte culturel dans lequel ces années se sont déroulées et la ville de Kaunas qui rend un hommage permanent à L. Starewitch, lui a déjà consacré une manifestation à l'hôtel de ville en 2019.

La Belle Lucanide, 1910, © Collection Martin-Starewitch
film réalisé à Kaunas (Kovno)
 

Présentation de l'exposition de juin 2022 par ses concepteurs :

Exhibition time: 02–30 06 2022
Venue: Meno Parkas Gallery (Rotušės a. 27, 44279 Kaunas, Lithuania)
Władysław Starewicz. A PIONEER OF WORLD ANIMATION

Project Władysław Starewicz – A PIONEER OF WORLD ANIMATION is dedicated to the person and work of the author of the first in history movies of puppet film animations.

He started gymnasium in Kaunas but he was relegated and he graduated from Dorpat (today Tartu in Estonia), an important center of Polish culture and patriotic movements in the Russian Empire. In Kaunas, especially in the Municipal Museum (now the Telecommunications Museum), which had its branch Natural and Ethnographic, young Władysław watched crafted insects in museum display cases. He also watched them during trips to the forests near Kaunas, he was an avid entomologist. In the home studio, though some sources also mention a small studio in the Museum building, the first puppet animation from Starewicz was created "Fawn fight" in 1910.

A young 28-year-old photographer and illustrator, he took a job at the Museum, which also recommended him making film documentation. To cope with new tasks, but also to develop his creative activity.

Starewicz bought a film camera in Moscow and that's how his cinematographic career began. Developing his interests and film technique, young Starewicz in the following years realized a few more extensive animated films, which the viewers liked very much. In 1912, already as a 30-year-old, along with his wife, from which he collaborated on in the production of films, he moved to Moscow, where he became one of the most important film producers of the time Chanżonkow. He brought with him, created in Kaunas, the animated film "Beauty Lukanida ", which initiated his all-Russian, but also world-wide career. In seven years he has made several outstanding and distributed around the world, among others in the USA and China, puppet films.

The project includes an exhibition devoted to the artist based on collections of photographs from Lithuanian and Polish collections. The second part is a review of important ones films from the Russian period. The third elaboration and publication of Starewicz's catalogue, the first of this kind of album publications in Polish and English. The fourth cycle expanded virtual on Facebook.

 

Organizer: The Centre of Contemporary Art in Toruń
Partners: Meno Parkas Gallery, Polish Institute in Vilnius, Lithuanian Artists' Association
Project’s curator: Krzysztof Stanisławski
Lithuanian curator: Arvydas Žalpys
Coordinators:Izabella Stanisławska, Paulina Kuhn
Lithuanian coordinator: Airida Rekštytė, Lina Mikalauskienė, Emilija Šneiderytė
Film curators: Radosław Osiński, Piotr Waśniewski
Production: Wojciech Ruminski

 Co-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland within the framework of the Inspiring Culture Programme, Lithuanian Council for Culture, Polish Institute in Vilnius, Lithuanian Artists' Association.