The artists demonstrated against tax increases outside the parliamentary building during a parliamentary debate on budget issues related to the economic crisis. The parliament passed additional tax increases on Thursday, the last in a series of tax hikes that began in January. Some artists have seen their taxes double.

Another increase is expected this summer. Film director and producer Audrius Stonys said that the artists decided to demonstate because “we don’t have any, have the tools, somehow, to influence this issue” other than “to speak loudly, that is the only thing we can do.” Charges of corruption have also been leveled at Lithuania’s culture ministry in recent months.

“They stopped so many projects,” said Gintaras Česonis, a photographer, adding that the rally intended to change the government’s “attitude” toward artists. “I am not used to being a very political person,” Stonys said. “Actually, my political actions are reduced to voting every year. But now … I feel that I have to be here.”

One book publisher said that “we are here to say” that “it’s absolutely strange and stupid” to tax artists just as all of Europe looks to Vilnius for cultural events. The rally was as much a political event as it was a cultural event in its own right. A few policemen looked on as the protestors held public concerts and read poetry. Speakers laced their criticism of the government with discourses on the role of art in society.

Skirmantas Valiulis, one of the speakers at the rally and a prominent art critic, said in an interview that the event gave artists a platform to air both political and apolitical concerns. “The question is,” he told the Washington Post, “how to combine in the right way, our national culture and the influences of global ones?” A banner fluttering on a stage nearby read: “Goodbye, culture?”

 

Valiulis admitted that “it helps” that Vilnius was singled out by the European Union this year, but the “celebration has to be alive, it has to be how it was this weekend,” referring to the city’s May 1-2 music festival, attended by thousands.

The festival, a brainchild of the wildly popular Lithuanian musician Andrius Mamontovas, brought musicians from all over the country to Vilnius’ streets, where they performed street-musician-style. A musical legend among Lithuanians, hundreds of musicians, from famous names to student bands, responded to Mamontovas’ personal invitation. During the event, Valiulis said, “we felt like, OK, it’s alive all around and we are Europeans.”

Some 20 years after the country’s independence, “it is clear that we are in a global space,” Valiulis said, “and there is lots of influence from that space on our culture.” As all eyes turn to the country’s for cultural activities this year, Valiulis argued that artists want the government to do more to protect uniquely Lithuanian artistic identity.

Thirty-one-year-old photographer Vilma Samulionyte agreed, saying that it’s important to Lithuanians that Europe sees a “living” culture in Vilnius this year. “Now this kind of street musician event is kind of continuing,” Samulionyte said. “Like this weekend, I heard too, that in some other cities the street musicians are all over and it’s like, it’s a living kind of thing. That’s what this critic, Valiulis, was saying that the event has to be alive, has to bring something.”

Video report and text  by Kristin Deasy

Translation: Vilma Samulionyte/Photos: Molly Radecki