Mayor to Artists: “Kaunas Accents” Selection Follows a Simple Principle, “Beautiful or Not”

Kaunas Mayor Visvaldas Matijošaitis offered artists a blunt description of how the city chooses public artworks: “beautiful or not, the price works or does not.”

The remark came during a Sept. 4 meeting with artists from across Lithuania, although much of the event focused on presenting the “Living Walls” initiative and the “Kaunas Accents” platform rather than a detailed discussion of new ways to decorate the city.

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We receive comments in the public sphere that one person decides everything about the works participating in the competition. That is not true. The works are professionally reviewed, and there are several assessment stages.

The online public competition has operated for almost 10 years. Artists can submit ideas for works and installations, and city officials highlighted visualizations, drawings and cost estimates as key parts of applications.

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Every Tuesday and Thursday, as we say, there is a round table where we discuss all city matters, including the proposals received. Everyone you see here, along with more people from the administration, gathers, and the assessment is very simple: beautiful, not beautiful, the price is suitable, not suitable. We negotiate or we do not negotiate. We decide very simply and quite quickly.

Saulius Rimas, head of the city’s Urban Development and Heritage Division, pushed back against criticism that a single person decides which works receive support. “We receive comments in the public sphere that one person decides everything about the works participating in the competition. That is not true. The works are professionally reviewed, and there are several assessment stages,” he said.

Rimas said a professional working group made up of city council and administration representatives, architects and historians makes a recommendation to the administration director, who takes the final decision on funding. Matijošaitis then said the process was simpler than officials were making it sound: “Every Tuesday and Thursday, as we say, there is a round table where we discuss all city matters, including the proposals received. Everyone you see here, along with more people from the administration, gathers, and the assessment is very simple: beautiful, not beautiful, the price is suitable, not suitable. We negotiate or we do not negotiate. We decide very simply and quite quickly.”

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Often artists take the easiest route and submit visualizations in an abstract place, next to some tree or grass. The essential component of success is finding a suitable place for your work.

Rimas also urged artists to identify suitable locations for their projects instead of submitting designs for abstract spaces. He said the most successful accents are unexpected works placed where the artist notices something others have missed. Artists briefly presented ideas including a statue of Palemonas and a photography exhibition in Town Hall Square. Matijošaitis said the platform had helped realize 155 art projects and that more would follow. Up to 60 people attended the meeting.

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The most successful accents are those that are unexpected, which the artist notices themselves, something others have not noticed. That is why it is extremely difficult for us to come up with another place for you.