Lithuania – Guest of Honour at the Bologna Children's
Book Fair 2011
The biggest and the most important book fair in the Baltic
countries - International Vilnius Book Fair is the main annual meeting
place of publishers, book sellers, writers and reading public, it is a
well-known cultural activity in Lithuania, important event for both,
book-lovers and the trade. The Vilnius Book Fair is one of the main
cultural events in Lithuania mainly devoted to the reader, this gives a
chance to the Lithuanian and foreign authors to meet their audience
live.
Exhibitors of the Fair are represented by publishers, book sellers,
joint stands of foreign countries, scientific institutes, publishing
centres of universities, public institutions, cultural centres, press
and media, museums and galleries, etc.
The distinctive feature of the Vilnius Book Fair is the abundance of
cultural events, especially meetings with the well known Lithuanian and
foreign writers. Cultural programme attracts thousand of book-lovers
from Lithuania and neighbouring countries. Every year the Vilnius Book
Fair highlights one concrete topic.
IT IS REALLY WORTH VISITING !
Creative studio “You Can Create a Book”
A unique event that was born at the Vilnius Book Fair in 2002, and is
held solely in it. The author of the studio - graphic artist, book
artist Sigutė Chlebinskaitė with her team invites visitors of the fair
to take part in the creative workshops, readings, meetings with the
creators of Lithuanian children's literature, book illustrators from
Lithuania and foreign countries. The aim of the studio is to show the
development of the book from the ancient times to nowadays, to teach
paper production, book binding modes, illustration techniques.
Discussion club
The Vilnius Book Fair Discussion Club adds more intellectual content to
the Fair. Events held in the Discussion club are not associated with
any specific publishing house or new publication. The well-known
Lithuanian and foreign representatives of culture, art and science take
part in the club’s discussions.
Art exhibitions
During the Vilnius Book Fair, exhibitions of the works of painters,
book illustrators, photographers well-known in Lithuania and foreign
countries, video and sound installations, most of which are organised
in Lithuania for the first time, are held every year.
Children‘s Hall
Traditionally children have their own place in the Vilnius Book Fair,
where they can play freely and the events dedicated for them do not
"interfere" with more serious interests of the adults and take place on
the specially installed "stage for children".
The Long Friday night ends with music and poetry.
The exhibition Illustrarium: Contemporary Lithuanian Children’s
Book Illustration presents 32 most outstanding illustrators of the
recent decade and their works displaying a colourful panorama of
children’s book illustrations of various genres and styles.
It introduces works by three generations of Lithuanian illustrators.
Artists of the senior generation, who started their creative activities
in the 8th-9th decade of the 20th century during the Soviet period in
Lithuania, have been actively creating in this field until the present
days. Many of them are bright personalities acknowledged on the
international stage whose works have been appreciated and awarded on
numerous occasions; these include Stasys Eidrigevičius, Kęstutis
Kasparavičius, Rimvydas Kepežinskas, Mikalojus Povilas Vilutis,
Leonardas Gutauskas, Irena Daukšaitė-Guobienė and others.
A vast majority of Lithuanian children’s book illustrators are artists
of the middle generation whose skills developed under the influence of
the rich national graphic art and book art traditions. Having lived
through the period of fundamental changes in the country, they are
unique in their search for an individual style. The most outstanding
illustrators of this generation are: Rimantas Rolia, Eglė
Gelažiūtė-Petrauskienė, Rolandas Rimkūnas, Eglė Kuckaitė, Agnė Indrė
Každailytė (Agnes Indre) and others. Quite a few of them have also
tried the art of writing and become both authors and illustrators of
children’s books, namely Paulius Juodišius, Marius Jonutis, Laisvydė
Šalčiūtė and others.
The exhibition also introduces works by the artists of the young
generation. These artists represent the new Lithuanian culture in which
a shift is taking place towards the dominance of the visual. Their
creative activity has already left a bright trace on Lithuanian book
art and illustrations; these include Sigutė Chlebinskaitė, Rasa
Jonikaitė (Joni), Lina Dūdaitė, Jurga Šarmavičiūtė, Ieva Juknytė, Vaiva
Lingytė and others.
The exhibition invites to take a deeper look at contemporary Lithuanian
children’s books, discover their form and illustration trends and get
to know the rich Lithuanian children’s literature and its remarkable
artists.
Organizers of the Fair
Lithuanian Exhibition Centre LITEXPO,
Lithuanian Publishers Association
International Cultural Programme Centre.
Organizer of cultural programme – The International Cultural Programme
Centre / Books from Lithuania.
Cultural programme supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic
of Lithuania.
Information on the Fair
www.vilniusbookfair.lt
www.lithuanianculture.lt
Lithuanian Culture Institute
Z. Sierakausko 15
LT- 03105 Vilnius
Lithuania
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