The City of Brno and the Lithuanian City of Kaunas are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their partnership, marked by the Czech Days in Kaunas in spring, and Lithuanian Days in Brno this weekend, 4-5 October, featuring exhibitions, cultural events, and youth sports.
Over 30 years of partnership, Brno and Kaunas have seen their most intensive cooperation in the fields of culture, education and city administration, which are reflected in the program of the Lithuanian Days in Brno. Two photography exhibitions will focus on modern architecture in Lithuania and in Kaunas. On Friday, the CIT cinema will host a screening of the film ‘Emilija z Leje svoboda’, a drama about the fight for freedom in Soviet Lithuania in the 1970s. On Saturday, the celebrations culminate with a concert by the Kaunas Big Band at Kabinet Muz.
The program will also be complemented by Czech-Lithuanian youth basketball and volleyball matches, following on from spring matches in Kaunas between the same teams. May’s Czech Days in Kaunas had a similar program, with a musical performance by the duo Ardašev, a screening of the Czech film ‘The Ice Doll’, and a 3D model exhibition of Brno’s architecture.
You can find more about the cooperation between the two cities at https://www.brno.cz/w/kaunas-litva.
Program
Friday, 4 October
- 11am – Opening of the exhibition “20 views from Lithuania”, Masaryk University Faculty of Arts, building D, Arne Nováka 1. The exhibition will last until October 20, 2024.
- 4pm – Opening of the photo exhibition of modern Kaunas architecture – “Martynas Plepys: My Modernism”, Faculty of Architecture of the Brno Technical University, Poříčí 5. The exhibition will last until November 8, 2024.
- 4:40pm – Basketball: Basket Brno and Kaunas Basketball Academy Žalgiris, Bohunice campus, sports hall, Kamenice 753/5.
- 6:04pm – Screening of the film ‘Emilija z Leje svobody’, CIT cinema, Radnická 4. A historical drama about the 1970s in Kaunas, Lithuania, about the riots that followed the self-immolation of “Lithuanian Jan Palach” Romas Kalanta, and about the fight for freedom of Lithuanians during the Soviet occupation.
Saturday, October 5, 2024
- 10am – Volleyball: TJ Sokol Jehnice and Startas Kaunas, ZŠ Blanenská 1.
- 1:30pm – Basketball: Basket Brno and Kaunas Basketball Academy Žalgiris, Morenda, Wienská 9.
- 6:30 – Kaunas Big Band, MÚZ office, Sukova 4.
