Vilnius: MO Museum Opens in the Building Designed by Libeskind

The MO Museum for contemporary Lithuanian art opens in a spectacular building designed by Daniel Libeskind

With the opening of the MO Museum, Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania, widens its museum offering and opens to contemporary art with over 5,000 works including paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and sculptures made by Lithuanian artists from the ’60s to today.

The spectacular building designed by starchitect Daniel Libeskind spreads over about 3,500 sq m and harmoniously connects outdoor and indoor spaces, public and private, and has been conceived as a cultural gateway linking the past and the future. The internal courtyard, the core of the architecture, cuts through the entire building and features a dramatic staircase connecting a plaza at street level with an open terrace on the roof.

The interiors have been designed like an open space where visitors are invited to interact and connect with art. To offer a dynamic experience that is always new, the museum hosts only temporary exhibitions – the main exhibition lasts six months and takes place in the Grand Hall, while four minor exhibitions take place in the adjacent spaces – in addition to events such as film screenings, concerts and conferences.

The inaugural exhibition, ‘All Art is About Us’ running until February 18th, 2019, curated by Raminta Jurénaité, analyzes the rapid change of a country that has always been ready to face new challenges – the post-war period, the Soviet thaw, the stagnation of Brezhnev’s period, the relief that came with perestroika, the independence movement Sąjūdis and the restoration of the Lithuanian state. [Text Laura Galimberti]