Opening of Donatas Stankevičius’s exhibition “Legendary Past”

On February 5, 2026, at 5:30 p.m., the exhibition “Legendary Past” by Donatas Stankevičius will open at the Photography Museum. The exhibition will run until March 15, 2026.

Legendary Past – a visual narrative about a generation that grew up during the systemic upheavals in Lithuania. The photographs meticulously recreate the everyday life of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

Through cinematic frames, the author reconstructs personal experiences from childhood, adolescence, and the final years of school—encounters with people, and the situations lived through. These personal stories become universally recognizable symbols of a bygone era – depicted toys, the first skateboards, audio cassettes, chewing gum wrappers, and other period artifacts that testify to the transition from Soviet daily life to Western pop culture.

The series which began in 2019 as a master’s thesis at the Vilnius Academy of Arts artistically explores the theme of memory and addresses the lack of everyday imagery from Lithuania in the late 90s and early 2000s, which visual anthropologists often face. Looking at Legendary Past, one might wonder: are these stills from a film, or photographs pulled from an old family album?

The series not only constructs a nostalgically detailed landscape of the time but also invites reflection on the connections between identity, memory, and visual culture.

More: https://fotomuziejus.lt/.../donatas-stankevicius.../

Organiser – The branch of the Šiauliai Aušra Museum – the Photography Museum
Exhibition communication designer – Darius Linkevičius

Sponsors:
The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania
Company “Branduolinis”