On April 9, 6PM at Kaunas Photography Gallery curator Thomas Schirmböck will give a lecture. This lecture is held in the context of the exhibition “The Sweet Life of the Nomenklatura” which is on view at the National Museum of Lithuania, House of History.
This exhibition reveals the soft underside of a hard system — the privileges of the Soviet elite, captured through the discerning eye of legendary Lithuanian photographer Antanas Sutkus. What began as a response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022 has become more than a historical reflection. It is a warning. A reminder of what happens when authoritarianism becomes routine — and comfortable.
In this lecture, Schirmböck will open up the curatorial process: unexpected discoveries in the archive, never-before-seen photographs that illuminate the inner world of the nomenklatura — both staged and unscripted, rigid and indulgent. Sutkus’s lens is precise, ironic when necessary, always alert. His images expose a “classless class” from both within and without.
The curator will also reflect on his own position: how to reveal a system without replicating its allure? How to exhibit ideology without aestheticising it? And above all — how to speak about the past when its shadow still moves through the present?
“The Sweet Life of the Nomenklatura” is on view at the National Museum of Lithuania, House of History, until 11 May 2025.
Meanwhile, the exhibition “People I’ve Met” by Inta Ruka is currently on view at Kaunas Photography Gallery.