What the Flames Did Not Destroy: Treasures of the Ceikiniai Church and Images by Monika Žaltauskaitė-Grašienė

Ceikiniai is a small town with approximately 200 inhabitants in the Ignalina district. On 5 April 2016, a fire destroyed the Church of the Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Ceikiniai, which was an excellent example of the tendencies of eighteenth-century sacral wooden architecture. The interior space of the church was decorated by valuable altars and paintings from that period, later works by folk masters, and liturgical implements; only a small part of them has survived. The fire in the Ceikiniai church is reminiscent of a great many similar fires that destroyed the prayer houses of some villages and towns in Lithuania.
 
The preservation and failure to preserve the wooden cultural heritage is a hot topic in Lithuanian society and is often reflected in works of contemporary art. Along with the treasures that have survived the fire in the Ceikiniai church, works by the prominent Lithuanian textile artist Monika Žaltauskaitė-Grašienė are presented in the exhibition. In her works woven in the digital jacquard technique, the artist uses the language of contemporary art which shows that the heritage transformed by devastating fire can arouse strong emotions and reveal a live relation to the past. Such relation is reflected in the artist’s attempt to show the smile of the sculpture of the Blessed Virgin Mary that has turned into charcoal, the beauty of its garment folds, or in the attempt to raise from the ashes the prayer house of the village community.


The Ceikiniai church, the elements of its décor, liturgical vessels and implements perfectly reflect the tendencies of sacral art characteristic of Eastern Lithuania from the 18th to the 20th century. In 2006, as an inventory of valuable art items was made, part of the liturgical vestments no longer used in the Ceikiniai church, a monstrance from the second part of the eighteenth century, a twentieth-century Crucifix, and a cross of funerary processions were taken to the Church Heritage Museum of Vilnius Archdiocese. Thus, these items have been preserved, and the importance of the museum’s mission was confirmed. A valuable historicist chalice, which had been transferred to Mielagėnai, and a tin candleholder from the end of the 18th century, which had been taken to the bell tower, were absent from the church during the fire. Some treasures have miraculously survived, e.g., an impressive eighteenth-century silver monstrance of great artistic and historical value, which was held in the armoire in the sacristy, escaped fire.
 
Monika Žaltauskaitė-Grašienė studied textile at Kaunas Faculty of Vilnius Academy of Arts, and from 2009 is an associate professor of the Textile Department of this faculty. The artist’s works have been exhibited in more than 50 group and solo exhibitions in Lithuania, Estonia, Belgium, Latvia, Poland, Germany, Austria, Sweden, Russia, Iran, Portugal, USA, India, United Kingdom, Ukraine and Spain. The artist is a winner of a number of local and international awards. Her work is characterized by a conceptual approach to textile. In her newest works, the garment folds of the sculpture captured by the artist are woven with the help of photographic manipulation. In this way, the primary form of textile seems to be restored, although it is totally transformed and turned into a flat fabric creating a 3D illusion. The theme of the heritage of Christian culture accompanies Monika Žaltauskaitė-Grašienė’s creative pursuits, in which art researchers notice a harmonious balance between tradition and modernity.
Exhibition organisers: Violeta Indriūnienė, Indraja Kubilytė, Sigita Maslauskaitė-Mažylienė, Rita Pauliukevičiūtė, Sandra Stonytė, Birutė Valečkaitė
Architect and designer: Ieva Cicėnaitė
Sponsors: Archdiocese of Vilnius, Lithuanian Council for Culture, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania
The organizers are grateful to Nijolė Laurutėnienė, Janė Martinkėnienė, Romutis Matkevičius, Kęstutis Puodžiukas, Rev. Marijonas Savickas




FUNDING FOR THE MUSEUM IS PROVIDED BY

Vilniaus Akivyskupija          
 
   

Informational sponsors

                   bernardinai.lt
         

Sponsors

       Domus Maria