The Baltic Way Video installation

26.08.2009 - 04.09.2009

Curated and presented by: Giedra Grakauskienė, Ingutė Sorakaitė, Liudas Grakauskas, Andrius Kasparavičius, Mantas Sauja

Venue: 12 Star Gallery, European Commission, 8 Storey's Gate, London SW1 
Tube: St James' Park / Westminster 

Buses: 11, 24, 148, 211 

Starts on 26 August from 10am-6pm, Monday-Friday until  4 September 2009  (excl. Bank Holiday on 31 August)

On August 23, 1989, far behind the Iron Curtain, and still two months prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall, more than one million Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians joined hands to create a 600 km long human chain from the foot of Toompea in Tallinn to the foot of the Gediminas Tower in Vilnius, crossing Riga and the Daugava river on the way, showing a formerly unseen solidarity and drive for freedom that united the three countries. They named it Baltic Way. 

It was the Baltic way to remind the world about the 50th anniversary of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, the Soviet-Nazi agreement instigated by Stalin and Hitler that sealed the fate of Europe, and affected the entire world. This pact, and the secret clauses it contained, divided Europe in two spheres of influence: USSR and Germany, which led to the World War II. As a result, the three Baltic States - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia - were erased from the maps.

The Baltic Way as an impressive act of non-violent protest and solidarity whilst calling for sovereignty is a living example of the culture of peace, opening up access to information and leading to the acknowledgement of the secret treaty and its tragic consequences for the whole world. Public mobilization to break free peacefully from Soviet occupation was a principal desire of the Baltic people and was successfully implemented with firmness and patience in the course of the next few years. Perceptions of this historical time and the extraordinary events that took place do not change in the context of ideological modifications, failed utopian ideals and unavoidable social processes.
 
The video installation includes footage from various sources (official and private, some of them shown for the first time) documenting the Baltic Way from Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian perspectives. The material is edited in three sequences, which document not only different views of this impressive human chain, but also close-ups of the people, rituals, life-style, and firm political determination. This is an exceptional opportunity to see and explore the momentous time of challenges and opportunities that the Baltic countries lived through 20 years ago.
At the end of July 2009 the Baltic Way was added to UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.
             
Exhibition organised together with the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania to the UK