2022 Kaunas
Grande Saison SanuaK was a programme of artistic guided tours presented in the frame of Kaunas European Capital of Culture 2022. International artists were paired with local tour guides to collaboratively adapt an existing art project to the Kaunas context within the scope of a one-week residency period.
The title Grande Saison SanuaK refers to the 1921 Spring series of tours and excursions organized by the Dada group in Paris, entitled “Grande Saison Dada”. In line with Dada’s playful anarchistic and all-negating stance, the programme challenged the hierarchical nature of knowledge, playfully reappropriated touristic practices and undermined the hegemonic authority of the guide.
The programme was developed before the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. While attempting to balance personal and professional positions, the tour guides, artists and curators decided to continue with the project as planned but subtly adjust particular aspects of the artworks. As a result, some of the tours engaged more directly with transgenerational trauma, reflected on the historical connection between modernist architecture and war in Kaunas, and were presented in English and Lithuanian in order to accommodate both local and newer-local audiences alike.
Grande Saison SanuaK was a collaboration between B_Tour and Ekskursas, a non-formal, volunteer-based initiative and collective of tour guides from Kaunas with a specific focus on modernist architecture.
Participating artists: Gianni Maccaroni, Mirja Busch, and Anna Schiefer & Gabriel Hensche
Guides: Eglė Urmanavičiūtė, Indrė Urbelytė, and Nerijus Babrauskas
Lianne Mol 