Kauno Vienybės aikštė - kultūros centras

Abstract

The article deals with Kaunas Solidarity Square (Vienybės Square) as a specific cultural centre, i.e. national sacral centre having developed during the interwar period in the temporary capital of Lithuania of that time. Representation of the archaic cultural codes embodied in the square through the interplay of contemporary artistic forms helps to actualize a certain historically enduring cultural context important for integrity of social environment. The paper aims to reveal a complex of archaic cultural codes in the architectural reality of the Solidarity Square, i.e. the code of the Predecessor closely related with the code of Solidarity, which is represented and actualised in the consciousness of contemplators by certain defined signs functioning both on a visual semiotic level and conceptual level. Semantics of the following signs comes into focus: heroism represented in the monuments of familiar and anonymous personalities, both military and cultural; both traditional and village cemeteries, an eternal memorial fire; symbolic presentation of the road and towers; twilight in its connection with Egypt; the sacred cave and the pearl; the temple; the chapel, the royal sign, etc. In the consciousness of the visitors, the state of unity in the Solidarity Square is worked out in the manner of an archetypical waterfall that introduces the cosmogonic elements: Earth, Water, Fire and Air. In the cognitive process, both time and space lose their contours, and only the individual-social-divine-natural integral unity remains relevant. In fact, all this assures the purpose of the square as the cultural centre.