Mažeikiai Art School is implementing the project "(In)visible Signs of Mažeikiai City. Second Stage". The idea of the school's creative team is to create small format art pieces with integrated QR codes and install them in different places of Mažeikiai city, designated on the virtual route of tourist attractions - the map created by the Public Institution "Mažeikiai Tourism and Business Information Center". The goal is to reveal the stories of the forgotten places, which are important for the city's identity, i.e. "making the invisible visible".

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In the second stage of this project, we have decided to focus on the old part of the city and reveal a piece of the Mažeikiai Jewish community history, having noticed that this history is revealed very modestly - disproportionately to the historical contribution of Jews to the growth of the city, in the public spaces and life of the city.

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In the search of knowledge and inspiration for the project, the keepers of the historical memory were involved - the Mažeikiai Museum and the Telšiai Yeshiva, the branch of the Samogitian Museum "Alka". Four creative teams of students from the Mažeikiai Art School and their teachers "experienced" valuable concentrated information and got acquainted with the cultural heritage of the Jewish community of the region. Young creators - MDM students had the opportunity to touch the facts of Jewish history and creatively interpret them while creating together with their teachers - professional artists.

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This exhibition features four "invisible" city signs - works that will be installed in the places of the city of Mažeikiai, that will have an artistic lasting value, create a unique narrative of the city's visual signs, and will illustrate the city's history and uniqueness.

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1. "Central Pharmacy"

📍 Team: the pupil Žanna Chvisiukovič, teacher Adomas Petrauskas.

📍 Size and material of the work: Copper sheet, enamel, porcelain mass. 10 x 12 x 2 cm.

📍 The plastic sculptural sign is designed to mark the history of pharmacies and their significance for the health of the residents of the city of Mažeikiai.

📍 The work, using historical material – a surviving medicine box label from that era – creating an (in)visible sign and visual intrigue for passers-by.

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The history of the "Central Pharmacy" began in 1900, when a medicine warehouse was opened in Mažeikiai, where medicines were sold in bulk. During the First World War, the pharmacy was moved to new premises on the corner of Stoties and Laisvės streets, and was named "Central Pharmacy Meerovičius". In 1933, the pharmacy was sold to the Švarcas family. The owner was Bencijonas Švarcas, and the pharmacy manager was Naftalis Lapianskis, who was executed in Pavenčiai in 1941, along with other Jews from Mažeikiai district. The work will be installed at the pharmacy’s current location, at the corner of Stoties and Laisvės streets, on the windowsill of the Mažeikiai Henrikas Nagis Public Library building.

 

2. “Photographer Girša”

📍 Team: pupil Smiltė Beresnevičiūtė, teacher Laima Mikalauskienė.

📍 Size and material of the work: Stone mass. 25 x 20 x 20 cm.

📍 A plastic sculptural sign is intended to mark the place – Laisvės street (near the Mažeikiai Merkelis Račkauskas Gymnasium), where the talented photographer lived and worked.

📍 The work, using a collage of historical photographs taken by G. Gurvičius aims to remind the viewer of the photographer’s legacy.

Girša Gurvičius was considered the most professional photographer of the early 20th century (interwar period). Nowadays, he is an important photo chronicler of the city’s history.

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He was invited to immortalize important events and personalities, commemorating official city anniversaries. The photographer was the first innovator in Mažeikiai, who began creating photo postcards with unique views of the city.

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We do not know how the photographer had looked like. Even he had immortalized a number of people in his photographs, he did not leave behind his image. During World War II, he ended up in the Kaunas ghetto, later in the Dachau concentration camp, from which he never returned.

The work will be installed at the location of G. Gurvičius’ house – a photo studio, which was bombed in 1944 along with the entire photo archive.

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3. “Removed from the list”

📍 Team: pupil Beata Ivinskytė, teacher Giedrė Bernotavičienė.

📍 Size and material of the work: etched copper plates, enamel – 8.5 x 10 cm.

📍 The work is dedicated to the Jewish teachers and students of Mažeikiai Gymnasium, brutally "removed" from life.

📍 Artistic sign – textual and graphic compositions/collages from fragments of original documents related to Jewish teachers and students who worked at Mažeikiai Gymnasium.

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On July 30–31, 1941, in Mažeikiai Pavenčiai, according to preliminary data, 4 Jewish teachers and 21 students of Mažeikiai Gymnasium were executed. On August 27 of the same year, an entry appeared in the minutes of the school’s teachers’ council: "All Jewish students should be removed from the list of students of the gymnasium". The compositions from fragments of original documents were transferred to copper plates and will be installed on the steps of the main entrance of the Mažeikiai Merkelis Račkauskas Gymnasium.

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4. G. "Kagan’s Ice Cream"

📍 Team: pupil Neda Alčiauskaitė, teacher Vaida Stankuvienė.

📍 Size and material of the work: 20 x 20 cm., etched copper plate, enamel.

📍 A low-relief plate, the shape of which is inspired by the motif of puddles formed by melting ice under a wooden ice cream cart. The composition of the plaque includes fragments of the G. Kagan ice cream parlor logo and details of wooden carts.

📍 The copper plaque will be installed on the pavement of the M. Daukšos Street pedestrian walkway, on the former site of the G. Kagan ice cream parlor.

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In the period of interwar in Mažeikiai there was established an ice cream parlor on M. Daukšos Street. The ice cream parlor was owned by the Jew Girša Kagan. Ice creams were made and put in waffle scoops. The ice creams were transported around the city in wooden carts. In order to keep the ice creams cold, the carts were cooled naturally – by using ice cut from the Venta River in winter. This created a freezer effect. In the summer, when the ice cream gradually melted, puddles would remain on the pavement under the wooden carts, thus leaving traces of their presence. An interesting and unique logo of the ice cream parlor was a polar bear, lying on ice with a fish, which was a source of inspiration.