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Telling about investing in strengthening the justice system through artistic installations
“Justice obliges for never stopping”, “People change, not borders”, “A fair, open, responsible and modern court closer to everyone”, the message that has already been embedded by the Lithuanian Police – “Defend. Protect. Help” – all these slogans have already found their place this week near the buildings of justice in Kaunas and Šiauliai. The facades of court, prosecutor's office, police or prison buildings, which are extended and brought closer to the public through a play of text, light and unexpected form text, send a message about the rule of law, which is being strengthened alongside Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
In implementing the EEA and Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014-2021 Programme “Justice and Home Affairs“, the Central Project Management Agency (hereinafter – the CPMA), together with a young artist Živilė Minkutė, in the next two weeks, will install artistic installations near the buildings of justice in Vilnius, Kaunas, Klaipėda, Šiauliai and Panevėžys, that will be on display for several days. The purpose of the installations - to tell the public about the investment in the field of justice that has been launched in Lithuania.
There are plans to invest nearly 39 million euros in a little more than four years, and most of these funds dedicated for the improvement of the justice system of our country are allocated by Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. The following actions will be done through various means of the programme: the efficiency of the Lithuanian court system and the prosecutor's office will be increased, the penitentiary system will be improved, prevention will be ensured and the response system in cases of domestic violence will be strengthened, police capabilities in the fight against crime will be improved.
The message of investment is spread by trying to make the buildings of justice to talk
“In this case, society is the main beneficiary, despite the fact that we invest in the competencies of the employees of specific institutions, implement various systems that increase efficiency and transparency. An individual whom we strive to provide with the highest quality services, and to increase his confidence in the country's legal system. Therefore, when we were looking for ways to tell about this investment, we didn’t want to limit ourselves to an informational poster. The goal was to be visible in places which, with their façades and surroundings, partly shape the image of the justice system. We therefore decided, together with the partners of the programme, to make the buildings of justice in five largest cities of Lithuania to talk about the future investment, and to install artistic installations next to them”, - tells Rosita Saukaitė, Head of Communications at the CPMA.
Three different types of artistic installations will find their place simultaneously near the facades of the buildings in the cities thus complementing each other: arched installations will be installed near the court and police buildings, light paths reflecting passers-by and the environment and calling for bold approach closer will be settled near the buildings of prosecutor's office, and the fences of the remand centers or correctional facilities will speak through artistic visualizations saying that both re-education and resocialization processes are multi-layered, and, on the one hand, the fence consolidates and strengthens justice by giving a sense of being safe here, on this side, and, on the other hand, calls for contemplation that people not borders are the ones who are responsible for changes.
The installations are multilayer: they contain many elements of light, reflecting surfaces which send the message that attitudes live in us, and, in a large part, we are who shape our environment. Therefore, not only the speaking buildings talk to passers-by, but also images reflected in the installations.
Živilė Minkutė, the author of the installation, talks about its idea: “It is a presentation of entering a well-known and old structure in a different way, the call for seeing it in other colours, for looking not necessarily at something that creates the feeling of tension. When I started looking for a solution for the implementation of the idea, I posed a goal for myself - to change the attitudes from a visual perspective. In my opinion, it is time to look at everything as a whole, not as at separate and isolated structures. There is always a layer and we see phenomena, situations and the environment around us through it. For this reason, I used many colour filters in the installation. They are arranged at different angles, because nothing is uniform, and a lot of things depend on the angle of our approach“.
By the end of the week, the artistic installations can be seen in Kaunas and Šiauliai, later they will be transferred to Panevėžys, Klaipėda and Vilnius.