Concrete-sculpture symposium

1/4(From left to right) Vladas Urbanavičius, Vytautas Jakubauskas, Mindaugas Navakas, Kęstutis Musteikis, and Naglis Nasvytis by the concrete sculpture Moonlight on the grounds of the Construction Parts Factory, 1985. Photo: Raimondas Urbakavičius (courtesy of Raimondas Urbakavičius).

1/4Artists in front of Kęstutis Musteikis’s sculpture, 1984/85. Photo: Raimondas Urbakavičius (courtesy of Raimondas Urbakavičius).

1/4Mindaugas Navakas, Obstruction, 1984. Photo: Raimondas Urbakavičius (courtesy of Raimondas Urbakavičius).

1/4Ksenija Jaroševaitė, Lying, 1984. Photo: Raimondas Urbakavičius (courtesy of Raimondas Urbakavičius).

Organized on the outskirts of Vilnius, the concrete-sculpture symposium was initiated by the young sculptor Mindaugas Navakas, who was concerned with sculpture’s relationship with the environment and sought to overcome the closed nature of its form. The young members of the sculptors section of the LSSR Artists’ Union and the architect Vytautas Jakubauskas supported his initiative. Cheap industrial material—concrete—was used to create the sculptures. The artists built the sculptures in situ, taking into account the specifics of the place—the brutal industrial environment—which they saw as an advantage and a challenge for their work. Navakas’s innovative approach later influenced the formation of the notion of the “expanded field of sculpture” in Lithuania.