The Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) is the largest venue for contemporary art in the Baltic States, with an exhibition space of 2400 m². The CAC is a non-collection based institution committed to developing a broad range of international and Lithuanian exhibition projects as well as presenting a wide range of public programmes, including lectures, seminars, performances, film and video screenings and live new music events. The building was inaugurated in 1968 as the Art Exhibition Palace and was run as a branch of the Lithuanian Museum of Art until 1988. Since 1992, the CAC has been an independent institution principally funded by the Lithuanian Ministry of Culture. In the 1990s the CAC was gifted a Fluxus Archive by the Silverman Collection (Detroit) in commemoration of Lithuanian Fluxus co-founder George Maciunas. The Centre keeps it on permanent display.

  The CAC organises approximately five/six large-scale exhibition projects annually (including retrospectives, surveys and international group shows) together with up to 15 smaller projects. The CAC is well known internationally as the home of the Baltic Triennial of International Art – one of the major contemporary festival exhibitions in Northern Europe. in 2005 "the IX Baltic Triennial: BMW (Black Market Worlds)" was positively reviewed by international specialist press. And in 2009 "the X Baltic Triennial: Urban Stories" was the lynchpin contemporary art event in the national program of "Vilnius – European Capital of Culture".

  The CAC also produces exhibitions abroad. In 2009, it presented a Frieze Project in London produced by Lithuanian artist Mindaugas Navakas, titled "Break the Windows, Snatch the Crystals", that drew world press attention. Recently, the CAC contributed to an off-site alternative and site-specific sculpture project in rural Latvia with the meta-exhibition "SWAN SWALLOW BONFIRE ROSEMARY RECITAL" (2010); and also collaborated on a five-city French-Lithuanian exchange project that ran for the second half of 2008. In 2001 and 2007 the CAC was the commissioning institution of the Lithuanian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale with artists Deimantas Narkevicius and Gediminas & Nomeda Urbonas, respectively. The CAC has also collaborated with institutions in the Czech Republic, Germany and Estonia to present the touring project FLUXUS East (2007–2008), and was a partner institution, co-producer, and a venue in the international exhibitions „Holiday In“ (2007) „On Mobility“ (2006), „Populism“ (2005) and „Who If Not We…?" (2004–2005).

George Maciunas Fluxus Cabinet

  The CAC is reopening its permanent exposition of the George Maciunas Fluxus Cabinet, which toured for three years to several museums in Europe as a part of the international exhibition "Fluxus East: Fluxus Networks in Central Eastern Europe". In 1997 the Cabinet was donated to the CAC as a gift from the Gilbert and Lila Silverman Collection; the world's largest collection of Fluxus works, and curated by the influential historian of Fluxus movement Jon Hendricks. The Cabinet consists of nearly 100 objects and presents works of many most important Fluxus artists, including George Maciunas, George Brecht, Dick Higgins, Alison Knowles, Shigeko Kubota, Ben Vautier, Mieko Shiomi, Henry Flynt, La Monte Young, Yoko Ono and Ay-O. The collection of the Cabinet (which includes the scores and visual documentation of Fluxus 'events', photos from Fluxus festivals in Wuppertal, Nice and New York, Fluxus newspapers and other editions) reveals the interdisciplinary nature of this influential artistic movement and its practices, which changed notions about visual arts in the 1960s.

  Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday 12:00 - 20:00. (Closed during National Holidays.)

  Tickets: full price 8 LTL; with concession - 4 LTL. Free entry on Wednesdays. (Special events are priced individually.)

Café

The CAC has a café that is a favourite among Vilnius artists.

The CAC café is opened daily from 11am till midnight.

Contact information

Contemporary Art Centre

Vokieciu St. 2; LT- 01130 Vilnius, Lithuania

Phone

+370 5 2121945 (CAC ticket office)

+370 5 2608960 (CAC program coordinators)

+370 687 85713 (CAC press and promotions)

E-mail: info@cac.lt