29 September 2021

National Library to participate in EXPO 2020

The EXPO 2020 international exhibition which will take place in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, will see the participation of 192 countries. During this exhibition event, the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania will present an interactive story titled “Donelaitis – the Homer of Lithuania”. EXPO 2020 is expected to bring in 25 million visitors, like the previous EXPO shows. The exhibition will take place from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022.

The National Library, together with the project partners, will present an interactive story based on the excerpts from The Seasons (Metai), the first Lithuanian language poem by Kristijonas Donelaitis (1714–1780), pastor, poet and pioneer of Lithuanian fiction known as the Homer of Lithuania at Lithuania’s EXPO 2020 Pavilion. The poem has been translated into a large number of languages. It is the most famous work of Lithuanian literature which gives the most vivid depiction of the Lithuanian nation and literature in the early 19th century. In 1977, The Seasons was included in the UNESCO’s list of European literary masterpieces. The Seasons has been translated into 18 most popular foreign languages, and fragments of the poem have been translated into Yiddish, Estonian, Japanese, Latin, and Sorbian languages. The National Library stores all editions of the poem in its collections.

The exhibition visitors will have the opportunity to hear the sound excerpts from The Seasons in Lithuanian, English, French, Japanese, Greek, German, Spanish, and Italian languages. The latest edition, an Arabic translation of the poem, will also be unveiled at the exhibition.

Visitors will have the chance to see the fragments from the poem brought to life in the virtual multimedia reality. The exhibits of the manuscript documents of K. Donelaitis’s The Seasons will be placed in a display box with a rotary hologram positioned above it to disperse the textual composition and to project spatial images. The animated fragments of the texts, painting miniatures, visual excerpts, letters and words will be combined together into a unified composition. The graphic compositions of the writing will be combined with audio systems.

“Digitisation and links to modern virtual reality technology are important pre-conditions for successfully actualising the documentary heritage kept at the National Library. Technologies will serve as a bridge between traditional manuscripts, documentary heritage and the new reality. The modern visualisation of K. Donelaitis’s literary work fits perfectly with the motto of Expo 2020 Connecting Minds, Creating the Future,” Director General of the National Library Prof. Dr. Renaldas Gudauskas said.

The Director of the National Library will also participate in Expo 2020 Dubai’s Knowledge and Learning Week. His presentation will be delivered to a global audience. A meeting will be held from 12 to 18 December 2021 during which the opportunities of cooperation between the National Library of Lithuania and Dubai Library will be discussed.

Project partners: the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore; Vilnius Academy of Arts; the National Association of Creative and Cultural Industries; HoPro, a company specialising in cutting-edge interactive technologies; and Orse, an artist collective.