19 Oct 2015

Day 5. Vilnius Talking Statues (Sculptures)

I would like to talk a little bit about a really intresting idea of Vilnius Talking Statues.

 So, you just have to find and come to one of these 15 Talking Statues and, of course, you should have your mobile phone. You scan QR code from the Statue and suddently you will have an incomming call. And guess what? Yes, you are right! Gediminas  - Grand Duke of Lithuania is calling! You are sitting on the Cathedral Square and listening to him. I loved that so much!
All 15 Statues are talking in Lithuanian as well as in English.

Official website of this project:
http://www.mmcentras.lt/idomybes/9#zemelapis-7684
You can find here the list of the Statues and a map to find them.

As Modern Art Centre ( Modernaus meno centras) states three cities in Europe: Copenhagen, London and Manchester have Talking Statues. Vilnius  brought this idea in 2015 as the fourth city in the world.

Which I loved the most? Of course Žemaitė! Žemaitė is the most famous Lithuanian female writer, but this is only a mere fact which does not determine why I like this sculpture so much.


Žemaitė at Žemaitės square

Why I loved her - is of her unique language. Since Žemaitė is from Žemaitija ethnographical region ( Samogitia in English), she speaks Zemaitiskai ( a local Samogitian dialect). Samogitian dialect differs remarkably from Lithuanian. So as you listen to Zemaite, you listen like a foreign language :)  Besides, she speaks English also with interference of  some Samogitian words, like Dear Tamista (Sir or Madam). It's just adorable!

One of the Talking Statues is the Statue of American rock singer Frank Zappa.

the pedestal for the sculpture
was created by architect Valdas Ozarinskas

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