Iron Gates

Iron Gates

“Iron Gates” is a hybrid lecture by artist Lukas Mykolaitis, presenting research conducted over the past two years. The entire city of Kaunas serves as the playground, where historical facts, preserved artefacts, and archival material recorded at different time periods interact with practices of walking and observing, personal childhood experiences, and butterfly collecting.

At the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, Kaunas was transformed into one of the main defensive points of the Russian Empire. The number of imperial soldiers stationed there quickly surpassed the local population, and the vast military infrastructure complex that spread across the city’s spaces forever changed the spatial and socio-cultural identity of the city. The forts, warehouses, churches, trenches, and railway systems remain to this day as reminders of this. Historical sources also mention a fence that once surrounded the territory of Kaunas, referred to by the townspeople as the “iron fence” or “iron gates.” After Lithuania regained independence, this fence was dismantled, and its history would have likely been forgotten. However, careful examination of archival photographs of Kaunas revealed that the old iron structure was not destroyed but rather transformed—its fragments now enclose private houseyards, churches, schools, and factories on the outskirts of the city. The remnants of the iron fence, scattered throughout the city, in this research become a tool for traveling through time and a symbol that helps to discuss uncomfortable historical memory, feelings of insecurity, and concepts of masculinity.

The author offers an alternative to conventional historical research and, through photography, video material, memories, drawings, and other means of recording events, seeks to answer the question of how the reverberations of a military past affect contemporary society and how this is reflected in personal history.