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International youth group performed at Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum

Project "Sound in the Silence"

How can art help young people relive and understand some of the most difficult pages from the history of the last century? Students from Croatia, Hungary, Germany and Lithuania visited the Ninth Fort of the Kaunas Fortress Museum to take part in the eighth edition of the educational project Sound in the Silence. The 19th-century fortress, which witnessed a Nazi crime during the Second World War, became the site of interdisciplinary workshops for young people for more than a week. The result of their work was the final performance, that took place at the Museum premises (Žemaičių pl. 73, Kaunas) on 3 October. The project was delivered by the European Network Remembrance and Solidarity with support of other partners involved in the specially formed consortium including Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum.

Built as part of the defensive fortifications on the western border of the Russian Empire, the Kaunas fortress came under the control of Nazi Germany in 1941. It was then transformed into a place of execution for some 50,000 prisoners, mostly of Jewish origin. The Ninth Fort’s uneasy and complex past was the starting point for 2022 Sound in the Silence: an international project at the intersection of art, education and history. Its participants – students aged 14–18 – came to Kaunas to take part in activities and workshops led by educators and artists within the walls of the historic fortress.

Direct contact with history inspired young people and their teachers to become involved in artistic activities together: the young artists turned their reflections and observations into a performance based on sound, word and movement. They were assisted by the rapper and producer Dan Wolf (USA), the choreographer Katarina Rampackova (Slovakia), the performer Sean Palmer (UK), the facilitator responsible for a group dynamic Tetiana Krukovska (Ukraine) and educators from the Ninth Fort Museum. The result of their work were on display on 3 October at the Museum.  

The performance was followed by a discussion with the artists, the educators leading the workshop and the young people involved on new methods in historical education.

Previous editions of the Sound in the Silence project took place in such cities as Gdańsk and Warsaw, as well as on the grounds of former concentration camps in Borne Sulinowo, Neuengamme near Hamburg and Ravensbrück.

The project funded by the European Union

More information on the project available at: https://enrs.eu/edition/sound-in-the-silence-2022-23

Promoters:  European Network Remembrance and Solidarity, MOTTE Association Hamburg, Germany
Partner:  Kaunas Ninth Fort Museum, Lithuania

Please find a summary of the project in the Event Description Sheet below: https://enrs.eu/edition/sound-in-the-silence-2022-23#Event-Description-Sheet