The project This is Vilnius started back in 2014 as the author’s blog on Facebook, and today it has more than 8,000 followers. The project aims to capture the city of Vilnius, tell alternative stories of the city and raise public awareness of the fine-art/investigative/documentary genre of photography.
The images of Vilnius as seen in Lithuanian photography are often confined to the old city architecture and its development. A. Vasilenko’s project This is Vilnius aims to create a portrait of Vilnius as a multifaceted and constantly evolving city. Although the artist’s photographs mostly depict architecture, urban landscapes and static compositions, they leave no room for a hierarchical separation between the city centre and the periphery in terms of both geography and politics. This is Vilnius becomes an open question rather than a statement.
Although A. Vasilenko’s photographs portray Vilnius as a constantly evolving city, it is as personal as it is universal, and its definition as well as romanticism, humour and melancholy derived from it depend not only on long-term social and cultural changes but also on the everyday individual urban experiences and seasonal changes.
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