About the Symbol

The Symbol of the Millennium of Lithuania

GEDIMINAS ILGŪNAS

After President of the Republic of Lithuania has formed a State Commission on the Commemoration of the Millennium of the Name of Lithuania, there emerged a need for an appropriate symbol for this commemoration. In July 1997 Institution of the President of the Republic of Lithuania announced a contest for creation of the symbol for the Commemoration of the Millennium of the Name of Lithuania. The terms of the contest indicated that the symbol must be simple, comprehensible, laconic, expressive and representative of the Millennium of the Name of Lithuania.

The contest was attended by 55 authors who presented 76 works. After the deadline for presentation of symbol projects an exhibition of the projects was arranged at Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania. On 16 10 1997 by the decree No. 241 the President of the Republic of Lithuania formed a commission for consideration of the contest-exhibition’s results and appointment of the winner. To be the chairman of the commission there was appointed Edmundas Antanas Rimša, Chairman of Lithuanian Heraldry Commission; members of the commission - painters J.Galkus, A.Každailis, G.Raudonius, President’s adviser for history and culture G.Ilgūnas and secretary of the State Commission on the Millennium of Lithuania A.Vaškevičius.

Projects of the symbol presented at the contest were very different. At the meeting on 22 10 1997 the commission of the symbol contest decided that the majority of the presented projects were comprised of amateur paintings and professional works as well as symbols used reflected this especially important and significant event of our country very poorly. They cannot become a visiting-card of the Commemoration of the Millennium of Lithuania. Considering this fact the commission decided not to appoint the winner of the contest and to suggest announcing a new contest by formulating the terms and requirements of the contest more clearly.

A new contest was announced on 04 11 1997. The terms of the contest provided a prize of 5000 Litas for the winner of the first place as well as three encouraging prizes of 1000 Litas each. Provided the first place was not appointed those three projects having acquired the encouraging award would be improved; then one of them would be recognised as the winner of the first place and its author would be awarded a prize of 5000 Litas. After the contest it is intended to issue a publication including all projects presented for the first and the second contests and deliver it to all the participants of the contest.

The second contest was attended by 63 authors who presented nearly 300 works. Some of the authors brought even more than ten, though very similar, works each. The contest commission encountered a problem of how to organize an exhibition of those works. It was decided to choose the works of all authors and to exhibit one work of each author. In case the works differ significantly - to exhibit two or three works of the same author. Consequently, the number of exhibited works decreased to less than one hundred.

Having familiarized themselves with the presented projects at the meeting of 29 01 1998, the contest commission decided not to appoint the winner of the first place but, according to the terms of the contest, to appoint encouraging prizes amounting 1000 Litas to the participants of the contest S. Gužauskas, I. Kukenytė and K. Pumputytė and obligate them within one month after results of the contest being announced to present the symbol projects improved following the remarks to the commission. On 13 02 1998 in the White Hall of the Institution of the President of the Republic of Lithuania the President Algirdas Brazauskas awarded the laureates with cash prizes and acknowledgements. Two laureates - S. Gužauskas and I. Kukenytė are students of Art.

Having received projects of the symbol improved following the remarks of the commission members (mainly painters), at the meeting of 01 04 1998 the commission of symbol contest decided to appoint the first place and the prize of 5000 Litas to the student of Lithuanian Arts Academy Ilona Kukenytė. The President of the Republic of Lithuania Valdas Adamkus awarded the winner with a prize of 5000 Litas and an acknowledgement for the creation of the symbol of the Millennium of Lithuania.

The symbol created by I. Kukenytė has been chosen because of its archaic nature, simplicity and informative character. This symbol will lead all events of the Commemoration of the Millennium of Lithuania. Readers of the journal “Mokslas ir gyvenimas” (Science and Life) will be able to survey other works presented for the contest-exhibition.