Unexplored beauty of old garages

Every city is full of uncharted places and beauty can be found even in the strangest and most unusual corners of it. Psychologist, art critic and photographer Agne Gintalaite found a way to prove that it’s possible to discover appeal everywhere – this is how the project “Garazai Prusu g. 30. Beauty Remains” (“Garages of Prusu street 30. Beauty remains”) was born. One day she accidentally found herself wandering in the old neighborhood full of garages and noticed that it was a perfect venue for paintings, different stories and ideas to bloom. Agne shares her thoughts with “Llamas Valley”:

“These are not simple garages. The old neighborhoods of them are a legacy of the soviet era. Nevertheless, they still exist in modern, West-oriented Vilnius and that’s why I think they can be compared to live museums. Strange buildings without windows but with colorful doors (which I believe is the main accent) look rather eerily. Their function stays unclear: who needs a garage, which is far from home, usually in the furthest part of the city? The question arises: how come they are still here? They take up big territories; some of them can be found even in prestigious parts of the city. In my opinion, this phenomenon is temporary and it won’t stay for long due to changing lifestyles that people are leading. When I was a child, I was jealous for my friend whose father owned a car “Lada”. At the times when he wished to ride it, he had to take the trolleybus to reach the garage, later on after the ride he used to lock the car up in the garage and come home by trolleybus. That was definitely a long process,” – Agne tells the story.

“Doors, doors, doors… Maybe some treasures are hidden there? Or stolen things? These were the main thoughts that my head was full of when I found myself near the garages for the first time. I was searching for a place that could suit the fashion photoshoot. Later on, I used to come back there just to take a walk and I noticed that frequently some of the doors would be open and people looked the same way they appeared to me back in the childhood. Life in garages hadn’t changed.

I like closed doors. Imagination creates far more interesting things that boring reality has to offer when the doors open. Doors remind me of art history, which I have studied: yellow doors can be compared to the sunflowers of Van Gogh, others make me reminiscence of German expressionism, in some others I see the color palette of Italian Renaissance. It’s difficult to believe that these colors were born by chance!

I haven’t finished this project yet – I’m still in the process of taking photos of garages in other towns, where colors of the doors allow me to create mosaics of totally different moods. I’m still excited by the process of creation and it gives me a lot of pleasure!”, - she concludes.