Voice for Change
Lithuania is home to tens of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers. Many of them face limited opportunities to participate in public life. How can these communities be given a voice? How can art help us to understand one another?
Voice for Change was an artistic and social event series designed to open space for those whose stories often go unheard. The project consisted of two parts, in which artists from the arts agency Artscape worked together with refugee communities that had fewer opportunities to engage in society.
The first part of the cycle took place in Pabradė. Visual artists Nikolaj Urencev and Olesya Lukonina worked with dozens of adults living in the Pabradė Reception Centre, some of whom faced restrictions on their freedom of movement. The creative workshops provided a safe space for participants to share personal stories, which later became part of an audiovisual art installation.
The second part took place in Kaunas, at the children’s welfare centre Pastogė, and was dedicated to 15–18-year-old teenagers from Ukraine living in Lithuania without their parents. Over the course of three weeks of creative workshops and an art camp, and with the guidance of photographer and filmmaker Francesco Rufini, the young participants created visual stories about their experiences, the places they inhabited, and the thoughts they carried.
Through visual and audiovisual means, participants were able to express their identities, hopes, and perspectives, turning their creative work into an open invitation for the public to see, understand, and connect. The results – a series of artistic audiovisual stories – were presented at public exhibitions in Pabradė and Kaunas.
The Voice for Change initiative raised questions of culture and identity while exploring global and social change. Its main aim was to give participants not only the means to tell their stories through art, but also to develop their creative skills and foster empathy and mutual understanding.
The Voice for Change event series was part of the PERSPECTIVES project, co-funded by the European Union. It was implemented by the Goethe-Institut in partnership with the arts agency Artscape.
Discovering the City Through Film
In Kaunas, a group of Ukrainian teenagers aged 16–18, living without their parents at the Children’s Welfare Centre Pastogė, found themselves invited into the world of cinema. Over the course of several workshops and a summer camp, filmmaking became their way of exploring the city around them, recording their thoughts, and testing new forms of self-expression. More than just a creative exercise, it was a chance to build friendships, spend meaningful time together, and discover how art can become a language of belonging.
The workshops were led by filmmaker and photographer Francesco Rufini, who arrived not with a rigid plan, but with an open question: What can cinema become in the hands of young people who are only just discovering it?
Over the course of four preparatory meetings and an intensive three-day summer camp, the group gradually shaped their own stories. Francesco introduced the basics of filmmaking – composition, framing, sound, documentary methods – while encouraging the teenagers to experiment. They learned how to adjust their phone cameras for better quality, how to conduct interviews, and how to observe the world around them through a cinematic lens.
The process was collaborative and adaptive: some participants gravitated toward holding the camera, others enjoyed acting, others discovered interviewing as their strength, while a few chose the position of observers. There was no forced participation – every voice and every role mattered.
During the camp, two full days were dedicated to filming in the city, followed by a day of editing tutorials and collective reflection. In between, the group went together to Romuva, Kaunas’s historic cinema theatre, to watch a documentary film of their choice – an experience that further sparked their imagination.
The most important outcome was not only technical learning, but the act of creating together. As project coordinator Dominyka Vaičekauskaitė recalls:
“The essence of these workshops was not just filmmaking. It was about teamwork, nurturing relationships, and spending meaningful time together. Even those who preferred to observe still showed up every day. None of the teenagers missed a single session – and that shows how much it meant to them.”
The works created during these workshops did not remain as simple exercises or separate short films. They grew into a larger whole – an exhibition installation titled Kaunas Diaries, presented at Kaunas Artists’ House. Architect Robert Ilgen (TAKTAK Architektūra + Scenografija) together with the design studio WAS•IS•DAS wove the fragments of the process – images, voices, sketches, and laughter – into a single spatial story. The installation did not merely show the films; it carried with it the atmosphere of how they were made, the rhythm of the teenagers’ steps through the city, the weight of their words recorded as voiceovers. It became a place where cinema, memory, and belonging intertwined, allowing visitors to wander through Kaunas as seen through young eyes.
Introducing the educator
Francesco Rufini is a documentary filmmaker and educator based in Vilnius, Lithuania. He started filmmaking with a BA in Anthropology at the University of Bologna and an MFA in Film Directing at the Edinburgh College of Art. His short documentary Dogma (2018) about the quirky world of dog shows in the UK illustrates his interest in film ethics, representation, and identity. Rufini’s later research on Inuit cinema, Robert J. Flaherty and Nanook of the North (1922) was published for the film’s centenary. In Lithuania, Rufini has been pursuing his own documentary projects, working as camera operator, and teaching film and photography in refugee camps with ARTSCAPE. After the Storm, a documentary about time and amber searching, will be his first film made in Lithuania.
The Films
From these encounters, two short films emerged – not pre-planned scripts, but organic products of the workshops. The process emphasised teamwork, with each participant contributing creatively and shaping the final vision together. Both works reflect the way the teenagers experience Kaunas and the spaces that matter to them.
Liberty Avenue / Laisvės alėja
A cinematic walk through Kaunas’s central pedestrian boulevard – a space of drifting thoughts, shifting identities, and playful imagination. Through voiceovers, participants revealed what goes through their minds as they walk along the avenue: fantasies of power, daydreams of escape, and moments of reflection.
Excerpt from the opening monologue:
“When I walk down Liberty Avenue, I like to imagine I’m a dictator, taking back all the lands other countries claim as theirs… Though honestly, I don’t even like them. Thanks.”
Movie creative team: Adriana Popadiuk, Anastasiia Zubenko, Anastasiia Yankevych, Zahar Sychevskyi, Yuliia Hrishchenko, Illia Avdieiev, Hanna Solomshenko, Ruslan Bohdonov
Editing: Francesco Rufini
Subtitles translation: Khrystyna Bakhurska
Producer: Dominyka Vaičekauskaitė
The Bench / Suoliukas
Set in a park, the second film explores a bench as a symbolic place of refuge and connection. Through conversations and fragments of daily life, the film becomes a quiet portrait of how young people seek comfort and companionship in unfamiliar surroundings.
Movie creative team: Adriana Popadiuk, Anastasiia Zubenko, Anastasiia Yankevych, Zahar Sychevskyi, Yuliia Hrishchenko, Illia Avdieiev, Hanna Solomshenko, Ruslan Bohdonov
Editing: Francesco Rufini
Subtitles translation: Khrystyna Bakhurska
Producer: Dominyka Vaičekauskaitė
The installation
The installation at Kaunas Artists’ House brought together all layers of the teenagers’ creative process. Designed by architect Robert Ilgen (TAKTAK Architektūra + Scenografija) in collaboration with WAS•IS•DAS, it transformed the reading room into a cinematic environment filled with moving images, voices, and fragments of the workshops.
The design concept reflected the exploratory spirit of the project. Rather than imposing a fixed narrative, it allowed visitors to step into fragments of the teenagers’ world – projected images, layered sound, handwritten notes, and the echo of voiceovers. The installation blurred the line between process and result: sketches, stills, and audio recordings stood side by side with the finished films, highlighting that the journey was as important as the outcome.
The installation was open to the public in the reading room of Kaunas Artists’ House from 2–31 July 2025. Admission was free, reflecting the project’s principle of openness and accessibility.
The official opening on 2 July combined the unveiling of the scenography with the premiere screenings of Liberty Avenue and The Bench. The evening was documented in photographs and video, later shared across digital platforms. For the participants, it was a moment of recognition and celebration; for the audience, an invitation to experience Kaunas through new eyes.
Creative team of the installation:
Scenography – Robert Ilgen (TAKTAK Architektūra + Scenografija)
Graphic design – WAS•IS•DAS
Producer – Dominyka Vaičekauskaitė
Films created by the teenagers of the Children’s Welfare Centre Pastogė with filmmaker Francesco Rufini
Participants’ Voices
What messages did the teenagers want to share with Kaunas residents through their films?
“To be honest, I’d like Kaunas residents to notice things in the film that they see every day but often overlook. For example, Liberty Avenue. People walk there daily and simply get used to it. But sometimes they forget why it is truly a beautiful historical place and why it is so symbolic. The same goes for Kalniečiai Park. It also has its own history. I really enjoy being there — I’ve met so many people in that park. I’d say it’s my comfort zone.” — said Yuliia Hrishchenko, a political science student at Vytautas Magnus University, in an interview for the LRT radio show Kultūros savaitė, hosted by journalist Kotryna Lingienė.
“This film, of course, has an idea, but it’s deeper than just the weather or beautiful places in Lithuania. It’s a documentary film about people and their lives. If we were making it in Vilnius or any other Lithuanian city, we would also go to parks or the city centre. But that’s not the main point. For me, it’s not a film about Kaunas.” — told Illia Avdieiev, a senior at Santara Gymnasium who moved from Vinnytsia, Ukraine, to Kaunas three years ago, in the same interview.
Reflections
The Kaunas Diaries project was not only about cinema. It was about teenagers discovering their own agency, finding a new language to describe the city they inhabit, and spending meaningful time together.
“The idea behind Kaunas Diaries was to give participants the basic tools of filmmaking and the freedom to film and express whatever they wanted. The most important thing was to create a collaborative environment and ensure the workshops were genuinely valuable. It was wonderful to see them working together and encouraging one another throughout the creative process. The installation is a way to share these perspectives with others – to invite people to see and experience the city through the eyes of young people,” says Artscape educator and filmmaker Francesco Rufini.
“I’m glad that with another initiative we are returning to the young people at Pastogė. A camera is a wonderful tool for fostering creativity and media literacy. The films created are a key to the world of these young people, allowing us to see how they perceive us and what matters to them. Through these films, we can view the environment from a slightly different perspective – through the eyes of young people from Ukraine,” says Aistė Ulubey, head and founder of the arts agency Artscape.
“Our project Perspectives highlights stories from Europe and about Europe. They reflect the complex realities of today, told through the prism of many voices and perspectives. It is about gathering and sharing local stories, emphasising voices and viewpoints that are often less visible in everyday public discourse. With the installation Kaunas Diaries, we invite people to see Kaunas through the eyes of young people from Ukraine – to discover a fresh and sensitive perspective. It is also an invitation to reflect on how art – in this case, film – can become a way to explore both our own worlds and those of others, and to bring us closer together,” says Anna Maria Strauß, Director of the Goethe-Institut in Lithuania.
The event series Voice for Change is part of the project Perspectives, co-funded by the European Union. The project is implemented by the Goethe-Institut in cooperation with the arts agency Artscape.
August 28, 2025