The office building “Freedom 36” – named “Girteka Park” when employees of the administrative department of the transport company Girteka moved in – developed by the real estate developer Galio Group welcomed the newcomers with a colourful artwork gallery across five floors of the building. The pandemic-driven idea of the real estate developers was brought to life by five artists, who painted the walls while installation works of the building were still in progress.
“It was a very special and good feeling to find vibrant works of art pulsating with colour in a grey building that hadn’t yet been fitted out. They inspired the interior solutions for our team. The office has a Scandinavian style, and the interior is accentuated by spaces of living plants, reminding us of a walk in a green and lively park in the urban spaces. Special attention has been paid to the comfort of the people who will work here, and an important emphasis, which was also relevant to the company itself, was to surround its employees with an aesthetic and pleasant environment,” says Simonas Bartkus, Marketing and Communications Manager of Girteka.
Galio Group, developing an office building at Laisvės pr. 36, Vilnius, organised a public competition for artists “Freedom to Create”. The five winners chosen from among 133 participants brought to life their ideas directly on the walls of the building, thus making their artwork a part of the business centre.
“This business centre was built during the COVID-19 pandemic – the time difficult for many businesses and individuals, with declining numbers of orders and shrinking income. We looked to the future, when the clouds of the pandemic would clear and people could return to work in comfortable, modern offices, so we were not afraid to invest in something that would be both necessary and useful in any case. We sought an attractive and original solution, something that would create the atmosphere of a “living” home, and also help employees adapt quicker to working from the office after a long break. This is how the idea emerged to engage artists, who gave our office building its uniqueness,” says Aurimas Martinkėnas, Director of Real Estate Projects at Galio Group.
The works of Morta Kaniavienė “Inspiration for freedom”, Evaldas Bubinas “Extension of freedom field”, Ieva Ragauskaitė “Small pleasures”, Alexander Mikhaylov “36Freedom36”, and Ksystof Cetyrkovski “Escape from the digital world” were selected as the winners of the “Freedom to Create” competition. All of them shared the prize fund of EUR 12,500
“The implementation of the idea was a very interesting experience – when we painted the works, the building was still under construction, so we painted practically on the construction site. The scale of the drawings and the “canvas” were also unusual, so we had to think carefully about the tools and the technique of creation. Due to fire safety requirements, additional relief elements could not be used, so I only used paint to create the relief, for example, by painting some elements of the drawing in several layers and others – in one layer. This way, I managed to create an impression of relief in the drawing,” says Evaldas Bubinas, one of the winners of the competition and the creator of the work “Extension of freedom field”.
The authors’ works, which aptly embody the theme of personal freedom and fit into spaces of the business centre, were selected by the jury of five independent members: Julija Reklaitė, architect, director of art, residency and education centre “Rupert”, Algirdas Gataveckas, artist and social researcher, representatives of the architects’ studio Unitectus, which has designed the building of “Freedom 36”, and representatives of Galio Group.
A. Gataveckas says that selection of the winners was not an easy task, and the jury needed more than one round for evaluation, as the competition attracted a lot of attention from artists and many pieces of strong artwork were presented.
“There were some wonderful works which we did not select, because the scale of the drawings would have compromised their detail, especially when looking at them from a close distance. How the works fit in a particular context, how they would look on the wall – these were among the most important and very responsibly assessed criteria. I paid special attention to the idea – how the presented works matched and interpreted the theme of freedom, and I preferred works that were not just an illustration of the idea, but had depth and allowed people to create their own interpretations,” says A. Gataveckas.
He says that the real property developers’ idea to organise a competition for artists made him feel excited from the very beginning, as it was an opportunity to pull out creative ideas from the artists’ heads and release them into the world.
“Now, looking at the result, I am even happier to have contributed to this initiative. Art is the essential vitamin for soul, and the experience it creates is extremely important stimulus for personal growth – it’s so wonderful when art becomes part of people’s daily lives. In this case, it is both relevant and interesting that these works have become part of the new building and of the architecture,” says A. Gataveckas.
The A+ energy efficiency class business centre was designed by architects Tauras Paulauskas and Tomas Tankelevičius of the company Unitectus, and the interior design was delivered by the team of DO architects.
In June, Galio Group agreed with the real estate fund GROA Real Estate Fund I managed by GROA Capital on the sale of “Freedom 36”.