Deconstructing the vernacular: Wooden architecture in Podlasie and Lithuania

The bare concrete structure of a decommissioned power plant, part of the Arsenał Gallery in Białystok in north-eastern Poland, is the home to an exhibition by Augustas Serapinas, a Vilnius-based artist who is putting a spotlight on the plight of regional wooden architecture.For the exhibition, Serapinas has deconstructed three wooden buildings, which have all been decommissioned, from the Podlasie region as well as from his native Lithuania. The title of the exhibition is Pine, spruce and aspen, a nod to the native species of the region’s extensive forests.Hosted by John Beauchamp and Katarzyna JagodzińskaOut of the wooden beams, Serapinas has created a kind of labyrinth, and we can walk in and out of the houses, and the wooden zigzag structures weave a stark contrast to the concrete hall which the exhibition is housed in.In this episode, we explore the plight of wooden vernacular architecture in the Podlasie region and beyond. Join us as we are in Białystok to see the exhibition for ourselves, and we are joined on the line by artist Augustas Serapinas and Matthew Post, a Podlasie-based curator originally from California who stands behind the idea for the exhibition.The universal message will remain topical even after the exhibition closes. Despite its captivating aesthetics we read it as a gesture of activism, calling for the saving of this ephemeral heritage.During the podcast we mention the Koźliki open air museum which we visited as part of the Ukraine Heritage Spotlight series: you can find out more here. This podcast was produced in the frame of and as an outcome of the European Heritage Hub pilot project co-funded by the European Union.