Tara: Then and Now, Here and There

'Tara' translates as container or packaging in Lithuanian, and was a nickname used by artists working in the graphic design field for their place of employment, the Experimental Package Design Bureau, which was established in the early 1960s in Soviet-occupied Lithuania. Tara: Then and Now, Here and There – Archives and Practices of the Experimental Design Bureau in Vilnius 1960s–1980s is a new book exploring the work of this bureau.

Tara was dedicated to modernisation processes, production growth, increasing range of goods, the Soviet 'Art for Everyday Life' programme and the objectives of the Cold War. During its most productive period (between 1964 and 1984) the bureau employed more than fifty designers who created the aesthetics for everyday products in Lithuania. The names of many of these designers have been lost, but following intensive research by the editors of this comprehensive book (Karolina Jakaitė and Deimantė Jasiulevičiūtė), their work finally has a showcase, with almost 350 illustrations to guide the reader through Tara’s lofty narratives, stories and identities.

Karolina Jakaitė is a design historian, curator, and researcher at the Vilnius Academy of Arts Institute of Art Research; she is co-founder of the Dizaino Fondas initiative. Her recent curated exhibitions include Retrotopia: Design for Socialist Spaces (2023, Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin; chief curator, Claudia Banz). Deimantė Jasiulevičiūtė is a Lithuanian-born, Amsterdam-based graphic designer. Since graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2018, her focus has been on research-based graphic design projects with a strong emphasis on collaborative practices.

Spector Books, 308pp, 21cm x 21cm, illustrated paperback, 2025