A Political Crisis Pits Lithuanian Artists Against the Populists

Sodas 2123 used to be a boarding school for delinquent children before it was left to ruin and squatters. Five years ago, it was taken over by the Lithuanian Interdisciplinary Artists’ Association and turned into a warren of studios and exhibition spaces, using objects salvaged from places of cultural and historical significance — paving stones taken from the cathedral square, flip-up chairs from the national theatre, and pillars from the old Soviet Palace of Trade Unions sawn lengthways and turned into benches so that visitors can sit on relics of Lithuania’s occupation.

Over the past few weeks, it’s become a kind of headquarters for a movement that has rocked the country’s politics, taking echoes of Lithuanian resistance to Soviet rule to protect its culture and democracy from what the organizers believe is a threat from within.