Edmundas Vaiciulis, Puodų namas (The Pan House)

After primary school, Edmundas Vaiciulis attended the Siauliu Politechnikumas, from which he graduated as a mechanical engineer. But as a rather unconventional and idiosyncratic individual, his first professional job lasted only one week, because he would not adapt his hair style nor his footwear to his employer’s conventions. Active in community affairs and local politics, he is a fervent champion of individual freedoms, justice, and democracy.

In the early 1990s, following the breakup of the Soviet Union, the Lithuanian national government introduced privatization, and Vaiciulis purchased part of a house in the center of Zagaré, in the north of Lithuania. He wanted to rebuild it, but his neighbors in the other part of the house were not interested in sharing such an undertaking with him. Therefore, the house remained as it had been in terms of its infrastructure, but soon Vaiciulis began placing pots and pans on the roof and attaching metal plates and other household objects to the exterior front and side walls, completely sheathing some of the façades. As the roof and these walls are visible from the street, it has become known as The Pan House, and has become one of the most photographed buildings in town.

The garden of the property, separated from the main street by a wall, has also been adorned with various collections of materials, including household objects and machinery parts.  He has also attached a number of animal skulls to the barn wall. Vaiciulis has commented, “There is no order, no logic, neither in the physical, nor in the spiritual world. This goes for my world too. There are no reference points. Order is relative….”

In addition to the collections of found objects in the garden, Vaiciulis has installed many of his carved wooden sculptures, tree trunks that have been transformed into busts and figurative forms, mostly of archetypical characters. Some of his wooden sculptures are also on display in Zagaré’s public spaces, and Vaciulis will be one of the artists taking part in the Bear Sculpting World Championships in Ilomantsi, Finland, in August, 2014, an event underwritten by the European Union.

Vaiciulis often welcomes groups and individuals who would like to visit his art environment. However, he may tell his visitors apocryphal stories, just to check how vigilant and intelligent they are.

~Henk van Es



33 P. Cvirkos gatvė
Žagarė, Šiauliai County, Lithuania
Latitude/Longitude: 56.361423 / 23.250082

Visiting Information

Vaiciulis often welcomes groups and individuals who would like to visit his art environment.

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