Brain Atlas. The Polish Brain Research Institute in Vilnius

At the beginning of the 20th century, the human brain became one of the greatest objects of interest for European scientists. Established laboratories sought to detect signs of intelligence, mental illness, individuality, and even genius in the structure of the brain. The brain turned into an object that could be collected, measured, compared, and depicted. These ambitions were often linked to the infamous eugenics and the pursuit of human improvement.

The exhibition "Brain Atlas" looks back at the almost forgotten history of the Polish Brain Research Institute in Vilnius and reveals it within the broader context of the scientific and political imagination of that time. Archival photographs, microscopic images, atlases, and documents meet here with contemporary artworks that explore what archives cannot preserve: absence, myths, memory, and desires. The exhibition does not seek to reconstruct the lost archive of the institute – rather, it asks how images create knowledge and shape beliefs.

The institute's efforts to detect material traces of genius in the brain were ultimately focused on one exceptional specimen. At the end of this story is the institute's most famous, yet-to-be-discovered object: the brain of Józef Piłsudski (1867–1935), one of the founders of the independent Polish state.

Location: Vasaros g. 3

Wed-Fri 4 PM – 8 PM

Sat-Sun 11 AM – 7 PM