Justinas Šlapelis with his wife Sofija Jankauskas and children in Sarmiento

From 9 July to September 7, 2025, the Photography Museum will host the exhibition “Lithuanians of Argentina: Departures and Returns”. This is a joint creative project of photographer Mykolas Juodelė and Argentine Lithuanian Sandra Rivero, examining the history and present of the Lithuanian diaspora in Argentina. The opening of the exhibition will take place on 11 July at 5 p.m.

Between the wars, more than 30 000 Lithuanians emigrated to Argentina to escape poverty and political instability. Among them were Sandra Rivero’s great-grandparents Povilas Lipnickas and Adelė Baršauskaitė, who in 1925, left Daujėnai for Buenos Aires. Sandra learned about her Lithuanian roots when she was a teenager, and a long search for her family history eventually led her to the same church in Daujėnai where her great-grandparents were married almost a century ago.

The exhibition “Lithuanians of Argentine: Departures and Returns” is a documentary photographic story consisting of three parts.

The first part tells the story of the Šlapeliai (Szlapeliai) family from Kupiškis, who founded the town of Sarmiento in Patagonia at the end of the 19th century. This part is complemented by previously unpublished images and diary excerpts of the first photographer of Sarmiento, Juozas Šlapelis (José Szlapelis). The second part reveals the stories of Lithuanian communities in Argentina in Buenos Aires, Rosario, Berisso and Esquel as well as the return of the younger generation of Argentine Lithuanians to Lithuania. The third part is a photo essay about Sandra Rivero’s journey to her ancestral villages in the Pasvalys district, searching for traces of her great-grandparents’ lives.

During their ten-month-long travels in Argentina and Lithuania, the creators collected archival material, interviewed several dozens of Argentine Lithuanians, and visited Argentine Lithuanian communities from Buenos Aires to Esquel and from Rosario to Sarmiento. The photographic series is complemented by archival photographs, fragments of emigrants’ diaries and letters, while textual inserts convey both historical contexts and personal stories.

Organiser of the exhibition: The division of Šiauliai Aušra Museum – The Photography Museum

Communication designer: Darius Linkevičius

The project is funded by Lithuanian Council for Culture, Lithuanian Copyright Protection Association LATGA