Project proposed by Nida Art Colony will represent Lithuania at the 58th Venice Biennale
- Published on Thursday, 10 May 2018 08:59
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Opera-performance Sun and Sea, the second collective work by Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė will be presented by Nida Art Colony in Venice in 2019. |
| The piece was developed during the residency at Akademie Schloss Solitude in 2016. At the end of the residency the project was presented as a micro-opera at the gallery Palermo in Stuttgart. In the autumn of 2017 it was premiered as a full scale opera-performance at the National Gallery of Art in Vilnius during the International Theatre Festival Sirenos. In March 2018 the artists presented the German version of the opera at the Staatsschauspiel Theatre in Dresden. The same year the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania awarded Rugilė, Vaiva and Lina for innovation and originality.
Sun & Sea’s setting is a makeshift beach area, set up indoors to resemble as closely as possible a real-life, crowded beach. Contemporary society, a major character in the performance, is embodied by a number of performers in their bathing suits, lying on the ground looking up, while the audience looks down at them from above, from the position of the sun. In an apparent show of frivolity and laziness, the seaside sets the stage for the ominous topics addressed by the songs with the same nonchalance: complex subjects of impending ecological catastrophe unfold easily and attractively like a summer breeze.
Artists of the pavilion: Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė Curator of the pavilion: Lucia Pietroiusti, Public Programmes Curator at the Serpentine Galleries Commissioners of the pavillon: Jean-Baptiste Joly, founder and Artistic Director of Akademie Schloss Solitude; Rasa Antanavičiūtė, Executive Director of Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts |