Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė: Sun & Sea (Marina)

Imagine a beach—you within it, or better: watching from above—the burning sun, sunscreen, bright bathing suits, sweaty palms and legs. Tired limbs sprawled lazily across a mosaic of towels. Imagine the occasional squeal of children, laughter, the sound of an ice cream van in the distance. The musical rhythm of waves on the surf, a soothing sound (on this particular beach, not elsewhere). The crinkling of plastic bags whirling in the air. Their silent floating, jellyfish-like, below the waterline. The rumble of a volcano, or of an airplane, or a speedboat. Then a chorus of songs: everyday songs, songs of worry and of boredom, songs of almost nothing. And below them: the slow creaking of an exhausted Earth: a gasp.

Vernissage: May 8-10, 2019
Performance 10am-8pm

May 11-October 31, 2019
Installation Tue-Sun, 10am-6pm
Performance every Saturday 10am-6pm

Location: Marina Militare, Fondamenta Case Nuove 2738c, Venice, Italy

For the 58th Venice Biennale, artists Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė present the durational opera-performance Sun & Sea (Marina). Commissioner: Rasa Antanavičiūtė, Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts. Honorary Commissioner: Jean-Baptiste Joly, founder of Akademie Schloss Solitude. Curator: Lucia Pietroiusti, Curator of General Ecology at the Serpentine Galleries, London. Assistant Curator: Caterina Avataneo.

Specially adapted for La Biennale di Venezia, Sun & Sea (Marina) will be the first version of this piece in English, adapted as a durational performance. The original version of Sun & Sea (Marina) was produced by Neon Realism.

The presentation in Venice will feature a special-edition vinyl catalogue, conceived by Åbäke and featuring texts by Marie Darrieussecq, Stefan Helmreich, Daisy Hildyard, Monika Kalinauskaite, Lucia Pietroiusti and more. Visual identity by Goda Budvytytė.

Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė (b.1983, based in Vilnius) works as filmmaker and theatre director. In her creative practice, Barzdžiukaitė explores the gap between objective and imagined realities, while challenging an anthropocentric way of thinking in a playful way. Her recent full-length film-essay Acid Forest was awarded at the Locarno International Film Festival in 2018 and is touring extensively n film festivals around the world.

Vaiva Grainytė (b.1984, based in Vilnius) is a writer, playwright, and poet. Her writer’s practice usually crosses the confines of desk work and becomes an integral part of an interdisciplinary polylogue. Her handwriting exhibits the features typical of her oeuvre: personal and collective memory, daily routine and social issues are in harmony with poetic and ironic approach.

Lina Lapelytė (b.1984, based in Vilnius and London) is an artist, musician and composer. Her performance- based practice is rooted in music and flirts with pop culture, gender stereotypes and nostalgia. Lapelytė’s works were presented at KIM?, Riga; Rupert, Vilnius (solo exhibition); gallery 1857, Oslo; the Modern Art Museum, Malmo; MACBA, Barcelona; Serpentine Galleries, London and DRAF, London. Upcoming shows include Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris; Tel Aviv Museum of Art and Kunsthalle Praha.

Sun & Sea (Marina) is the second collaboration for the three artists. Their contemporary opera, Have a Good Day! premiered in 2013 is touring worldwide. Have a Good Day! won six international awards in Europe. It has been performed in  more than twenty festivals and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and the Lithuanian National Radio. In 2018 at the Golden Cross awards in Lithuania the artists were awarded the Borisas Dauguvietis prize for their innovative and original ideas. In their collaborative practice, the artists pay special attention to the relationship between documentary and fiction, reality and poetry as well as the overlap of theatre, music and the visual arts.