Sun & Sea
AN OPERA PERFORMANCE By Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė, and Lina Lapelytė
DURATION | 60 MINS (REPEATS THROUGHOUT DAY)
Step into a sunny day by the sea. This theatrical installation stunned audiences at the 2019 Venice Biennale, earning its all-female creative team the much-coveted Golden Lion. It comes to the Momentary, transforming the interior Tower space located off the Galleries, with 13 vocalists and 25 tons of sand. Sunbathing characters offer up a range of seductive harmonies and melodic stories that glide between the mundane, the sinister, and the surreal. From the sprawling tapestry of their lives emerges a piercing exploration of the relationship between people and our planet, captured in one afternoon on a crowded beach.
Tickets are $20 ($16/Members). Register online or call Guest Services at 479.657.2335 to book your seat now.
Tickets are timed and a cycle of the opera-performance lasts one hour. To ensure a safe and comfortable experience for all, guests will be admitted every 30 minutes. No ticket required for ages 12 and under. Children must be accompanied by an adult to attend.
“a remarkable achievement”—The New York Times
“astonishing”—The Guardian
“a revelation”—Artnet
“Rarely has an environmental message been so subtly, humorously, tellingly conveyed in an artwork.”—The Spectator (UK)
“Surreal as it is profound”—BBC
“a spectacle”—Artforum
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Sun & Sea is the second collaboration for these three artists who focus on the relationship between documentary and fiction, reality and poetry, and how theater, music and the visual arts intertwine. Their contemporary opera, Have a Good Day! premiered in 2013 and toured worldwide winning six international awards in Europe.
Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė
Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė works as filmmaker, theatre director and artist. In her creative practice, she explores the gap between objective and imagined realities, while challenging an anthropocentric way of thinking in a playful way. Her recent full-length documentary film-essay Acid Forest was awarded at the Locarno International Film Festival last year and is traveling in film festivals around the world.
Vaiva Grainytė
Vaiva Grainytė is a writer, playwright, and poet. Her creative practice usually crosses the confines of deskwork and becomes an integral part of an interdisciplinary polylogue in the form of radio plays, operas, site-specific performances, and musicals. Her book of essays Beijing Diaries (2012) was nominated for the Lithuanian Book of the Year award in the adult literature category and included in the top twelve listing of the most creative books for that year. Vaiva’s poetry debut Gorilla’s Archives was published in 2019 and according to critics recognized as a distinguished voice of neo-avant-garde poetry.
Lina Lapelyte
Lina Lapelyte is an artist, musician and composer. Her performance-based practice is rooted in music and flirts with pop culture, gender stereotypes and nostalgia. Lapelyte’s works were presented at KIM in Riga, Rupert in Vilnius (solo exhibition), 1857 gallery in Oslo, the Modern Art Museum in Malmo, MACBA in Barcelona, and DRAF in London. Upcoming shows include Cartier Foundation in Paris, Tel Aviv Museum of Art, and Kunsthalle Praha.
BILLING
Director and Set Designer: Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė
Lyrics: Vaiva Grainytė
Composer and Music Director: Lina Lapelytė
Curator: Lucia Pietroiusti
Tour Producer: Aušra Simanavičiūtė
Tour Coordinator / Stage Manager: Erika Urbelevič
Technical Director: Lique van Gerven
Translator (Lithuanian to English): Rimas Užgiris
Sound Engineer: Romuald Chaloin Galiauskas
Live Soundtrack: Salomėja Petronytė
Singing Performers: Evaldas Alekna, Aliona Alymova, Svetlana Bagdonaitė, Marco Cisco, Auksė Dovydėnaitė, Saulė Dovydėnaitė, Claudia Graziadei, Lucas Lopes Pereira, Artūras Miknaitis, Vytautas Pastarnokas, Eglė Paškevičienė, Kalliopi Petrou, Ieva Skorubskaitė, and Nabila Dandara Vieira Santos.
Performers: Raminta Barzdžiukienė, Dovydas Korba, Vincentas Korba, Jeronimas Petraitis, Juozas Petraitis, Mantas Petraitis, Pranas Petraitis, Salomėja Petronytė, Jonas Statkevičius, and others.
Visual Identity: Goda Budvytytė
Catalog and Vinyl Concept and Design: Åbäke
Founding Producer: Neon Realism
Co-Producers: Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts, Akademie Schloss Solitude Goethe-Institut, Münchner Kammerspiele, National Gallery of Art in Vilnius, Staatsschauspiel Dresden, the Momentary in Bentonville (AR)
Sponsor: JCDecaux
Commissioner (Sun & Sea (Marina), Venice, 2019): Rasa Antanavičiūtė
SPONSORS
Sun & Sea at the Momentary is sponsored by Visit Bentonville