Lina Lapelytė
Residensstipendiat i Malmö, 15 september–15 december 2025
Lina Lapelytė (based in Vilnius and London) is an artist whose performance-based practice stems from musical composition and sound. Her work engages critically with pop culture, gender norms, and collective memory, particularly nostalgia. Through collaborations with both trained and untrained performers, she explores vocal expression across traditions ranging from popular music to opera. These collective, often participatory singing performances address vulnerability, silencing, and voice in social contexts.
Foto: Rasa Juškevičiūtė
Lina Lapelytė
Lapelytė’s works such as Ladies, Hunky Bluff, Candy Shop, and Pirouette have been shown internationally at venues including the Serpentine Pavilion and Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), Venice Architecture Biennale, and MACBA (Barcelona).
Her opera Have a Good Day! (with Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė and Vaiva Grainytė) has toured extensively, been translated into nine languages, and received multiple awards. Their follow-up collaboration, Sun and Sea (Marina), won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the 2019 Venice Biennale.
Recent projects —such as Currents/Instructions for the Woodcutters (2020) and What Happens With a Dead Fish? (2021)—are site-specific explorations using water as both concept and medium. These works continue her investigation into sound, space, and social environments.
Study of Slope (aka The Mutes), presented at Lafayette Anticipations (Paris) in 2024, challenges classical music norms by centering performers who identify as having no musical ear. Equally, The Speech—co-commissioned by La Biennale de Lyon and Kaunas Biennial—Lapelytė reflects on ecological disconnection and gives voice to non-verbal perspectives, including those of children and animals.
During her IASPIS residency, Lina Lapelytė will prepare for the Swedish premiere of Study of Slope, a musical performance developed in collaboration with Lilith Performance Studio. The piece features local “off-key” singers—individuals who self-identify as lacking a “musical ear”—challenging classical norms of vocal ability and embracing alternative musicality. Performed in English with a printed libretto available in both the original and local languages, the work runs approximately 40–45 minutes and may also be presented in 60-minute loops as a durational piece. The premiere is scheduled for Opening Night on Friday, November 14, 2025, followed by a run of 12 performances over four weekends (Fridays to Sundays: Nov 14–16, 21–23, 28–30, and Dec 5–7). Performances will take place at 18:00 and 19:00, with an additional 21:00 slot added on high-demand nights (Sundays at 15:00 and 16:00, with possible 18:00).
Lina Lapelyte’s works were shown at Festival d’Automne/Bourse de Commerce, Paris (2024); Public Art Munich (2024); Wiener Festwochen (2023); FRAC, Nantes (2022); Lafayette Anticipations, Paris (2022); SPACE, London (2022); Gherdeina Biennale (2022); Zurcher Theater Spektakel (2022); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2021); 13th Kaunas Biennial (2021); BAM, NY (2021); MOCA, Los Angeles (2021); Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels (2021); Tai Kwun, Hong Kong (2021); Glasgow International (2021); Riga Biennial ‘RIBOCA2’ (2020); Cartier Foundation, Paris (2019); Venice Biennial, Venice (2016 & 2019); ‘Waiting for another coming’, CCA Ujazdowski, Warsaw (2018); ‘Pirouette’, Rupert (2017); ‘Magma’, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius (2017); Moderna Museet, Malmo (2017); FIAC, Paris (2017); ‘Peculiar People’, Focal Point Gallery).
https://www.linalapelyte.com/
https://www.instagram.com/linalapelyte/?hl=en