Song Sing Soil explores the permeability between shapelessness and form, between the realms of living and dying, between meaning making and pulling it apart. The performance – a choreography for three performers – slowly unfolds around a specially conceived song that drifts between different mindsets, tones, voices and frequencies with a soundtrack that fluctuates between fierce instructions directed to the listener, silent moments, tender melodies and intimate musings. The performers’ movements respond to this soundscape, supporting the words with their bodies and gazes.
Song Sing Soil makes a plea for us to slow down, to stay with the in-betweenness, and to expand our capacity for feeling and listening.
Produced and commissioned by Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art, Middelburg, The Netherlands.
Eglė Budvytytė (b. 1981 in Kaunas, Lithuania) is an artist based in Amsterdam and Vilnius working at the intersection between visual and performing arts. She approaches movement and gesture as technologies for a possible subversion of normativity, gender and social roles, and the dominant narratives governing public spaces. Her practice, spanning songs, poetry, videos and performances, explores the persuasive power of collectivity, vulnerability and permeable relationships between bodies, audiences and the environments.
Her work has been presented at the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia; Vleeshal, Middelburg, The Netherlands; Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA); The Renaissance Society, Chicago; Lofoten International Art Festival; Block Universe, London; Art Dubai Commissions; Liste, Art Basel; 19th Biennale of Sydney; De Appel Arts Centre; Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius; and the Stedelijk MuseumAmsterdam. She was a resident artist at Le Pavillon, Palais de Tokyo, Paris in 2012 and at Wiels, Brussels in 2013.
Marija Olšauskaitė (b. 1989 in Vilnius) lives and works in Vilnius. In her work, she employs various modes of collaboration and explores the themes of relationships, openness, intimacy, and belonging.
She has had solo exhibitions at Vleeshal, Middelburg (with Eglė Budvytytė, 2023); Editorial, Vilnius (2022); Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (2019); and Art in General, New York (2014), among others. Olšauskaitė has participated in group exhibitions including the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (2022); Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA) (2020); Homegrown, Hauser & Wirth, online (2020); I walk the night, PM8/Francisco Salas, Vigo (2019); Joy and Mirror. Port City, 427, Riga (2016); and Karaoke Police, Kunstverein, Amsterdam (2015), Nomas, Rome (2014), and Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius (2013), among others.
Concept and development: Eglė Budvytytė and Marija Olšauskaitė
Performed by and co – created with: Ming Jou Chen, Tomislav Feller, Tosca Knauf
Voices and choreography: Eglė Budvytytė
Art direction: Marija Olšauskaitė
Sound design: Andreas Tegnander and Thessa Torsing
Choreographic advice: Noha Ramadan
Styling: Patricija Grabauskaitė
Light Design: Martynas Kazimierėnas
Produced by Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art, Middelburg
Producer in Vilnius VB23: Ieva Rižė
Supported by Mondriaan Funds
Thanks to BAU performance and dance residency, Amsterdam
Performance partner
Performance sponsor
Video by Vytautas Tinteris
Photos by Andrej Vasilenko
