In times of polarisation reaching higher and higher points, some say that a new awareness is emerging. The extreme separation might give birth to an urge for re-unity, for stretching one’s boundaries to involve the other. How far can we extend from our limited selves? Can I let your you-ness in? Can I feel what my cat feels? Can I have a glimpse into the universe of a blood cell?
Some say that everything in this world has agency. That water, mountains and winds are also alive and have their will. And that we can’t see it until we accept it on their own terms. What does the river, the rock, the cloud want? And what does letting the world in really mean? Could it involve the world we created ourselves?
If we knew that we multiply what we judge, could we fall in love with it instead?
What is the will of an engine, of a road, of a city? What are the dreams of concrete? What if we all are creatures with agency moving through us?
In this new work the artistic duo Eye Gymnastics invites us to submerge ourselves in a vault of voices, becoming part of a bigger sonic entity that we create together.
Eye Gymnastics is the stage name of Viktorija Damerell (b. 1992 in Vilnius) and Gailė Griciūtė (b. 1985 in Kaunas, Lithuania). Since 2018, the two Vilnius-based artists have collaborated on creating performances of experimental music that explore the format of sonic gatherings. In their investigations, vocal instructions and incantations merge with mental voyages, hypnosis and echoes of pop.
Eye Gymnastics has performed in the exhibitions Bio – Phantomas’ic sessions at Žeimiai Mainor and 2090 at the artist space Lokomotif in Lentvaris; at the festivals Ars Electronica in Linz and Jauna Muzikaand Videogramos in Vilnius, Linz, Austria and online; as part of Rupert’s online event In Dissolve and its birthday celebration event Fortune Wheel in Vilnius;. Art’s Birthday at Kaunas Artists House; and the performance series Atmospherics at Haus Der Kunst in Munich.
The performance was created in collaboration with Nunilo Rumbutis, Ignas Juzokas, Elmyra Ragimova, Gabrielė Griciūtė, Jonė Miškinytė, Julius Jančauskas, Laura Marija Balčiūnaitė, Lukas Neverdauskas and Alexandra Bondarev.
Light Design: Eugenijus Sabaliauskas
Performance partners
Video by Vytautas Tinteris
Photos by Andrej Vasilenko
