Visualizing the Song
For her performance at David Roberts Art Foundation in 2014 Lapelytė was interested by the history of castrates in Europe, where the Catholic Church would not permit women to sing in choirs. In lieu of this, boys were castrated to prevent their voices breaking at puberty, creating a specific genre of high-pitched voice that was highly appreciated by opera composers. Lina explores the possibilities of reversing this dynamic by instead using females with low pitched voices.
Lina Lapelytė (b. Vilnius, 1984) lives and works in London and Vilnius. She is an artist, composer, musician and performer exploring the phenomena of song. She graduated from the Royal College of Art in 2013 and has been exhibiting and performing internationally, including:
David Roberts Art Foundation (London); ICA (London); CAC (Vilnius); CCA (Glasgow); Ikon (Birmingham); BBC Proms (London); Tate Modern (London); Skopje Biennial; Royal Festival Hall (London); Spor (Aarhus); Echoraum (Wien); Holland Festival (Amsterdam) and recently presented a Park Nights project at the Serpentine Gallery (London). Together with Vaiva Grainytė ir Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė they created an opera Sun and Sea to represent Lithuanian Pavilion in Venice Biennial 2019 and it was nominated the Golden Lion award.