Lina Lapelytė (Lithuania)
Study of Slope
Originally developed for her first solo exhibition in France, Lina Lapelytė’s Study of Slope (aka The Mutes) is a performance-installation featuring a choir of self-identified non-musicians. By centering those without a “musical ear,” the work challenges the dominant codes of Western musical tradition that typically exclude off-key voices. These often-silenced voices resonate within the exhibition space, singing and moving continuously throughout the day in a looping performance.
This exploration of absence invites reflection on identity, experience, and the individual’s place within a community. Starting with the voice, Study of Slope reimagines how we define musicality, expression, and belonging. It celebrates polyphony and personal difference while questioning how a truly collective voice might be formed. Since its debut in France, the work has continued to resonate in new contexts, inviting audiences elsewhere into its evolving sonic landscape.
During Lapelytė’s residency at PS21, she casted local non-singers and held ongoing rehearsals before the US premiere.
Lina Lapelytė (based in Vilnius, LT and London, UK) is an artist working across performance, sound, and installation. Her practice, rooted in musical composition, critically explores pop culture, gender norms, and collective memory. Using both trained and untrained performers, Lapelytė investigates vocal expression through popular music and opera, turning singing into a shared, affective experience that challenges dominant cultural narratives and systems of silencing.
Lapelytė gained international recognition through her collaboration with Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė and Vaiva Grainytė. Their opera Have a Good Day! has toured extensively, translated into nine languages, and received multiple awards. Their follow-up, Sun and Sea (Marina), won the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the 2019 Venice Biennale of Art.
Her solo works often center on inclusivity and unconventional voices. Study of Slope (also known as The Mutes), first presented at Lafayette Anticipations in Paris, features a choir of self-identified non-musicians, challenging classical traditions that exclude off-key voices. The Speech, co-commissioned by La Biennale de Lyon and Kaunas Biennial for the Lithuanian Season in France (2024), explores the breakdown of verbal language and our disconnection from the natural world, amplifying voices of children and animals.
In recent years, Lapelytė has created large-scale, site-specific performances that engage with ecological and social themes, often using water as both medium and metaphor. Works like Currents/Instructions for the Woodcutters (2020) and What Happens With a Dead Fish? (2021) exemplify this shift.
Lapelytė’s work has been presented internationally at institutions and festivals such as Festival d’Automne/Bourse de Commerce, Paris (2024); Public Art Munich (2024); Wiener Festwochen (2023); FRAC Nantes (2022); SPACE London (2022); Haus der Kunst, Munich (2021); MOCA Los Angeles (2021); BAM New York (2021); Tai Kwun, Hong Kong (2021); Riga Biennial (2020); Cartier Foundation, Paris (2019); and the Venice Biennale (2016, 2019), among many others.