Spektaklis (2015)

With Vaida Tamoševičiūtė

Spektaklis (LT. for performance) nearly did not happen. The organizers and staff of the club Kablys feared we were going to burn the place down. We agreed to change the hall we were meant to perform in for a less flammable one and have two of the bouncers of the club standing ready with the fire extinguishers next to us. The performance was about the society of the spectacle, about the masks we’re meant to wear, about social roles, expectations, and our expectations towards ourselves.
Performance started with Vaida banging the floor with her stick and screaming “Spektaklis!” (“Spectacle / Performance!”), while I was cutting her dress into one continuous ribbon, from down upwards. When I cut it off entirely, I wrapped it around my head, going in circles around Vaida. As soon as it was all on and Vaida in her underwear, and I couldn’t see, I put my head into a bowl of flammable liquid and held it in until the liquid soaked the red ribbon. After, I drew a long wet line of flammable liquid with my face (covered in ribbon) on the floor through the entire space separating myself and Vaida, and attached a small bit of the ribbon onto the end of her stick. Then I lit the bit of the cloth attached to her stick. As soon as I did, she lowered the stick to light the ribbon. I took a handful of Bengali lights and lit them on my behalf.

Performed at noise festival Speigas, Vilnius. Photo documentation by Mantas Puida.

Plaque at the Oak Tree (2014)

With Vaida Tamoševičiūtė

This one was a great deal of fun: it was a pop-up and although planned, done without any permissions or stuff, basically the way I love it to happen. We made it on the 19th of October 2014, London, Russell Square. It was about the stuff that’s happening to the world, about our place in the world. Inspired by the events in Ukraine and Syria, this performance was more generally about visible and invisible warfare happening all around & about conflicts generated by the inexhaustible craving for the “Lebensraum“. About the world leaders who have failed. About democracies trashed. About faith destroyed and hope broken. And about being blind to what is happening around us.  No highly elaborate metaphors this time. None needed when mourning.

Photo documentation by Monika Klimaitė.

Bind. N/Ever/Last (2014)

With Vaida Tamoševičiūtė.

We adapted this performance for this really beautiful space in HoltzmarktStrasse in Berlin, ’cause we felt like the piece, first performed in 2012 in Tallinn, left many unanswered questions, just as we both did. Lots of tensions and the feeling that we’re parting ways was fluttering the space in the months before this performance, but these four hours, as well as the prep time before, did some miracle and the wounds started healing.

We had four aluminium buckets and lots and lots of long, broad ribbon. We filled 2 of the buckets with the water from a nearby river, and fastened the ribbons to the sides of the space. Then we started walking from one side of the space towards the other, our paths crossing each time. At both ends of the room, we would leave an empty bucket, and we would carry the full bucket through the space, put the water into an empty one, leave the one that’s been emptied, and take the full bucket. We would wash the ribbons sometimes, and when they’d be wet, they’d make this beautiful hissing sound. The water would get more and more dirty, and the ribbons would get tighter, and we’d be drawn closer together bit by bit. The performance ended when the ribbons were so short and tight that we couldn’t move and I couldn’t breathe any longer.

Performance lasted for nearly four hours, and it took place at the Month of Performance Art Berlin 2014. Photo documentation by Andrius.

I Sea U (2013)

With Vaida Tamoševičiūtė.

We are standing in the furthest possible points of the gallery, opposite to each other, with our heads wrapped with bandages so that we would not be able to see anything, and nobody would see our faces. One of us starts walking with a box of matches, lighting one match with each step, while the other walks from the opposite side with a torch soaked in kerosene, so that the meeting of the two would, without a doubt, result in fire. And indeed, when we meet, we light up the torch, and – while holding it with our left hands – we take out small scissors from our pockets and begin cutting bandages from each others’ faces. Scissors are too sharp to be confident about not hurting each other. The performance ends with both of us bandage-less and the torch almost out.

Performance took place during an exhibition on Fluxus opening in Jonas Mekas Visual Art Center in Vilnius, LT.

Photo documentation by Aurelija Taločkaitė.

Bind (2012)

With Vaida Tamoševičiūtė.

This performance had place in the huge Polymer factory in Tallinn, Estonia, in the end of October. We picked a beautiful space, a bridge connecting two parts of the building, a pity though that people were passing through and the general atmosphere of hurry and distraction was pretty annoying. We started with our 20m. long ribbons being tied in the upper part of the bridge, standing in front of each other. In both ends of the bridge there were two buckets – one filled with water, and the other empty. Each time we crossed the space, we crossed each others trajectory, so that the ribbons in time would intertwine and thus become a hard rope. Each time both of us would reach each one the other side of the corridor, we would pour the water from the full bucket to the empty one, leave the empty one and carry on with the full.

As the ribbons were on dirty floor, we washed them in buckets a couple of times, then they started doing that mesmerizing shush sound. As they were intertwining, we has less and less space to go back and forth. The performance ended when a huge knot had tied up at Vaida’s back – for some time I was still moving forth and back, but in the end it was impossible. It ended with us cutting the ropes off with a knife.

The performance lasted for about 1.4 hrs, it was performed during the “Dimanche Rouge” performance festival, October 2012.

Sėjomaina (2012)

With Vaida Tamoševičiūtė.

We tied ourselves with chains (in the Lithuanian countryside, used for horses and cows) in the middle of a green meadow, so that we would move in a circle with a diameter of 7-8 meters. Vaida was cutting the grass with a kitchen knife, while I was digging a ditch around, as far as I could possibly reach, given the chain. As I finished the circle, I took the scissors out of my hair. I started cutting the hair and planting it in the ditch. When I was done with planting, and Vaida still had a long way to go to finish the cutting, I started walking in circles in order to define its shape clearly. While walking, the chains began to entwine with one another and with the already cut grass. Therefore, the radius of my chain grew smaller and smaller until I could no longer keep the distance from Vaida. The performance ended when she finished cutting the grass all over the radius of the circle.

Performance lasted for 1.5 hrs, it was performed during the opening of the land art exhibition  in Vilnius University Botanical Garden.

Normal (2012)

I was playing suite for an electric guitar while Vaida was shaving her legs until they started bleeding heavily. Rhythmical structure of the guitar piece was based on Vaida’s movements: one draw of the razor was equal to one stroke of the bow. Performance lasted 20 mins., it was performed during “CREATurE Live Art” performance festival 2012.

Photo by Gediminas “Skrandis” Banaitis.