In the year 2019, the Lithuanian pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale presented Sun
Since the pavilion was away from the main routes, its creators, Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė, had no confidence in having a large attendance. But the proposal spread like wildfire and they found queues of three hours. The show won the Golden Lion.
Today, the Teatre Lliure opens the season at the Fabià Puiserver hall with this production, which has already been performed in theaters, museums and industrial spaces in many other countries. It is a flexible show, which combines artistic installation, opera and theatrical performance, where the public enters in turns, every 30 minutes, in groups of 60 people, and can stay as long as they want.
Although Barzdžiukaitė directs, Grainytė signs the dramaturgy and Lapelytė has composed the music, they try to avoid hierarchy: “The project started with the friendship between the three of us and we do it together: we are a three-headed dragon”, declares the director. “This is our second job,” explains Lapelytė. The first was called Have a good day (2011) and we already mixed music and text, and this is a continuation”.
The work has the climate crisis as its background, something that is surprising due to the fact that 30 tons of sand are moved, in this case from Tarragona, to represent a 218 m2 beach. “We had the idea of seeing the beach from above and presenting human beings as insects,” Barzdžiukaitė reasons. They are human bodies exposed in their fragility, in a mosaic. Our work has many contradictions, because we are all part of this way of doing things. But we try to make it as sustainable as possible, returning the sand from where it was extracted”.
The show is performed in English and in each function six people from the public will be able to participate from the arena. “We give the performers three rules –specifies the director–: have a good time, don't look at the audience and don't whisper among themselves”.
Regarding the synthesizer music, Lapelytė adds: “It's only part of the work. It wants to be simple, light and bright like the environment, and a bit nostalgic. It reminds of a pop song but it's not one in particular."
The director of the Teatre Lliure, Juan Carlos Martel, says: “I saw it in Venice and I thought that's what you had to see at the Lliure. From all of Spain it will only be presented here. It is a hypnotic spectacle”, he concludes.
Tickets from €10 at Club Vanguardia
