Lina Lapelytė, What happens with a dead fish?, Kaunas Biennial 2021 photo by Martynas Plepys.
The 13th Kaunas Biennial “Once Upon Another Time… gyveno jie jau kitaip” offers a reflection on current global situations by exploring stories of human resilience and adaptation. The exhibition investigates myths and fictions associated with transformation, as well as lived personal and communal tales of survival. Folktales, fables and legends exist in every culture around the world. These stories serve to entertain, educate and even instill moral values. In recent times, chronicles of real and imagined events have evolved to include historical, cultural, political and even personal references.
Curator Josée Drouin-Brisebois
Artist: Lina Lapelytė (Lithuania)
Artwork: What happens with a dead fish? (2021)
Three-channel video projection with sound and ceramics
Commissioned for the Kaunas Biennial, 2021
Presented as a video installation spread over three floors of the Devil’s Museum, What happens with a dead fish? is the re-envisioning of a performance created by the artist.
The videos feature an amateur choir performing songs about the afterlife and what it means to slowly be swallowed by and disappear into one’s environment. Here, the media installation reveals what remained partially hidden – that which lies beyond what see through the reflective watery surface. Bodies, appearing as if cut in half, jump and swim in the water, partially abstracted by the force of their movements. A flight of custom-made ceramic boxes and bowls which originally framed and amplified the performance have become seating and traces of the event, embodying the idea of fragility and finitude.
