Lina Lapelytė – The Speech, 2024

Lina Lapelytė uses music, installation and performance to transform individual narratives into collective voices. She works with both professional and amateur performers often using voice. Their vocal performance develops into a collective, emotionally charged event that celebrates polyphony, attentive listening and individual expression. By the way her works break with the codes of Western musical tradition, she invites us to reconsider existing social constructs and to rethink the place of the individual within the community.

In spite of its title, Lina Lapelytė’s work The Speech suggests failure of speech and absence of verbal language. Starting from a reflection on our disconnect with the natural environment and our increasing estrangement from our companion species, Lapelytė explores voices that are not usually heard, such as those of children and animals. Filmed at the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection in Paris, the performance involves a hundred or so young people and reflects on their memories and fantasies about animals. The Speech is a work on primal impulses and our relationship with each other; nature and the loss of control.