An installation by Lithuanian artist Lina Lapelytė has opened at London’s Tate Modern, created specifically for the gallery’s Turbine Hall. The artist is inviting visitors to become participants and help create the work themselves.
“I was invited by the curators to create this work as part of a special programme called Tate Play. One of the key elements of the invitation was that the audience should become part of the artwork,” Lapelytė said.
“I wanted this work to become a small version of a performance where everyone can take part,” she added.
Her work, titled Serendipity Island (Atsitiktinumų sala), explores how individual sounds and actions can come together to create music and choreography.
Around 300 visitors can participate in the installation-performance at the same time, learning their own individual scores before setting off on a journey through a labyrinth.
“I would like people simply to play, not to be afraid to improvise, and for every action to be carried out with attention. It is about understanding that everything we do is connected to something else.
“Every action by each participant affects how the whole group feels. They are observed from this bridge, but they are also on stage – this is a stage for people,” Lapelytė said.
The artist says London holds a special significance for her, as she studied there, spent many years in the city and now teaches there.
She said being invited to create an installation for one of the city’s most renowned galleries was particularly meaningful.
Lapelytė is best known as a co-creator of the opera Good Day (Geros dienos) and the opera-performance Sun & Sea (Saulė ir Jūra), which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale.
Her other exhibitions are currently on show at the Medina Triennial in New York and in Berlin.
Serendipity Island will be on display at Tate Modern in London until the end of August.
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