Saturday 19 November 2022, 7pm
THE VOICE OF EARTH is a series of acts dedicated to the work and legacy of Lithuanian-American archaeologist and anthropologist Marija Gimbutas.
Act One: Open Ceremony brings together the liminal space of form and vibration, uncovering the landscapes of resonances, morphic grids and deep time.
This project is an open cycle of performative acts addressing the work of the Lithuanian-American archaeologist and anthropologist Marija Gimbutas, exploring non-canonical ways of reading and (re)constructing more-than-human environments in history and today.
While it was seen as too speculative for the academic circles during Gimbutas lifetime, her ground-breaking theory challenges the common perception of history, and is now being evaluated anew in the light and rise of climate emergency and decolonial emancipation.
The series of events is seasonally structured and explores themes of pre-history, archeo-mythology, ecological thought, and the arcane. Inviting scholars and practitioners to work across academic institutions and cultural spaces, this project aims to reframe and analyze methods of unveiling and restoring a more-than-human environment.
Act One: Open Ceremony brings together the liminal space of form and vibration, uncovering the landscapes of resonances, morphic grids and deep time.
We hold this ceremony with the British interdisciplinary thinker and medicine woman Jill Purce, Lithuanian-Armenian artist and composer Andrius Arutiunian, and the duo of the award-winning Lithuanian artist and musician Lina Lapelytė and German cellist Ute Kanngiesser.
The event is co-organised by the Lithuanian Culture Institute. Curated by Claudia da Palma Romao and Ula Tornau.
In collaboration with The Feminist Library
Image by Claudia da Palma Romao
Jill Purce is a British voice teacher, medicine woman and author. In the 1970s Purce develop a new way of working with the voice, introducing the teaching of group overtone chanting, producing a single note whilst amplifying the vocal harmonics. Jill pioneered the international sound healing movement through her rediscovery of ancient vocal techniques, the teaching of overtone chanting, the power of group chant, and the spiritual potential of the voice as a magical instrument for healing and meditation.
Her 1974 book about the spiral in sacred traditions, art and psychology: The Mystic Spiral: Journey of the Soul was a seminal influence. The Bishop of California describes her contribuition to the 1990’s installation of the labyrinths in Grace Cathedral, San Francisco “She helped inspire the birth of the modern labyrinth movement. Jill’s ground breaking work with the labyrinth was inspiring informative and important… it couldn’t have been done without her work.”
Overtone Chanting Meditations | Jill Purce (bandcamp.com)
The Healing Voice: A Lecture and Chanting Meditation | Jill Purce (bandcamp.com)
Songs of illicit origin, hypnotic repetition, resonant bodies, metals and surfaces all entangle in this interplay of oscillating voices. Kayīb is a musical collection based on the artist’s most current research into sonic dissent.
Andrius Arutiunian is a Lithuanian Armenian artist and electroacoustic composer who works through sound objects, installations and time-based pieces. Sonic vernaculars, non-western traditions of music making, and peripheral forms of knowledge are the focus of Arutiunian’s work. Recent exhibitions and performances include Armenia Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale, Survival Kit 13, CTM festival, Rewire, Göteborg Art Sounds and documenta 14 Parliament of Bodies.
Lina Lapelytė is an artist, musician, creator of performance art and contemporary opera. Initially trained as a classical violinist, Lina Lapelytė has developed an ongoing interest and research into experimental music, amateur performance, and historical genres. In her recent work, Lapelytė traverses between disciplines and explores various forms of performativity. Her works engage trained and untrained performers often in an act of ‘singing’ through a wide range of genres such as mainstream music and opera, while examining issues of displacement, otherness, ageing and gender. The singing takes the form of a collective and affective event that questions vulnerability and silencing. In 2013 her creative collaboration with Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė and Vaiva Grainytė led to the creation of the contemporary opera Have a Good Day! which is a story of the ten cashiers and their invisible lives. The opera was shown in dozens of international festivals around the world, and received six international awards. The climate change opera-performance Sun & Sea (2017) was the second project the trio co-created, which received the Golden Lion Award of the Venice Art Biennale 2019.
artist / . (linalapelyte.com)
MICL - Music Information Centre Lithuania | Database - Classical / Contemporary - Composers - Lina Lapelytė
Sun &Sea (Marina): Index (sunandsea.lt)
Ute Kanngießer is a London based cellist and composer from Germany. Over the years, she has carefully deconstructed her classical roots and almost exclusively performs unscripted, improvised music. Much of her work has evolved in relationship with other art forms such as film, poetry, dance and site specific work. She is interested in the vast expressive possibilities of her instrument in relation to body, space, and others, always looking to rediscover or redefine what is musical/lyrical in this moment in time.
Recent releases include Blue Monday - a collaboration with writer Zara Joan Miller - on New York label Reading Group.
