Sun & Sea (Marina), Pavilion of Lithuania, Golden Lion winner – Venice Art Biennale 2019

Sun & Sea (Marina), Pavilion of Lithuania, Golden Lion winner – Venice Art Biennale 2019

The Pavilion of Lithuania has been awarded the Golden Lion for the best national participation at the 58th Venice Art Biennale.
The jury – composed of Stephanie Rosenthal, Defne Ayas, Cristiana Collu, Sunjung Kim, and Hamza Walker – awarded the prize to “Sun & Sea (Marina)” by artists Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė, and Lina Lapelytė.

Combining art installation and theatrical performance and set at the Arsenale Marina Militare, “Sun & Sea” features a sandy beach, illuminated by an artificial sun and populated by people wearing bath suits and enjoining the typical seaside lifestyle. People move on the scene, chat, read, sunbath, and sing while the public observes them from a mezzanine gallery like they were the audience in a theater.

The public has an overall view of the scene, on which the performers look like a group of typical holiday-goers under the hot Summer sun; yet, as the performance unfolds, we find out that each
individual, by singing, reveals private preoccupations, ranging from trivial concerns about sunburn to nagging fears of environmental catastrophe. Gradually, the frivolous micro-stories on this crowded beach give way to more serious topics, and the individual songs grow into a universal human choir addressing planetary scale issues.

Specially adapted for the 58th Venice Art Biennale, this is the first version of this piece in English. The original version of Sun & Sea (Marina) was produced by Neon Realism.

Update: some people are suggesting possible similarities between Sun & Sea (Marina) and the photographic work “Comfort Zone” by Lithuanian artist Tadao Cern. We don’t have enough information to give an opinion on that to date, but we’ll keep you informed.

All photos by Andrea Avezzù, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia.