A distinctly Lithuanian accent lit up New York’s performance art map as the programme of the international performance biennial Performa Biennial 2025 unfolded, featuring a strong line-up of Lithuanian artists. The special programme Lithuanian Pavilion Without Walls was organised by Performa in collaboration with the Lithuanian Culture Institute and the Consulate General of Lithuania in New York.
This year, the voices and projects of Lithuanian creators stood out for their scale, experimentation, and diversity of approaches – ranging from reimagined urban architecture to the collective sound of a three-hundred-strong children’s choir resonating through the rhythm of New York.
“I am very proud of Lithuanian creators and of the work and efforts of the Lithuanian Culture Institute. The result is worthy of them – a new stage is opening for Lithuanian artists,” emphasised Julija Reklaitė, Director of the Lithuanian Culture Institute.
Lithuanian Artists Who Filled the New York Scene
Andrius Arutiunian’s performance took place inside a moving taxi – an intimate journey through diasporic experience, childhood memories, and the music emerging from old speakers. “The performance is based on the experience of a nation living abroad. I want to show what it means when a community does not belong to the place where it lives and how it creates its own sounds within it,” the artist said.
Lina Lapelytė, internationally known for Sun & Sea, presented The Speech in New York – a sensitive exploration of language, community, and humanity’s relationship with the natural world. A choir of three hundred children formed one of the biennial’s most ambitious undertakings. “This festival is an important event in New York’s art scene… Performa is not a gallery or a museum – although it is one of the most important performance art festivals, its DNA carries an openness to experiment and the unknown,” Lapelytė noted.
Raimundas Malašauskas’s two-evening project Send In the Clowns became one of the biennial’s most talked-about experiences. Each night, the same troupe created a different narrative, allowing the audience to witness the transformation of improvisation and acting in real time. “For me, this invitation is an unprecedented opportunity to collectively experiment with an international company at the intersection of Lithuania, New York, and Performa. The degree of freedom and trust granted is extraordinary, the venue is legendary, and the commitment to improvisation is sacred,” Malašauskas said.
Robertas Narkus invited visitors into an audiovisual labyrinth that stretched from the myths of underground Vilnius to the streets of New York. “In the daytime it is light, and at night it is dark. That would be my ideal quote…”, the artist remarked, describing a work that delved into human error, algorithms, and acts of rebellion in a technological world.
The artistic duo Pakui Hardware (Neringa Černiauskaitė and Ugnius Gelguda), together with Operomanija, presented the musical performance Spores, which explored the relationship between technology and the human body, accompanied by the pulsating presence of a community choir.
“The unexpected invitation from Performa to step into the field of performance opened an unfamiliar territory for us, where together with the creative team assembled by Performa and Operomanija we embarked on a sonic, sculptural, and temporal experiment… This gave rise to the idea of creating a musical performance in which the classical genre of tragedy intertwines with today’s technologised way of life,” said Černiauskaitė and Gelguda.
Augustas Serapinas’s roaming wooden structure became an unexpected inhabitant of New York. It appeared and disappeared across the city, inviting passers-by to encounter architecture as a living being. “For me, Performa is a wonderful opportunity to create a new work by returning to process as a fundamental part of my practice,” the artist stated. The structure’s journey left a distinctive Lithuanian trace on the city’s map.
Lithuania on the Performa Map
Performa Biennial is one of the world’s leading international performance art events, founded in 2005 by Roselee Goldberg. Her vision was to establish performance as an equal and vital branch of contemporary art. Over two decades, the biennial has become a space where daring projects emerge, artistic directions shift, and the whole of New York transforms into a stage.
Lithuania’s participation in this biennial is the result of long-term and consistent collaboration – shaped by the curators of the Vilnius Performance Biennial, Rupert, cultural attachés, and various Lithuanian cultural institutions.
This year’s Performa Biennial marked a significant moment for Lithuanian contemporary art. It demonstrated that Lithuanian creators are not only participants in the global cultural field but active contributors capable of reshaping it – boldly, conceptually, and with a distinct voice.
