Song Sing Soil

I compost my fear

I lick up my smear

I sharpen my instincts

I slow down my heartbeats

The performance is a choreography for three performers that slowly unfolds around a specially conceived song that drifts between different mindsets, tones, voices and frequencies. The soundtrack fluctuates between fierce instructions directed at the listener, silent moments, tender melodies and intimate musings. The performers' movements respond to this soundscape, supporting the words with their bodies and gazes.

The ground and its composting soils are important motifs for the artists in developing this new work. Gravity has a lot of pull in the choreography; bodies move slowly, through downward horizontality and surrender. The ground is where materials rot and break down, while new growth simultaneously takes formation.

The piece is plea for slowing down, for staying with the in-betweenness, and expanding the capacity for feeling and listening.

Eglė Budvytytė and Marija Olšauskaitė have collaborated since 2019. Their new work Song Sing Soil is part of their duo exhibition at Vleeshal Center for Contemporary Art. The film Songs from the Compost: Mutating bodies, Imploding Stars (2020), made in collaboration with Ona Julija Lukas Steponaityte was part of the main exhibition The Milk of Dreams at the Venice biennale 2022.

Eglė Budvytytė is an artist based in Amsterdam and Vilnius working at the intersection between visual and performing arts. In her practice – spanning across music, poetry, videos and performance, she explores the relationships between body, architecture, environment and audience, with a particular emphasis on the powers of vulnerability and collectivity. Her work has been shown at Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA); Renaissance Society, Chicago; Lofoten International Art festival; Block Universe festival, London; Art Dubai commissions; Liste Art Fair, Basel; 19th Biennale of Sydney; De Appel Arts Centre, Amsterdam; CAC, Vilnius, and Stedeljik Museum, Amsterdam, among others.

Marija Olšauskaitė is an artist based in Vilnius and New York City. She employs various modes of collaboration and explores the themes of relationships, openness, intimacy, and belonging. Her work has been shown at PM8 Galeria, Vigo; Liste Art Fair, Basel; Hauser & Wirth gallery, London; Nida Art Colony, Nida, Lithuania; Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA2), Riga and CAC, Vilnius.