Lina Lapelytė – COPPER LICK

Lina Lapelytė - COPPER LICK
Sound space and weekly performances

With the work "Copper Lick", specially conceived for Munich, the renowned Lithuanian artist Lina Lapelytė creates a sound space with performances in the inner-city green spaces near the Kabelsteg - a weekly ritual that reassesses the weight of church bells and the importance of the human voice.

Lina Lapelytė welcomes Munich to a collective listening experience. Based on the sound of Munich church bells, Lapelytė creates a composition for bells and juxtaposes it with the singing voices of nine performers. This exchange between the massive and the fragile is framed by a specially made stone sculpture, whose parabolic shape catches and reflects the bell sounds of the surroundings. With this musical dialog, Lapelytė's work enriches Munich with a new sound experience.

From March 19, the work will be performed live once a week with singing voices and church bells. Framed by the stone sculpture, whose organic form was carved from a 400-million-year-old limestone boulder from Lithuania, the performers enable a dialog between the human and the acoustics of the city, embodying tenderness and intimacy in the midst of the imposing urban backdrop. Outside of performance times, "Copper Lick" becomes an acoustic mirror of Munich's living environment. It questions the perception of sounds and explores what we want to hear and what is ignored.

For 90 days, "CopperLick" will create a meeting place for passers-by in the inner-city Isar floodplains - a listening point, amplifier and sound mirror of the acoustic urban landscape. The interplay of city bells and live performance creates a temporary interplay of materiality, space and rituals of coming together and listening.

Weekly activation: Tuesdays at 5 pm

Location
Green spaces: corner of Kabelsteg, Meillerweg, Zellstrasse. Access is free of charge.

Participants
Artist: Lina Lapelytė // Architect: Mantas Peteraitis Architecture Studio // Production: Sara Mack I freispiel Kulturagentur // Assistance Munich: Nora Giersiepen // Communication: Claudia Illi, Valentina Toso // Research assistance: Agnė Kuprytė, Ieva Gudaitytė, Povilas Gumbis, Liam Murtaugh, Sandra Senavaitytė // A project by Public Art Munich.

Performers
Dagmar Aigner / Eléonore Barbara Bovet / Sándor a.k.a. Chukwu / Gülcan Durak / Fiona Grond / SUSN KOHL / Sofia Lainovic / Susanne Spahn / Svitlana Tsedik.

Participating churches
Munich Cathedral // St. Lukas // St. Maximilian // St. Nikolai am Gasteig // Loreto Chapel at the Gasteig // St. Johann Baptist

Bell ringing
Gerhard Kollmer, Markus Meyer, Johann Wunderer

Lina Lapelytė (*1984 Lithuania, lives and works in London and Vilnius) is one of the most important contemporary artists in the Baltic region. She is known for her performative opera "Sun & Sea" together with Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė and Vaiva Grainytė, which won the Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Biennale. Lapelytė's practice is rooted in music and flirts with pop culture, gender stereotypes and nostalgia. Her work involves trained and untrained performers in an act of singing through a wide range of genres including mainstream music and opera. Singing is a collective and affective event that questions vulnerability and silence. Her work has been shown at Frac des Pays de la Loire, Nantes; Lafayette Anticipations, Paris; Gherdeina Biennale, Val Gardena; Haus der Kunst Munich; Moca, Los Angeles; Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong; Glasgow International; Riga Biennial; Kunsthalle Praha; National Gallery of Art, Vilnius; Moderna Museet, Malmö; Venice Art Biennale; Serpentine, London, among others.