Presenting a performance of actions along the banks of the Yarra River, Lithuanian artist Eglė Budvytytė will work with seven local performers to create moments of stillness amidst the bustle of the city. Playfully engaging with conventional ideas of the body in relation to public space, Some Were Carried, Some – Dragged Behind explores the ambiguity behind certain gestures, from violence and disobedience, through to empathy and care.
As the performers gradually make their way along the river’s edge at Capital Trail, the audience is invited to follow along in the form of a slow procession, or to view the piece from the height of nearby Princes Bridge. In observing this work of choreographed fiction, so at odds with the to-ing and fro-ing of the city’s lunchtime crowds, the viewer comes not only to question what is real but also to consider the implications of being a bystander and the politics of the gaze.
A graduate of photography from the Vilnius Art Academy and of audiovisual studies from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam, Eglė Budvytytė’s practice encompasses a wide range of mediums, including video, radio and performance. Budvytytė’s work has appeared in a number of exhibitions internationally, including ‘(Entre)Ouverture’, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2012); 11th Baltic Triennial of International Art, Vilnius (2012); ‘Beyond Imagination’, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2012); ‘Magicians’, Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam (2011); ‘A Cidade do homem nu’, Museu de Arte Moderna de São Paulo (2010); ‘My Travels with Barry’, TENT, Rotterdam (2008); and ‘If We Can’t Get It Together’, The Power Plant, Toronto (2008).
Concept & choreography: Eglė Budvytytė
Project intern: Gill Butcher
Created with & performed by: Stephen Agisilaou, James Andrews, Kathleen Campone, Benjamin Hancock, Louella May Hogan, Mohan Lakshimpathy, Victoria Mantynen.
Thanks: Giuliano Guerrini, Jacob Jensen, Luc Muller, Thebiga Kanesalingam, Markéta Kuttnerová, Louise Tanoto, Jacob Ingram-Dodd, Anika Edström Kawaji.
Dragging hoodies designed by Andrea Kränzlin.
Supported by RMIT iAIR
