From the Venice Biennale to Vilnius: VIALET Sponsors Lina Lapelytė’s Solo Exhibition
In 2019, a beach opera performed on a sand-covered floor in Venice won Lithuania the Golden Lion. One of its three creators, Lina Lapelytė, now opens her largest solo exhibition in Lithuania to date. VIALET sponsors the show.
Sambūriai (Gatherings) runs at the Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius from 9 October 2026 to 10 January 2027. The exhibition brings together work from across Lapelytė’s career, from early pieces to new ones made for this show. Expect sound, performance and installation rather than objects on walls, with live events running through the exhibition period.
The Artist
Most readers will know Lapelytė from Sun & Sea, created with Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė and Vaiva Grainytė. The piece won the Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Biennale and has since travelled to more than thirty countries. The New York Times named it one of the best works of 2019. In 2025, Frieze put the opera on a list of 25 works that shaped contemporary art in this century.
Lapelytė trained as a classical violinist and composer, and works between Vilnius and London. Her work moves between opera, pop and experimental music, and extends into large-scale interactive installations. She builds pieces around sound and space, and the audience completes them.
Her current year gives a sense of the scale she works at:
- Tate Modern, London. A participatory performance in the Turbine Hall over the summer, part of UNIQLO Tate Play. https://www.tate.org.uk/press/press-releases/uniqlo-tate-play-announces-participatory-art-projects-by-lina-lapelyt%C4%97-and-linda-bell
- Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. The CHANEL Commission, We Make Years Out of Hours, 1 May 2026 to 10 January 2027. A 2,500 square metre hall holds 400,000 pine and spruce blocks. Performers and visitors restack the blocks throughout the run. https://www.artatberlin.com/en/news-gallery-weekend-berlin-2026-chanel-commission-lina-lapelyte-we-make-years-out-of-hours-hamburger-bahnhof-nationalgalerie-der-gegenwart-01-05-2026-10-01-2027-2/
- Contemporary Art Centre, Vilnius. Sambūriai, the exhibition we support. https://cac.lt/paroda/lina-lapelyte-samburiai/
Practical details: Contemporary Art Centre, Vokiečių g. 2, Vilnius. Tickets at bilietai.cac.lt.
This sponsorship continues VIALET’s support for Lithuanian art. Last year, VIALET backed Mykolas Valantinas’ first solo exhibition. VIALET has also recently supported the documentary Origins.