One of the most well-known contemporary Lithuanian artists, Lina Lapelytė, will next week present Damos, a rarely performed piece for four kanklės players. This performance will open the Lithuanian National Museum’s international exhibition “Riding the Wave of Paris Exhibitions: Ethnography, Cultural Diplomacy, and Identity.” It is an opportunity to experience—free of charge—a work created a decade ago but seldom performed live.

The piece exists in two forms: as a live performance and as a recording created specifically for camera. At the exhibition On the Wave of Paris Exhibitions, the recorded version will be on display, while at the opening it will be performed live.

The exhibition reconstructs three historical presentations of Lithuania in Paris—the world fairs of 1900 and 1937, and the 1935 Baltic States Folk Art Exhibition. The kanklės, seen as the voice of the nation, were a prominent feature of these presentations, making this instrument a symbolic link between the exhibition’s narrative and the performance Damos.

One of the exhibition’s distinguishing features is its integration of contemporary art interventions into the historical narrative—bringing its themes into the present and creating bridges to current times. Visitors will see not only works by Lina Lapelytė but also by other well-known contemporary Lithuanian artists: Andrius Erminas, Laura Garbštienė, Morta Jonynaitė, Žilvinas Landzbergas, and Laura Stasiulytė.

The exhibition was created by a large team of researchers: curators Dr. Miglė Lebednykaitė and Raphaël Bories, co-curator Miglė Banytė, joined by art historian and contemporary art curator Jolanta Marcišauskytė-Jurašienė, who developed the contemporary art interventions that offer unique interpretations of themes of Lithuanian identity, representation, and political diplomacy.

Lina Lapelytė’s piece Damos aptly reflects the connections between different time periods. According to the art historian, Lapelytė was inspired by the kanklės players of the ensemble Lietuva: Violeta, Nijolė, Danutė, and Judita, whom she met while creating the opera Have a Good Day!. In the ensemble, the kanklės players usually remain in the background, but Lapelytė placed them at the center of her performance.

“Damos highlights the performers’ state of consciousness and the unusual experience of being in the spotlight. The artist observed their playing, discussed their experiences, and for the performance asked them to wear not traditional costumes but their personal clothing that emphasizes their individuality. Their graceful, synchronized movements and ritualized playing—evoking dance or factory work—accentuate the intersection of tradition and discipline. The artist is also interested in stereotypes of femininity, linking the kanklės to spinning, a traditional symbol of women’s work,” says J. Marcišauskytė-Jurašienė.

Lapelytė’s works have been presented at notable international institutions and art festivals, including the Taipei Biennial (Taipei), Performa, BAM (New York), d’Automne/Bourse de Commerce, Lafayette Anticipations (Paris), Solo-Public Art (Munich), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), MOCA (Los Angeles), and the Serpentine (London). In 2019, Lapelytė, together with Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė and Vaiva Grainytė, received the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale and the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Arts for their opera-performance Sun & Sea (Marina).

Kanklės – the voice of the nation

At the 1900 World’s Fair in Paris, Suvalkija-region kanklės from the village of Tursučiai—an exceptional example of craftsmanship—were exhibited.

“Made in 1854, the kanklės were donated to the Trocadero Museum after the exhibition and are now held at Mucem in Marseille. They return to Lithuania only briefly after more than a century, but two master instrument makers—Albertas Martinaitis and Skalmantas Barkauskas—will take this opportunity to create a reconstruction of the kanklės,” says exhibition curator Dr. Miglė Lebednykaitė, head of the Ethnography and Anthropology Department at the Lithuanian National Museum.

The international exhibition, organized by the Lithuanian National Museum in cooperation with the Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilizations (Mucem) in Marseille, opens on November 26, 2025, at 6 p.m. and runs until September 13, 2026, at the House of Histories, T. Kosciuškos St. 3, Vilnius.