Lina Lapelytė

What happens with a dead fish? (Lake Zurich edition)

«What happens with a dead fish?» is an intimate meditation on the present and an invitation to reflect on cycles – such as expired foods, vanishing forests and life itself and what comes thereafter. 

The quiet and contemplative work by Lithuanian artist Lina Lapelytė was first shown at Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels in 2021. For this year’s Theater Spektakel, Lapelytė adopted the work for Lake Zurich. In this new version, she refers to current topics such as the war in Ukraine that is happening in an already heated geopolitical situation or the climate crisis that is revealing a new facet every day.

The texts that are used in the songs have been written in the the past two years. Besides texts by Lapelytė herself, a text by Dariia Chechushkova aka Dasha is performed. Chechushkova’s text was written on the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Lyrics

LAST TIME (January 2021)

Take that shield away  
Put it to the ground 
Take that funny face 
Let it be your arm 
Clock will never stop 
The time goes super fast 
Here we are on hold  
Tomorrow is the last 

Last time I hold you 
Last time I kiss you
Last time you call me 
Last time I miss you

What happens? (March 2021)

What happens with expired food? 
What happens with retired wood?
What happens with your body liquids? 
What happens when you are not there? 
What happens with your fallen hair?
What happens when you lose a signal? 
What happens? What happens? 
What happens?

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE WOODCUTTERS (August 2020)

I

And so strangely enough 
With these trees some 35 men went into the woods
With sharp axes
They were hitting and hitting and hitting up to each other
The beautiful rhythm of power and strength 
The knowledge that everything belongs to men
Everything belongs to men
Everything belongs a man
And the rhythm…
The rhythm itself
It sounded something like this: …

But sometimes it got so messy – so messy
Like something like this: …

Then someone came and said 
Hey! Hey guys!
You know 
Everything would sound much better if you manage to make the beat together
Why don’t you make this beat together?!
Then it could sound something like this: …

Imagine if you all!
All the 35 of you 
Follow the rhythm 
And hit together in that rhythm…
Yes
Something like this: …

They were going on and on and on, the super young and pretty old…

II

And then when everything was over – when they were done with the woods.
They all jumped into the river. 
The men and the logs jumped into the river 
And then 
And then they had this competition of who is gonna be faster
Who is going to be faster: the men or the river?!
Well, up until that point where there was no logs,
No men and no river…

And the river was gone
And the men were gone
There were no woods anymore
No woods any more!

And the axes got blunt
They were no sharp 
There were no woods anymore
No woods anymore

And the axes got blunt
They were no sharp 
And the women have come

The book of fire (24 February 2022)

text excerpt taken from an artwork by Dariia Chechushkova aka Dash

They came at 5 pm that morning, like white as ghost
They stood over my bed that morning as white as ghosts 
As white as ghosts of inevitability 

And gradually took away everything that was
Together with it I became this ghost myself
I don't know who I am 
I forgot
I lost my home my temple 

Dinner (April 2021)

No sharp tools
No sleek shoes no used perfumes no silver spoons no extra plates no special creams
I will give my eyes to turtles
Shark will eat my rotten guts tail will sink in to the bottom scale will melt into the flood
What will we have for the dinner?