Rūta Vitkauskaitė

Ljudkonstgalleriet collaborations

Ljudkonstgalleriet is an artistic ‘collaboratory’ aimed at exploring sound art in its many interdisciplinary forms. It is run by soprano and composer Åsa Nordgren, and composer and visual artist Michael Idehall. More than a gallery space in the conventional sense, Ljudkonstgalleriet is an experimental and empirical research environment in which artists work and communicate with each other to create, participate in collaborative art, and conduct experiments to evaluate and improve art.

 

Rūta Vitkauskaitė was invited to take part in the collaborative ‘Pioneering’ exhibition at the newly opened sound art gallery, Ljudkonstgalleriet, in 2014, where she became involved in generating an immersive experience. While ‘Pioneering I’ was the launch of Ljudkonstgalleriet and its first public event with a grand opening where all the collaborating artists were introduced, ‘Pioneering II’ and III were sound art exhibition-performances resulting from artistic collaboration.

 

As part of Ljudkonstgalleriet, Rūta has collaborated with Åsa Nordgren and Michael Idehall on a variety of other audio-visual and installation projects, including occasionally joining their duet, Äsping.

 

Ljudkonstgalleriet is funded by Lundgrenska Stiftelserna, Kulturbryggan, Västra Götalandsregionens Kulturnämnd, and Göteborgs Kulturnämnd.

Electro-Gnostic Mass (2012)

Composed and recorded one afternoon at EMS in Stockholm in 2012, this project features the Äsping Trio consisting of Rūta Vitkauskaitė, Åsa Nordgren, and Michael Idehall. The collaboration spontaneously emerged between the three artists while Rūta was an artist in residence at EMS – Electronic Music Studio in Stockholm. This work predates Ljudkonstgalleriet and is part of Åsa and Michael’s duet, Äsping, with Rūta as a visiting artist.

Äsping is a collaborative project where the two permanent members, Åsa Nordgren (vocals, composition) and Michael Idehall (electronics, composition), invite other musicians to experiment with music and sound. The sound of Äsping changes depending on the musicians who are involved in a particular project.

Rūta brough to the project a calm contemplation of violin and voice, with sound and language gradually enriching the depth of meaning and growing into a grandiose Electro-Gnostic Mass in three parts. The piece was premiered at Fylkighen in 2012.

 

Duration: 29’58” 

Format: concert with video projection

Performers: 3 (soprano, violin and electronics)

Pioneering II (2014)

The first team of pioneers at Ljudkonstgalleriet were Ann-Charlotte Rugfelt Ferm (visual and sound artist from Gothenburg), Rūta Vitkauskaitė (composer and sound artist from Lithuania) and Martin Thulin (instrument builder and composer from Malmö).

 

Their creative mission was to find a gateway to an undiscovered country and to provide a map for the audience to feel safe enough to venture into new lands of suggestion. Their creative meetings involved venturing into “undiscovered territories” by exploring the worlds of dreams, meditation, imagination, physics, and neuroscience.

 

‘Pioneering II’ developed into a public event that presented a gateway to an undiscovered country. The exhibition showcased a portal to another world in the gallery space and journeyed deep into the collective unconscious where the artists collected information and foreign artefacts. The exhibition was organic, dark, and wild, with vistas of alien sounds that lured the audience in.



Duration: installation – unlimited, performance – between 10-30 minutes

Format: an audio-visual installation of rotating lights, plants, toys and instruments taking over the whole one medium sized room; speakers, portable speakers, and electronic-surround sound. Live performance – improvisation on instruments.

Performers: 3 (violin, electronics, installation objects)

Dreammachine (Pioneering III) (2014)

The exhibition was based on the concept of String Theory, which proposes that the Universe is composed of interconnected, vibrating strings and loops of energy. This inspired the artists to focus on the space itself, incorporating a “dream machine” – a device with rotating lights that supposedly triggers a dream-like state in observers. The beams from the rotating lights intersected with the natural light from the window, revealing transparent strings interwoven throughout the space. A visual reminder that the apparently empty space is full of vibrations, the fundamental building blocks of sound.

 

Pre-recorded soundtracks, which faded in and out, stimulated the visitors’ imagination and heightened their awareness of the vibrating environment around them.

 

The interplay between the artists’ reproduction of the experience, the demonstration of the authentic experience, and the transmission of that experience to the audience were key components of this meticulously crafted and intellectually engaging exhibition.

 

Duration: installation – unlimited; performance – 17 minutes

Format: an audio-visual installation: rotating lights, strings and string instruments taking over the whole one medium sized room; speakers, portable speakers, and electronic-surround sound. Live performance – improvisation on instruments in the room.

Performers: 3 (improvisation on strings in the room)

Banshees of unworldly mansions (Pioneering III - Finissage) (2014)

The Pioneering Projects’ final exhibition, called ‘Finissage’, featured ‘Banshees of Unworldly Mansions’ a live-art installation and performance by Rūta Vitkauskaitė and Åsa Nordgren. This sound-art installation takes the audience on a journey into the depths of a void, creating a multi-sensory experience, designed to transport visitors into a surreal, eerie, otherworldly dimension.

 

The exhibition begins with visitors being individually led into a dark hall and invited by a masked usher to remove their shoes and step onto a path leading towards a dark box. As they walk, slimy textures and horrifying noises surround them, while heavenly singing allures them towards the box. While inside the box, they experience faint dots of light akin to a forest at night and encounter a creature who offers her hand. As they reach out, horror and darkness arise once more, just as they are dragged out to safety by the mysterious usher.

 

Duration: 5 minutes per person

Format: an audio-visual performance for one person at the time: a box in the venue; a non-leak sheet filled with slime, small portable lights, small portable speakers, live performance and audience interactionPerformers: 2 (usher and soprano)

Logokalyps (2015)

‘Logokalyps’ is a collaboration between Rūta Vitkauskaitė and the Äsping duet, that delves deep into the exploration of language and the human predisposition for meaning-making. It questions what happens when we move away from our “logocentric consensus”. It explores new ways of looking at the world through the dissolution of language. ‘Logokalyps’ is a sound art performance where vocals, the violin, and a sound art machine coexist and create a musical and artistic whole.

 

The libretto features a wide range of characters: two angels, Michelle Watson and Lisa Dunbar, who committed a school shooting, Steve, a womanizer who seduces girls; Adam Johnson, a bus driver unfulfilled and frustrated with his life; Isabella Hollis, a writer and supporter of the Albany Indians. All ghosts from past eras and people still alive must be cleared from this planet on the day of the Apocalypse.

 

Funded by Göteborgs Stads Kulturnämnd and Konstnärsnämnden.

 

Duration: 12’49”

Format: concert (live music with electronics) and video projection

Performers: 3 (soprano, violin, electronics)