The Historic Hall of Hamburger Bahnhof—Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart becomes a shifting landscape of 400,000 wooden cubes. 12 performers and visitors build temporary structures accompanied by sound. Voices fill the space with songs. The lyrics are based on poems by 15 international authors from the early 20th century to the present. These include the poet Khalil Gibran (1883—1931), the writer and painter Etel Adnan (1925—2021), the poet and film director Forugh Farrochzad (1935—1967), the poet Layla Sarahat Rushani (1952/4—2004), the poet Mahmud Darwisch (1941–2008), the lyricist Ocean Vuong (born 1988), the poet Ilya Kaminski (born 1977), and the poet and author Arundhathi Subramaniam (born 1973). Short lines about community, formation, love, loss, and hope form the libretto of the work.
Like the exhibition space itself, the work also becomes a place of constant change. The 10 x 10 x 10 cm cubes made of spruce and pine move through the hands of performers and visitors. Structures emerge and disappear. Each new form requires another to give way. The work raises questions about what remains and what passes away. It also asks who decides what is built and what must be removed, and whose lives carry the weight of these changes. The title ›We Make Years Out of Hours‹ describes the significance of the part for the whole: hours become years, individuals become a community.
The 400,000 wooden cubes used in the installation and performance will become part of a public artwork in Eisenhüttenstadt in 2027 as part of Lina Lapelytė’s project for Die Neuen Auftraggeber.
Performances
The performances take place during the exhibition period on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays from 2pm to 5pm.
Concept, Music & Direction: Lina Lapelytė
Soundtrack Composition: Lina Lapelytė with Daniel Bürkner
Field Recordings: Peter Cusack
Sound Engineering & Diffusion: Thorsten HoppeChoreographer: Alice Chauchat
Dramaturgy & artistic collaboration: Cian McConn, Florine Lindner
Singers: Nérika Amaral, Daniel Belasco Rogers, Josephine Brinkmann, Mustafa Çiçek, Afran, Ruby Haffar, Talin Hajintsi, Cat Jones, Camilla Therese Karlsen, Toto Knoblauch, Paula Kramer, Ligia Liberatori, Niusha Nasim, Lisa Newill-Smith, Ruben Nsue, Cian McConn, Tom Oldham, Mata Sakka, Sandra Sarala, Doris Schließer, Luca Schüssler, Shao Shin Frieda Luk, Yuri Shimaoka, Maria Vanieieva, Michael Wenzlaff, Barbara Wiebking
Costumes: Muku
Musical Score: Thomas Oldham
Bench Design and Production: Mantas Peteraitis Architecture Studio
The Artist Lina Lapelytė
Lina Lapelytė (born 1984, Kaunas, Lithuania) is an artist and composer whose practice is rooted in performance. Working between Vilnius and London, she collaborates with trained and untrained performers to create collective acts of singing that question systems of silencing and invite vulnerability. Among other places her work has been presented at Festival d'Automne/Bourse de Commerce (Paris), BAM, MOCA, and the Venice Biennale. She is best known for the opera Sun & Sea (with Vaiva Grainytė and Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė), which won the Golden Lion at the 2019 Venice Biennale.
WC accessible to wheelchairs
Accessible to wheelchairs
Elevators accessible to wheelchairs
Parking for people with disabilities