Made in collaboration with Marija Olšauskaitė and Julija Lukas Steponaitytė, Songs from the compost: mutating bodies, imploding stars (2020) is a hypnotic exploration of nonhuman forms of consciousness nested within symbiotic life: interdependence, surrender, death, and decay.

Shot in the pine forests and dunes of the Curonian Spit, the video performance gradually unfolds through a specially conceived song that channels the desires of an entity shapeshifting across different genders, voices, and beyond-human embodiments. Featuring a cast comprised of local youth, the choreography rejects the verticality of the human figure by unfurling it into the landscape so that the performers’ bodies are constantly pulled toward the earth and towards each other. In the film, a hypnotic voice sings lyrics that draw from the writings of biologist Lynn Margulis and science-fiction author Octavia Butler and their shared ideas on symbiosis, mutation, and hybridity.

Based in Vilnius and Amsterdam, Eglė Budvytytė (b. 1981, Kaunas, Lithuania) works at the intersection between visual and performing arts. She approaches movement and gesture as technologies for a possible subversion of normativity, gender and social roles, and the dominant narratives governing public spaces. Spanning song, poetry, video, and performance, her practice explores the persuasive power of collectivity, vulnerability, and the permeable relationships between bodies, audiences, and environments.

Her work has been shown at Whitechapel Gallery, London (2022); Venice Biennale (2022); Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art, Riga, Latvia (2020); Renaissance Society, Chicago (2018); South London Gallery, London (2018); Lofoten International Art Festival, Lofoten, Norway (2017); Block Universe Performance Festival, London (2017); Art Dubai Commissions, Dubai (2017); Liste, Art Basel (2015); 19th Biennale of Sydney (2014); Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius, Lithuania (2016, 2010); Stedeljik Museum, Amsterdam (2012). Eglė was resident at Le Pavillon, Palais de Tokyo (Paris, 2012) and at WIELS (Brussels, 2013).