Instructions for the Woodcutters

Working with Glasgow International 2021’s theme of Attention the Roberts Institute of Art presented a programme of new work from Lina Lapelytė, Nina Beier and Paul Maheke.

Each artist developed different registers of attention throughout the programme, whether through the presence of personal trauma, unexpected phenomena or the vulnerability of a changing world. The programme at GI drew on the Roberts Institute of Art’s history of developing dynamic performance work and marked the beginning of a new phase in the direction as the organisation collaborates across the UK with institutional partners to share artists’ work more broadly and to wider audiences.

Lina Lapelytė's Instructions for the Woodcutters (2021) focused on the power of the human voice and storytelling. In this moment of global climate emergency and the pandemic the piece is a timely reflection on the role of stories and listening in helping us acknowledge how all living beings are interconnected. The work was developed from Currents (2020) and this new iteration was made specifically as an intervention within the GI website and mirrors the structure of a performance, appearing and disappearing momentarily.

Instructions for the Woodcutters

Concept and performance Lina Lapelytė

Curated by The Roberts Institute of Art

Video editor Martynas Norvaišas
Video documentation by Dāvis Sīmanis
Web developer Interesting Digital
Production assistant Agnė Kuprytė
Digital adaptation commissioned by The Roberts Institute of Art in partnership Glasgow International
Performance originally staged as part of Currents (commissioned by RIBOCA2) -
installation by Lina Lapelytė and Mantas Petraitis (Implant Architecture)
With special thanks to Ned McConnell and Lucy Cowling
Supported by the Lithuanian Culture Institute