Vaiva Grainytė

Vaiva Grainytė, born in 1984, lives in Lithuania. Her text-based practice shifts between genres, interdisciplinary theatre works and publications. As a writer, playwright, and poet she takes action as an observant anthropologist: challenged by Grainyte's poetic interpretation, mundane social issues take on a paradoxical and de-familiarised nature. Her book of essays Beijing Diaries (2012) and the poetry collection Gorilla’s Archives (2019) were nominated as Book of the Year and included in the top twelve-listing of the most creative books in Lithuania. Her bilingual, cross-genre novel, Roses and Potatoes (2022), playfully and phantasmagorically deconstructs the stereotypical concept of happiness embedded in contemporary culture. Her oeuvre has been translated into over 10 languages.

In their collaborative practice, the three artists pay special attention to the relationship between documentary and fiction, reality and poetry as well as the overlap of theatre, music and the visual arts. The opera-performance Sun & Sea is their second collaboration after the contemporary opera Have a Good Day! for 10 cashiers, supermarket sounds and piano, premiered in 2013 and touring worldwide.