Sun and Sea (Marina). A Trap for Conventions and the Audience

Abstract

The analysis of the opera-performance Sun and Sea (Marina), the winner of Venice Biennale 2019, shows how the contradictory traditions of opera and performance enrich each other and break numerous canons of the art world. Opera, which at the very birth of the genre was titled the most conventional and unnatural art, earned the top position in the social pyramid amongst the arts. Performance art represented counter-culture due to its naturalness and liveness. In their work, Lapelytė, Grainytė, and Barzdžiukaitė suggest playing with different contexts and different social aspects and questioning traditions of the arts. Opera changes due to a performative turn, interdisciplinarity, and revolutions in the opera world (Wilson and Glass Einstein on the Beach) due to the society of sharing economy, participatory theatre, social networks, and an experiential turn.