Working at the intersection of music, poetry, video, and performance, Lithuanian artist Eglė Budvytytė explores the power of collectivity, vulnerability, and permeability between bodies and the environments they inhabit. In the film Songs from the Compost: mutating bodies, imploding stars (2020) she examines human hubris toward animals, plants, bacteria, and fungi. Shot in the lichen forest and sand dunes of the Curonian Spit in Lithuania, this video depicts shape shifting bodies moving among each other in close proximity. The work is accompanied by a mesmerising musical composition and is narrated by the artist, who draws from biologist Lynn Margulis’ theory of endosymbiosis – which refers to the interaction and cooperation of composite organisms – as well as from speculative science fiction author Octavia E. Butler – who disrupts anthropocentric hierarchy through tropes of hybridity and symbiosis. Songs from the Compost is a hypnotic exploration of bodies’ interdependency, disintegration, and decay, demonstrating the necessity of intertwined networks between human and non-human beings for nurturing interspecies relationships.
Liv Cuniberti
