VB26 presents: Raimundas Malašauskas Send in the Clowns

Over the course of this three-hour performance, scripts and characters converge, drifting between art, theatre, and life. Conversations unfold, characters change into costumes designed by Sandra Straukaitė, and slowly descending light draws the audience, performers and architecture together. Pianists perform Erik Satie’s Vexations.

‘I’m interested in what it means, in 2026, to think of romantic life as the most persistent of everyday rituals: people repeat roles and scripts, try to make sense of their relationships, misread signs, proudly step onto an empty stage for a “second time”, and sometimes learn from it how to live differently. Art, too, is full of such scenes and rituals: bad timing, a failed entrance, illusory fame, an audience’s desire to stay with what it has grown used to, and so on.’– Raimundas Malašauskas.

Send in the Clowns concludes a trilogy. Its first part, Mundus Mal-a-Showcase, was presented at Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in Paris in 2024; the second, Send in the Clowns, at the Performa Biennial in New York in 2025. In Vilnius, Malašauskas brings together elements from the earlier performances and rewrites them.

In 2016, he asked the artist Laura Huertas Millán to write a letter of recommendation for one of his future books. In her letter to the editors, she reflected on Raimundas’ public persona, his curatorial control and his habit of caring for other people’s work while forgetting himself. She suggested that he spend at least a few minutes each day keeping a diary: writing about what he truly desires and longs for, the women he loves, the past, genealogies, stopped clocks, funny and painful memories, suppressed impulses and shameless intimacy. Only now has it become clear that the letter was intended for Metai Vilniuje (A Year in Vilnius), the book being launched this evening.

Raimundas Malašauskas is a curator and writer born in Vilnius. From 1994 to 2006, he worked at the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) in Vilnius. He has curated projects at Centre Pompidou and Jeu de Paume in Paris, Museo Tamayo in Mexico City, and Tai Kwun Contemporary in Hong Kong. He served as an agent for dOCUMENTA (13) and co-curated the 9th Baltic Triennial, the 9th Mercosul Biennial and the 9th Liverpool Biennial. At the 55th Venice Biennale (2013), he curated ‘oO’, the joint presentation of the Lithuanian and Cypriot national pavilions, which received a Special Mention. Since 2008, he has been developing The Hypnotic Show with Marcos Lutyens. He is the author of Paper Exhibition (Sternberg Press, 2012) and Suzon (König, 2023). In 2026, he received the Lithuanian Government Prize for Culture and Art.

Credits
Co-produced with Autarkija and Erik Vojevodin
Costume design: Sandra Straukaitė
Lighting design: Eugenijus Sabaliauskas
Piano: Ugnė Adelė Nakaitė, Marija Kalvelytė
Graphic design: Nerijus Rimkus
Chef: Mykolas Vyšniauskas
Surprise guests: surprise guests
Additional performers: additional performers

The event is financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture.

Dress code: Come dressed as you are.

The second Vilnius Biennial of Performance Art (VB26) is taking place in the Lithuanian capital from 19 to 29 November. This year’s theme is Glyph, a Greek word meaning a carved or written symbol that communicates a non-verbal meaning, sound, or idea. Vilnius Biennial of Performance Art comprises two strands: a programme of invited artists curated by artistic director Neringa Bumblienė, and works selected through an open call by an international jury. Events will take place at the National Gallery of Art of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art, “Royal Theatre”, the Composers’ House, Art Factory “Loftas” and “Elastica” nightclub.

VB26 is organised by Meno Niša gallery. The event is financed by the Lithuanian Council for Culture and supported by Vilnius City Municipality. Main Partner - JCdecaux; Creative Friends - reefo.

More info: https://vilniusbiennial.com/