not what we agreed is an audio-visual experiential performance combining songs written in sign languages, literary works in sign language accompanied by music, sung texts in Lithuanian, video interviews, video projections and vibrating sound experiences.
The birth of this work in 2020 was initiated by the artist Dominykas Vaitiekūnas, who involved members of the Lithuanian deaf community and hearing artists in the creative process, inviting them to work together to find an answer to the question of the difference between the words LISTEN and HEAR. In the creative process, deaf people themselves chose the genre of the works to be created, took part in workshops and were involved in the selection of the main musical themes, rhythm and tempo of the musical pieces.
This performance is made up of individual works created during the workshops in 2020-2024. All texts, music and video fragments are original. The following is an shortened version of the libretto. The on-screen video interviews and subtitles have been translated into English.
L I B R E T T O
Video on screen:
1. VULNERABILITY
Video on screen:
J-A-U-T-R-U-M-A-S (Vulnerability)
2. OUTVERTURE
On-screen titles:
In 1985, an amateur art activity called "IMITATION SONG" was established in the Lithuanian Deaf community, where a well-known hearing song is communicated to the Deaf through signs and dance movements.
In 2020, the idea was proposed to invite Lithuanian deaf people to work with hearing artists to create original songs and works of sign language literature accompanied by music.
Title card:
NOT WHAT WE AGREED
Video stories:
Vilius: The teacher's wife wanted to find out how a Deaf person could play the accordion. She was very interested. She asked if she could come and watch the lesson. I said yes. And she came. The teacher's wife saw for the first time how a Deaf person plays the accordion. She thanked me and left.
Dominykas: For five years?
Vilius: The teacher used to come to my house for five years. I will never forget that story.
Arnoldas: Before I started school, the school lifted the ban on teaching sign language. Previously, when my mother and grandmother went to school, sign language was forbidden and they were beaten on the hand. The ban was lifted when Lithuania regained its independence in 1990.
Arūnas: When I started school, sign language was banned, but I knew it because it was how I communicated with my parents. I still used to communicate in sign language at school, and the teachers used to hit me on the hand when they saw me.
Gabija: That's why it's not our place. The place for the Deaf is seperate. If Deaf people want to join, they're told: "Get out of here, go to your place among the hearing people because you don't speak the same language."
I feel that I am in the middle.
On-screen title:
calque (from French calque) is a high-quality transparent paper impregnated with a solution of fats, resins, waxes, and other substances. It is used for copying drawings and sketches (Lithuanian Encyclopaedia).
***
3. CALQUE
Video story:
Arūnas: Thick, thin. What is the meaning of these two signs? As far as the person is concerned, the sign for "fat" is shown, and the one for "thin" is as follows. In the case of a book, this is incorrect.
A "thick" book is represented as follows, a "thin" book like this. A "thin" book is not this sign. For example, a tree, a "thick" tree, I am " fat". The second example is thread. "Thin" thread, "thick" thread.
A calque is a sign for each word. Sign language has its own grammar, while calque has no grammar. There is no change in sentence structure.
***
SONG CALQUE
***
4. To the Rhythm of the Dance (Sign Language Poetry)
Key signs:
dance,
music,
rhythm,
feet,
dance,
music,
rhythm,
feet,
dance
5. (NE)KARTU
Song "(NOT)TOGETHER"
Lyrics:
I
You
We won't cry
We will cry
But
not together
6. MES PALIESKIM
Song "Let's Touch the Windowsill"
Lyrics
I move using words
Using words I can move you too
We speak our own language
And there is more than one sign language in the world.
The 'deaf and dumb' is an insult to us,
We are not mute and we express our feelings
If you speak English, we won't start to hear you
And we won't hear you if you shout or moan
But if you speak signs -
We will applaud you.
Let's touch the windowsill
to hear the rain
Let's make a sign into a beating heart
my body - is your word
I move using words
I can move you too
That we don't listen to music or dance at weekends -
it's all just a myth,
and that we sit in wheelchairs and read Braille
that's a deficit of common sense
when we drive
the car shakes from the sound,
and that is not absurd,
it's just someone's poverty of imagination
don’t be afraid to communicate
you shall not be afraid to approach
to touch
to gesticulate
to write
to keep an eye contact
don't be angry if we touch -
we’re just calling
7. LEA VIDEO
Video story:
Dominykas: Lea, what is Deaf poetry?
Lea: I don't know. Poetry? Stop.
It seems to me that for hearing people, poetry is about expressing feelings in words. And Deaf poetry is visual, it's like a combination of dance and words, where you express your feelings visually, and it's not written down on paper. That's how I imagine it.
On-screen title:
Sign Language Literature refers to artistic narratives and poetry created through signs, fluid and expressive body movements, and rhythm, without relying on a written form.
8. ARNOLDAS – EGYPT (Literary Story)
Lithuanian text read aloud
***
9. LEA – SCHOOL (Literary Story)
Lithuanian text read aloud
***
10. NINA'S MOUNTAIN (Literary Story)
Lithuanian text read aloud
***
11. SONG ENEMY
Lyrics:
ENEMY,
ENEMY,
Who is my enemy?
Hey bro, take back your muddy words
that's not how our friendship works
chill chill
take your glass and fill
let’s meet tomorrow and you’ll see
how beautiful the sun can be?
Morning was so lovely and bright
Here cames the guy I’ve met last night
I drive and would love him seeing
The beauty of this morning’s meaning
Look at the mirror,
Don’t shoot at me
Not me – you are your enemy!
A bullet runs out, but it turns back
not everybody determines to turn his neck
to look at the mirror and ask: is it just me?
Am I the only
real enemy?
All bullets inside my gun
they could defame your name for fun, but got back
the cake I threw in other faces
Now I understand how does it taste
That morning was painfully bright
But saw the guy I had met last night
Somehow he wanted me to see
that muddy dirty morning’s meaning
He turned the mirror straight to me
and said I’m the only enemy
this lifetime darkness cannot last
I hope the mirror is my past
12. LOPŠINĖ
Song "Lullaby"
13. VIDEO STORIES: HARD-OF-HEARING
Video story:
Arūnas: If the person is "running", the sign is used for this or that. And water from a tap "runs" like this. A cat "runs" like this, not on two legs. For example, I "swim", the cloud " floats", the duck "swims", the fish "swims". See how different? Deaf people don't understand when there are literal signs. Lithuanian is very beautiful, sign language is also very beautiful. We need to separate them, not mix them.
Dominykas: What about the hard of hearing?
Arnas: I feel more like a Deaf person myself.
Erika: Deaf and hard of hearing people are different. Hard of hearing people communicate with their voice, with speech, they imitate songs with spoken word, but Deaf people do not understand it.
Gabija: Most of the time it's harder for me in the hearing world because hearing people react to my voice. I wear a hearing aid, it sounds different to them. I need to be in the deaf world but I can be in both: I can speak with my voice, I can sign, but the Deaf say you belong in the hearing world. So where is my place?
Erika: When I'm with my family, my sister, my brother, they're talking out loud and I don't understand what they're saying. What should I do? I browse on my phone, when I ask what they said, they say: "Oh, I'll tell you later", "Oh, I'll talk to you later", "I forgot what they said". I want to know what they said!
Arnas: If I ask the hearing people to repeat it, they just say, "Oh, never mind". Other times, during the holidays, at Christmas, we all gather around the table. My parents are deaf, so it's a bit of a challenge, and everyone else is hearing.
14. VIDURY
Song "In The Middle"
15. VIDEO: IDENTITY
Video story:
Arnas: I am Deaf, I am also LGBT... I often get asked about my relationships with women, and sometimes people even ask if I'm in a relationship with a woman. Sometimes I get a bit lost, but I don't hide it. Why would I hide the fact that I'm gay?
Identity? Lithuanian. Pure-blooded Lithuanian. And I was born in Kaunas. A Kaunasian.
Lea: We discussed what to do. My wife is a professional basketball player and has a Deaf daughter. And what did I have that was important? Just a job. And I could have given it up.
The school here has better conditions, and I didn't want my daughter to have to go through what I did to have to learn among the hearing, without interpreters, to have to go through the sign language ban, to have to endure so much, and I didn't want to do the same to my daughter. I saw that the school here had good conditions, she had her friends, and I didn't want to separate her from them. You know, the child always comes first.
16. DVYNIAI (Sign Language Poetry "Twins")
Lithuanian text read aloud
***
17. TU ESI GARSAS
Song "You Are The Sound"
Video story:
Lea: I would like to say that I never dreamed of being hearing because I was born Deaf. Maybe others who were born hearing and have lost their hearing might miss hearing, but I don't have that feeling. For me, Deafness is a gift, so I have no regrets about being Deaf.
Dominykas: What is Sign language genocide?
Arnoldas: The view that sign language should not be promoted because they believe it is – sign language – in which I can communicate.
Arūnas: These days, there are lots of different technological options out there – hearing aids, cochlear implants and so on. But after cochlear implant surgery, doctors often tell patients not to use sign language or visual cues, only relying on hearing. This is so that the remaining hearing can be developed. They also often tell patients not to use sign language or visual cues, only using spoken language. It's a terrible situation. It's wrong to take away the language from deaf people, but even more so to be committing genocide against them. You could even say it's the extermination of the Deaf.
On-screen title:
VISUAL VERNACULA (VV) is a storytelling technique used by Deaf people that doesn't rely on gestures. The stories are conveyed using vivid visual imagery, signing, acting and other elements.
18. GENOCIDE (VV)
19. VIDEO: MILAN CONGRESSES
On-screen title:
Back in 1880, an educational congress in Milan decided that Deaf people should be taught to speak orally, with limited access to sign language. For over a century after that, Deaf and hard of hearing people in the Western world, regardless of their residual hearing, have been forced to use their voices without the option of choosing otherwise.
Video story:
Arnoldas: Deaf people were forcibly sterilised in Finland. The number of Deaf people sterilised was particularly high during the Second World War, during the Fascist period. In Switzerland, in the Fascist states, and in Finland, Deaf people were not allowed to marry. In Germany, between 1940 and 1945. In Finland, for a very long time until 1960-1970.
Arnoldas: Two or three Deaf people attended the Milan Congress, and the majority of the rest took the decision. Even before the congress, there was already a lot of talk on the subject.
Arūnas: The Milan Congress was about Deaf education and Deaf awareness. The Congress made the definitive decision that sign language education should not be allowed in schools for the Deaf. Across Europe, Deaf educators, teachers and other Deaf people were dismissed. One school had a Deaf headmaster who was also dismissed. In Lithuania, teaching was oral. Meanwhile, in Scandinavia, there was still bilingual education. Europe was effectively cut off from progress for 130 years. At a congress on education in Canada (130 years later), it was apologised that sign language was banned in schools for the deaf. For 130 years, sign language was banned.
Dominykas: When did the apology take place? In which year in Canada?
Arūnas: In 2010.
20. ŽODŽIAI
Lyrics for "Words":
Our sentences are finite
And we are infinite
Our movements are finite
And we are infinite
Words are just syllables
Words are just letters
Words end
And we are not yet
A sign is just a direction
A sign is only a movement
And what are we?!
A sign is only a direction
A sign is only a movement
And who are we?!
21. VILIUS' POETRY PIECE (untranslatable)
22. VILIUS TEACHES SIGNS
Vilius: I have a problem. I remember the music, but I forget the lyrics. Can you help me? I'll teach you the lyrics, repeat after me...
Why am I here? I don't want to get old, I don't want to.
Let's repeat.
Why am I here? I don't want to get old, I don't want to.
I know how to love. I know how to be silent. I can't give up. Music saves me.
Let's do it all over again.
23. NENORIU PASENTI
Song "Not Getting Old"
24. JUOKAS OUTRO
Song "Laughter Outro"
Lyrics:
About what
what happened to us
What could have, but
luckily it never happened
About the silence that
We didn't know how to find the meaning of
We spoke without listening to it
and we laughed about it,
Like mad
about our naive rapprochement
and we've become ridiculously attached,
going in opposite directions
it's strange that we didn't tear up
that we knew everything then
we felt irrevocably smart
frowning and avoiding to remember
that we were so serious as to be ridiculous
We laugh we laugh we laugh we laugh
We laugh like mad
We're serious – we're distant
We laugh – we get closer again
On-screen:
V-U-L-N-E-R-A-B-I-L-I-T-Y
On-screen title:
On 4 May 1995, the Government of the Republic of Lithuania officially recognised sign language as the mother tongue of Lithuanian Deaf people. However, the right to a mother tongue is still not guaranteed by any law.
On-screen title:
CREATIVE TEAM
Authors and performers of sign language texts: Arnoldas Matulis, Paulius Jurjonas, Rūta Mingailaitė, Justina Čiplytė, Erika Slabadienė, Aldona Kvaselytė, Adas Aužbikavičius, Gabija Varenkevičiūtė, Nina Šamakova, Vilius Glušokas, Arūnas Bražinskas, Lea Milašauskė, Šarūnas Zdanavičius, Arnas Dambrauskas
Spoken language texts by: Dominykas Vaitiekūnas
Music composers: Jokūbas Tulaba, Dominykas Vaitiekūnas, Kazimieras Krulikovskis, Paulius Jurjonas, Adas Aužbikavičius
Music producer: Jokūbas Tulaba
Instrumental band: Kazimieras Krulikovskis, Matas Ričkus, Martynas Stoškus
Instrumental band leader: Kazimieras Krulikovskis
Director and creative director: Dominykas Vaitiekūnas
Assistant to the director: Agnė Šlivinskaitė
Video projection creator: Kristijonas Dirsė
Video projection engineer-operator: Tomas Brazys
Lecturers in sign language literature: Debbie Z Rennie, Erwan Cifra
Lecturer in Sign Language Sung Texts: Marko Vuoriheimo
Curator of Sign Language Literature: Anželika Teresė
Sing language editors: Nijolė Pivorienė, Kęstutis Vaišnora
Choreographers: Agnietė Lisičkinaitė ir Mantas Stabačinskas
Costume designer: Rūta Kyguolytė
Sound engineer: Mantas Tamulionis
Sound directors: Mantas Tamulionis, Tomas Kulakovski, Arnas Tamulionis
Sign language interpreters: Julija Pugačiauskaitė, Anželika Teresė, Jussi Wainio
Dramaturgy consultant: Monika Baranauskaitė
Communication manager: Živilė Brazė
Communication coordinator: Fausta Junelytė
Project visual identity: Pencil & Lion
Creative partners: Teklė Kavtaradzė, Augustas Baronas, Raminta Naujanytė-Bjelle, Laurynas Kamarauskas, Dovydas Šulskis
Producer: Dominykas Vaitiekūnas
Executive producer of the performance: Giedrius Petkevičius
Project activities coordinator: Domantė Tirylytė
Workshop coordinators: Justina Vertelkaitė, Miglė Jaskūnienė, Viktorija Rutkauskaitė, Agnė Šlivinskaitė, Tomas Pupalaigis
Video editors: Kipras Štreimikis, Dalius Kalinauskas
Layout designer: Gytis Baranauskas
Project webpage: Domantė Tirylytė
The project is funded by: Nordic Culture Point, Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius City Municipality, Kaunas City Municipality, Swedish-Lithuanian Cooperation Fund, LATGA Association, European Union (under the Erasmus+ programme), Swedbank Lithuania, Culture Moves Europe.
Sponsors: Ego spa, Green Vilnius Hotel, Druskininkų Hermis, Andrius Mamontovas, Artūras Vyšniauskas, Jolanta Vaitiekūnienė, Greta Sutkevičiūtė, Lina Plieniūtė, Lijana Čiplienė
Information partner: LRT
Project partners: Lithuanian Association of the Deaf, Kaunas Centre for the Deaf, DELFI initiative (NE)MATOMI, Video Projects, Kaunas Cultural Centre, Kaunas Artists' House, National Kaunas Drama Theatre, Vilnius County A. Mickevičius Public Library, Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Arts Printing House, Ego Spa, Lithuanian Diversity Charter Association, Pencil & Lion.
Special thanks: Vaida Lukošiūtė, Embassy of Finland in Vilnius, Mantas Radavičius, Gintarė Masteikaitė, Martynas Arlauskas, Raimonda Vaičeliūnienė, Mykolas Balaišis, Laura Valytė, Ramunė Leonavičienė, Vilma Liukenskienė, Lina Juozaitienė, Sigutė Šimkūnaitė, Rusnė Kregždaitė, Mindaugas Karalius, Martyna Gudaitė, Airida Gudaitė, Oldman Kaunas, Monika Juškevičiūtė and other supporters.
℗ VšĮ LIŪDNI SLIBINAI
2024 m.