Agnietė Lisičkinaitė & Igor Shugaleev

“CLAP & SLAP” is a performance by Agnietė Lisičkinaitė and Igor Shugaleev that explores the political tensions between Lithuania and Belarus in the context of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Through dance, gestures, and short media excerpts, it invites reflection on guilt, responsibility, nationalism, and violence.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, it plunged the entire region into complex geopolitical tensions that also affected the art world. Dance artists Agnietė Lisičkinaitė and Igor Shugaleev explore this uneasy state through the strained relationship between their home countries, Lithuania and Belarus. With minimalistic costumes, gestures, and props, using short text and video sequences, they attempt an almost impossible dialogue. Without claiming to offer political solutions, “CLAP & SLAP” provokes reflection on responsibility and guilt, nationalism and patriotism, self-defence and aggression. 

Tickets
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Artist's Note by Agnietė Lisičkinaitė & Igor Shugaleev

The themes explored in “CLAP & SLAP”  are not theatrical fiction; they are the brutal geopolitical reality of our region. Our collaboration began in 2021 when our independent solo works—both exploring protest culture, political crisis, and physically exhausting states—first crossed paths. As a political refugee from Belarus and a Lithuanian artist navigating the polarizing waves of "cancel culture," we found ourselves carrying different but heavy burdens of guilt, anger, and collective responsibility. This performance was born from long, difficult conversations aimed at confronting our own internal mechanisms of exclusion and dehumanization.

At the core of the piece are two opposing yet identical movements: clapping and slapping. The gesture of "self-slapping" emerged directly from our theme. It is a highly charged, contradictory act—an expression of individual guilt and a collective cry for mercy that simultaneously reproduces violence. It resists easy moral categorization, uniting the roles of victim and perpetrator in a single, intense physical state. To navigate this heavy reality without becoming paralyzed, we rely on a sharp, uncomfortable humor that destabilizes perception, creating moments where laughter slips out only to get stuck in the throat, revealing our shared complicity in these political absurdities.

The precarity under which this work was created remains our daily life. For six months, Igor waited for papers in total limbo, and we almost lost the chance to dance together this year. Even though he finally received his documents, it is a temporary relief—granted for only two years. Meanwhile, Agnietė lives against the backdrop of an active hybrid war. Today, on May 20, 2026, as this text is being written, she woke up to a military alert ordering civilians to take cover from a potential air strike, sending Lithuania’s children, elderly, and officials to bomb shelters for two hours.

While residency status can be granted on paper, the bodily memory of instability, political exile, and the threat of war cannot be erased. “CLAP & SLAP” is our way of remaining vigilant—an ongoing act of civic engagement and a refusal to lose our humanity in a world that demands black-and-white simplifications.