In a site-specific work relating to the Composers’ House, a modernist landmark in Vilnius, Samuel constructed a multimedia installation creating a simulacrum of a conductor’s live performance. The familiar and ritualistic setting of a traditional classical concert envelops the audience. A grand piano, wrapped in a transparent shroud, takes centre stage, illuminated by bright, focused spotlights.

Samuel guides this funeral vessel in an emotional ritual; ‘conducting’ an ephemeral orchestra, though the music will be entirely digital. The installation blurs the boundary between presence and absence, emphasizing the illusions inherent to all types of creative performance.

Confounding audience expectations and prescribed forms of performance, he confronts the inevitable twin pressures of personal fate and societal tradition, placing himself on the brink of disaster yet striding confidently and purposefully toward the unknown.