The Chaff More Precious than the Wheat

In the summer of 2024, the project “The Chaff More Precious than the Wheat” took place at Akee, inviting visitors to reflect on how we shape our daily rituals and environments in relation to other living beings through conceptual and site-specific installations.

The history of civilizations is often narrated through the lens of tools and technological advancements. Yet, humanity itself is unimaginable without its intricate relationships with other organisms. From microscopic bacteria and plants to large mammals, our existence depends on countless forms of symbiosis with these buzzing, rustling, and creeping companions.

In “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction,” writer Ursula K. Le Guin proposed a thought-provoking perspective: perhaps the most fundamental tool of civilization wasn’t the knife or the axe, but the humble carrier bag—an object that enabled humans to gather, store, and preserve resources for challenging times. Extending Le Guin’s idea, we might speculate that insects like bees, thriving in vast colonies, collecting nectar, and transforming it into essential materials for survival, provided a model for human community-building. These natural collectives show us how it’s possible to feel connected and united in pursuit of common goals, even without personal acquaintance.

Viewed through the lens of deep time, the relationship between humans and bees highlights a significant civilizational shift—the evolving connection with our environment. Aristotle, a foundational figure in Western science who also studied bees and their swarm structures, described humans as “political animals,” naturally inclined to form communities and states. Yet, political animals possess another defining trait: imagination. This capacity allows us to reshape social systems and redefine our relationship with the living world, often termed “nature” today.

Before the rise of monotheistic religions, human-nature relationships were deeply infused with mythological imagination. In pagan Lithuania, natural phenomena were often explained through the will of mythical beings. Bees held a special place, protected by the goddess Austėja, reflecting their cultural significance. Historical and archaeological sources, including the Third Statute of Lithuania, testify to the importance of beekeeping. Beyond honey, beeswax was highly valued, even more so than honey itself, used in shipbuilding, casting bells and cannons, and possibly serving as a form of currency.

However, as in much of the world, modernization in Lithuania transformed the human-environment relationship. Nature became increasingly viewed as a resource to be managed and optimized through industrial methods, shaping modern landscapes and contributing to geological and climate changes. In the Anthropocene epoch, human impact on the environment has become a critical challenge, threatening biodiversity, including the survival of bees.

Paradoxically, in this precarious context, bees are being rediscovered not just as producers of valuable materials but as essential guardians of biodiversity. By collecting nectar, they play a crucial role in ecological regeneration, pollinating about three-quarters of the world’s cultivated crops—fruits, vegetables, and nuts among them. The disappearance of bees would disrupt ecosystem balance, posing an existential threat to humanity itself.

Reflecting on these global shifts, “The Chaff More Precious than the Wheat” was grounded in the village of Aleknaičiai. Surrounded by towering linden trees, the former village school became a canvas for exploring the intimate ties between humans and bees. On hot summer days, the air vibrates with the joyful buzzing of bees diving into fragrant linden blossoms. These trees were planted by the school’s first teachers, Stasys and Bronė Grušas. Today, their legacy continues through former student Vytautas Vaitiekūnas, who tends around twenty hives and produces honey in the old school building.

But not all bees return to hives. A wild swarm has made its home within the school’s walls. The building now hosts Akee, a cultural and educational space curated by Vytautas’s grandson, Vilius. Just beyond the wall inhabited by wild bees, Vilius is setting up a kitchen for resident artists.

For this project, we invited members of the Hungarian architectural collective Architecture Uncomfortable Workshop (Dénes Ghyczy, Lukács Szederkényi, and Karolina Szabados), along with architecture students Marta Dorotėja Lekavičiūtė and Ieva Julija Bagdonaitė. Through creative labs, we explored the symbiotic relationship between humans and bees, reflected in spatial installations and performative actions.

The architects’ installation consisted of two elements, symbolizing the duality of gathering and domesticating wild resources:

The Nomadic Table: A mobile, wooden table on wheels, inviting people to gather and share. At first glance, it seems ordinary, but upon closer contact, one discovers its underside coated with beeswax. The unexpected texture disrupts the familiar, evoking memories of chewing gum stuck under school desks. However, the warmth of human touch softens the wax, encouraging playful molding—as if shaping small creatures that might come to life.

The Tent of Reflection: Positioned slightly away from Akee and the buzzing bees, the tent offers a space for solitude and introspection. Its vertical structure contrasts with the flat agricultural fields yet echoes the distant spire of Lygumai’s Holy Trinity Church. The tent’s proportions resemble a rural outhouse, but instead of unpleasant odors, visitors are greeted by the comforting scent of beeswax. Inside, minimal furnishings—a stool and a glass candle holder—create a serene environment, enhancing sensory awareness as bees gather on a honeycomb placed on the roof.

These installations were presented during “All Good Things ’24.” Guests gathered around the wax-coated table, crafting their own bowls to sample honey, fruits, and milk drinks prepared by Dénes. As night fell, the tent transformed into a glowing lantern, while wax candles crafted by Marta Dorotėja and Ieva Julija flickered like fireflies on the building’s facade.

The project intuitively sought new meanings and forms of human-bee domestication. Philosopher Vilius Dranseika’s lecture, “On Humans and Other Domesticated Species,” deepened this inquiry. He posed provocative questions: How different is our domestication of cattle from ants’ domestication of aphids? What does it mean to domesticate another living being, and who becomes dependent in this relationship—the domesticated or the domesticator?

Ultimately, regardless of how we define these interspecies negotiations, our existence depends on them. Yet, this understanding seems less apparent in the modern human consciousness.

As “political animals,” we strive for prosperity and the realization of our dreams. However, contemporary collective aspirations often focus solely on human flourishing, defined in economic terms and measured by numbers. In these dreams, there is little space for the agency of other living beings with whom we share this world. We have grown accustomed to treating our environment and its inhabitants as mere resources for our benefit.

Unfortunately, this worldview is not just a product of imagination. As natural disasters become more frequent, the dream of prosperity risks turning into a destructive nightmare. Perhaps it will take a profound shock to awaken from this illusion. Maybe we can no longer restore the ecosystems that existed before the Anthropocene and will have to adapt to new realities. Yet, no matter how unpredictable the future, our survival and well-being depend on nurturing our relationships with the buzzing, rustling, and creeping companions who share this fragile world with us.

Text by Martynas Germanavičius

Photos by Architecture Uncomfortable Workshop and Monika Jagusinskytė

Curated by Martynas Germanavičius and Vilius Vaitiekūnas
Communication: Aistė Marija Stankevičiūtė
Assistants: Ieva Bagdonaitė and Marta Dorotėja Lekavičiūtė
Finance: Dovilė Lapinkskaitė

The project is funded by:

Project partners:
Culture Complex SODAS 2123, artnews.lt, Architektūros fondas, Pakruojis “Atžalyno” gymnasium, Radio Vilnius

This project is part of the Circular Design Alliance co-funded by the European Union.