Dream Houses
Photography and drawings
What have you learned from the changes in Latvia and worldwide in recent years?
A.B.: It has improved my understanding of Latvian society, its culture and complexes. The crisis could be akin to medical therapy of the nation’s spiritual health, but instead of evaluating one’s mistakes and becoming more farsighted and pragmatic, they go on moralising and criticising others. On a purely social level, the crisis has merely improved my standard of living, because during the “flabby years” I was better off steering clear of Latvia; life in London was cheaper.
A.V.: These changes didn’t take me by surprise. I belong to the generation which has already experienced one economic crisis at the start of the 90s. The old survival skills come back rapidly and improve in a new form. This time I have merely become more self–confident and intrepid. So what are the conclusions? There are many naive people in the world who believed in fairytales about fancy apartments out in the marsh meadows.
What is the connection between your SURVIVAL KIT2 project and the festival theme?
A.B.: My photographs depict unfinished buildings, half-inhabited houses and offices, construction objects that were once intended as the incarnation of the city’s and suburb’s ideals and are now threatening to become the modern ruins, ghost villages or simply construction failures. In its turn, the video slideshow consists of photographs of bankrupt Riga shop windows displaying a signboard “for rent or for sale”. Despite their stylistic differences, both projects document the consequences of the real estate bubble, but the burst of this bubble was the main reason for Latvia’s economic crisis.
A.V.: My project is about unbuilt utopias. About the unquestioning attitude of the individual towards the standard of living. About the naive dream of the little man in pursuit of which he is willing to struggle for survival for 30 years. About the modern ruins which dovetail with the ruins of the imploding Soviet Union. About squandered energy.
Why haven’t you left yet?
A.B.: On the contrary – after five years in London I returned to Riga. However, leaving Latvia for at least a short time is always very valuable in order to take a break from the local social discourse which is tainted by melancholy and sickly nationalism.
A.V.: Latvia isn’t the Titanic and is not about to disappear under water just yet. In the age of globalisation one can get to anyplace. If you haven’t heard, you can adapt your line of work to foreign countries and these local problems end 100 km out of Riga.