Tribune
Objects, 2013
A universal collapsible rostrum. Two for each resident of Latvia. You can always give some subservient and required views, decorated according to your taste and wishes. It’s better to see a speaker once than to hear him. Don’t judge the speaker by his speech, but by his rostrum. You should’nt just carry your love of your fatherland in your heart, but to express it from the rostrum. Buy it once, speak seven times. Chide yourself, not the rostrum. Whoever doesn’t love the rostrum, doesn’t love people. Each speech is a creation of a new you. If you reap from the rostrum with your tongue, then your back won’t tire. Behind a rostrum, people’s deeds look a lot more respectable. Only the dead don’t talk. You shouldn’t just talk, but stand on the tribune. I have never relaxed so well as when I’ve been talking. God gave us the rostrum, Satan, the speakers. He who talks sows, he who listens, gathers the harvest. (E.K.). To travel to Latvia with a rostrum is the same as to travel to Paris with your wife. Life would be a lot shorter, if there weren’t speakers. The more one talks, the more chance there is of doubt. The rostrum tolerates lies. Do you like Stalin? ...fuck his tribune.
(L.L.)
Artist's Bio:
“How to become a Christian after being a militant atheist, to switch political parties, to separate oneself from the rest, to get rid of various complexes, to overcome the fear of public speaking, to become Mussolini for a moment, Trotsky, Vaira... How to persuade people if they do not understand your language, and tell as many people as possible that they are stupid and you smart (and vice versa), and how in 5 seconds make everyone realize that you are a colossal b ... or d ... “ (L.L.)
Laganovskis graduated from the Department of Stage Design, Latvian Academy of Arts. His research areas include language, power, politics, and society that Laganovskis dissects in ruthlessly harsh directness. The artist’s works are in collections of museums in Latvia, Estonia, USA, Germany.