P's History or Plasticine War
Objects, 2013
P is a hero whose story was “dug up” from stacks of paper, private letters, photographs and other items which were found in cardboard boxes and in countless 1950’s suitcases which were stuffed to the maximum... He created and battled in – his world of documents. He believed in the state and didn’t doubt its integrity. He was charged with large scale theft of socialist property. The punishment for this was execution by shooting or at best, a prison camp. He challenged this. Mountains of paper and evidence, promises to cooperate and denunciations ensured that he saved himself – a two and a half year suspended sentence. He researched the battles of the Red Army and thepartisans in the Civil war, rewrote the evidence, collected proof, informed about untrue articles in magazines and books, and asked for the correction of documents. He rewrote history, rehabilitated heroes, and received their posthumous medals. He’d never actually gone to war. He went on the pension and created himself an army. A plasticine army. Two full television boxes with war equipment and soldiers. He was his army’s military leader. He won...
T was an artist who received P’s legacy. T understood that P’s story was worthy of art, but a certain crisis had befallen T’s private and creative life. The boxes stood out in the courtyard. It was a hot summer. The plasticine army was melting. It was flattening out under its own weight, got stuck together and ended up in a formless, colourless mass.
Artist's Bio:
Leads the “Bolderāja Group” creative association, implements environmental protection and art projects, investigates and interprets the city environment. A collector. Taking part in Survival Kit for the third time. The “Bolderāja Group” artists association has been active since the 1990s, implementing creative and social activities, to draw the attention of society to the abandoned edges of Riga and through art to purposefully develop and integrate them into the capital city’s and nation’s cultural activities.