Baltisches Loch
Storytelling performance, 35 minutes,
Art space Studio54Kberg, 2019
Props: Slide projection of a landscape, slide projector,
Transformer, car battery, two crates as pedestals
The performance took place on the street.
A slide, depicting an image of a landscape, is projected onto the orange background of the display case at Studio54Kberg art space, formerly the display case of the adjacent antique shop. The orange background of the display case, along with the daylight still present at the beginning of the performance, diffuses the projected landscape image. As night falls during the performance, the landscape image becomes clearer, yet it never fully reveals itself due to the unique orange projection surface.
A landscape caught between reality and memory: I recount my journey through Latvia in search of a landscape that had been etched into my mind through my father's stories of the day he defected to the Russian side of the front during the Second World War. When I finally encounter this landscape, memories of my father merge with the gazes, experiences, and narratives of three other individuals into one landscape image: my own, that of a 95-year-old Latvian who fought on the German side of the Eastern Front during World War II and was wounded at the location I discovered, and that of a blueberry picker I encountered while traversing the swampy terrain. When the words have faded, the slide is removed from the projector, and the audience is left with an afterimage—both visually and contemplatively.
