2010 PRECIOUS COLLECTION (Krasnoyarsk)

Precious things (2010)

 

“… We have finished the last bits of our kitchen-garden (two bowls with sour cabbage are in emergency ration. The barrel is still empty). What will come of us? The garden has been saving us: these last two months we have managed without any purchases…” from the “Siege notes” by Alexander N. Boldyrev.

 

“The Siege Notes” (The Siege Diary)

Edition Europa House, St.Petersburg, 1998

http://uni-persona.srcc.msu.su/site/ind_cont.htm

 

The installation “Precious things” is dedicated to the siege of Leningrad and is based on the diaries and souvenirs of the siege survivors.

These are the diary of Alexander N. Boldyrev and videointerview of David I. Zolotnitsky and Cecilia G. Levitina.

The object is a podium, covered with leaf-gold and real-life cabbage “as if” growing on it. It is the reflexion of archive photograph of cabbage fields in the center of Leningrad in front of St.Isaac’s Cathedral, the field that has saved a great many lives during the siege.

This photograph has served as an impulse for the object creation.

In this installation the main “precious things” are the source documents: direct speech of the siege survivors and their diaries.