In October, two artists were in residence at Pedvāle International Artists’ Residency.
Tina Mamczur (Germany) created an indoor installation „Nocturnal Patient” from a large bird-cherry tree branch broken off in a storm. About her creative work in the residency the artist says: “I have spent the last four weeks immersing myself in the world of Pedvāle, Sabile and a little bit of Latvia. I have listened to fairy tales and legends, pagan beliefs, tried to understand symbols, visited 400-year-old trees (linden and oak). I walked through the meadows and streets, picked up things from the ground and brought them here. And finally, all these things and impressions became this work. It is also a work about place and time, about a period of time. And working on it was a bit like a meditation on the tree, the tree as a representation of something bigger. In the end, I called the work „Nocturnal Patient” – who or what is being treated here, I leave it to you.”
On her turn, Hannah Gordon (Sweden) implemented a creative project “Pine and Potatoes” during her October residency, delving into her family’s Jewish roots in Latvia. The centerpiece of the project was the pine tree as a witness – a group of three sculptures/witnesses as portraits of century-old pine trees growing near the sites of the Holocaust mass murders. The second part of the project is 13 graphic sheets, created using the letterpress technique. To create these artworks, potatoes were used as a cliché, in which ornaments were hand-carved. In Jewish tradition, the number 13 symbolizes spiritual maturity and love. The images feature a rich collection of symbols with historical, personal, geographical and cultural significance, highlighting the artist’s ancestral family heritage and her recently discovered connection to Latvia. Potatoes, a traditional Latvian vegetable, symbolize sustenance, resilience and a history of survival, attesting to the country’s rural roots and history of survival through hardship.
