Sonja Jo
How to fix your history, 2019
Sculpture, photography (in collaboration with Vykintas Bliumkys)
Without ruins we cannot see the new world is a project, conceived by the Serbian
artist Sonja Jo, completed during a ‘MagiC Carpets’ residency in Kaunas. The project
is based on the ideological transformations of 1990 in Lithuania, with a particular
focus on the history of the former factories in Šančiai. The focus is on the personal
stories of the former factory workers and their thoughts, feelings and opinions about
the political and economical turbulences of that time. The notions of nostalgia,
ideology, media and history intertwine to provide a critical reading of capitalism and
what it brings to former Soviet countries, such as Lithuania.
The starting point for the project was the distinct colour of factory wall bricks that
bare physical witness to the change in regimes. The red (Soviet period) and white
(Independence period) bricks that make up the fascade of the 1940’s building allude
to the physical co-existance of the two ideologies. On a conceptual level, this work
shows the ongoing relationship between industry and politics or rather how the profit-
making mindset adjusts itself to current political and economic opportunities. In
conditions of war and peace, communism, democracy and capitalism the politics
always focus on the maintenance and progress of industry and not the individual. The
people’s lives, their spiritual and moral values become subordinate to the adaptation
and modernisation of industry.
The first part of the project, How to fix your history, focuses on the personal stories of
the former factory workers and their attempt to navigate through the political and
industrial turbulences of the communist and capitalist regimes. The thoughts, feelings
and opinions of the workers that were collect by the artist are expressed in a physical
form of invasive sculpture. The aim of the work is to highlight as well as to fix the
gap between the two periods of history – the Soviet occupation and the Independence.
With the help of the local photographer Vykintas Bliumkys, the artist decided to
document the invasive sculptural pieces in the former factory walls that carry physical
traces – the red and white bricks – from both ideological periods.
How to fix your history, 2019
Sculpture, photography (in collaboration with Vykintas Bliumkys)
Without ruins we cannot see the new world is a project, conceived by the Serbian
artist Sonja Jo, completed during a ‘MagiC Carpets’ residency in Kaunas. The project
is based on the ideological transformations of 1990 in Lithuania, with a particular
focus on the history of the former factories in Šančiai. The focus is on the personal
stories of the former factory workers and their thoughts, feelings and opinions about
the political and economical turbulences of that time. The notions of nostalgia,
ideology, media and history intertwine to provide a critical reading of capitalism and
what it brings to former Soviet countries, such as Lithuania.
The starting point for the project was the distinct colour of factory wall bricks that
bare physical witness to the change in regimes. The red (Soviet period) and white
(Independence period) bricks that make up the fascade of the 1940’s building allude
to the physical co-existance of the two ideologies. On a conceptual level, this work
shows the ongoing relationship between industry and politics or rather how the profit-
making mindset adjusts itself to current political and economic opportunities. In
conditions of war and peace, communism, democracy and capitalism the politics
always focus on the maintenance and progress of industry and not the individual. The
people’s lives, their spiritual and moral values become subordinate to the adaptation
and modernisation of industry.
The first part of the project, How to fix your history, focuses on the personal stories of
the former factory workers and their attempt to navigate through the political and
industrial turbulences of the communist and capitalist regimes. The thoughts, feelings
and opinions of the workers that were collect by the artist are expressed in a physical
form of invasive sculpture. The aim of the work is to highlight as well as to fix the
gap between the two periods of history – the Soviet occupation and the Independence.
With the help of the local photographer Vykintas Bliumkys, the artist decided to
document the invasive sculptural pieces in the former factory walls that carry physical
traces – the red and white bricks – from both ideological periods.
