Holes II, 2023

Video loop (duration 5 hr. 51 s.), film photography and lead casts made into necklace

According to cultural history researcher Maria Tumarkin, a traumatized person has many similarities with a place that has been violated, because these people are haunted by the ghosts of the past with whom they have to share their lives. This is a work about the “traumatized” places in and around Vilnius, which tell the story of past traumas through holes in matter. All three elements are united by a heavy historical context, which takes the viewer back to the crimes of the occupation regimes of the 20th century. Video loop from the Paneriai Memorial. The landscape rotates in a very slow circle, with a full rotation time of 5 hours. 51 minutes. This freeze-frame seems to trap the viewer in a long and physically exhausting loop. Sculpturally stagnant trees surround one of the body burning holes, the purpose of which is to liquidate the crimes committed by the nazis in the Paneriai Forest. Medium format analogue film captures the hole on the Court of Appeal building (1 Vasario 16- osios Street) Today this building is the court and the Museum of Occupations and Freedom Struggles. The neoclassical building has been a permanent seat of the power structures (NKVD, KGB, Gestap) since the early days. One of the pits, which was tied up by a tank, resembled an eagle in shape. This bird symbolizes power and was used in the coats of arms of the occupying regimes. The photograph further emphasizes this shape. Necklace made of lead casts, the shapes of which were taken from bullet holes on the wall of Lukiskes Prison. This place was not only a prison for criminals, but also for people who resisted the occupying regimes. According to research by historical memory institutions, people were sent to Paneriai from this place on foot or by truck. The small shapes collected seemed like beads from which a “rosary” could be strung to unite the pain experienced and to call for remembrance.