Tag: photography

Nine days in Vilnius

Reflections on a residency with B_Tour, the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre and Architecture Fund

A response to our residency in September 2016, with thanks to the Lithuania National Drama Theatre, the Architecture Fund in Vilnius and B_Tour.

On our first day in the city we look for traces, clues, atmospheres. Historic borders and public maps. The old ghetto; the missing synagogue. Wilno, Wilna, Вильнюс,Vilna, ווילנע, Vilno, Viļņa, Вiльня, Vilnius: name = identity = (ripped up and rewritten).

Maps and fragments of maps • on paper • on phones • in space • in memory • in the body.

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Benches everywhere – a commitment to public space? So many different kinds of benches. So many empty benches. The meeting point of private and public acts. Continue reading “Nine days in Vilnius”

to tie a knot in one’s handkerchief

In days gone by, gentlemen would tie a knot in their handkerchief to remind themselves there is something that should not be forgotten. Whenever they reached for their handkerchief, they would be reminded. I believe that tradition is connected with the Greek myth of Ariadne. She was the daughter of Minos and Pasiphaë who gave Theseus the thread with which he found his way out of the Minotaur’s labyrinth. I love taking photos of the threads and knots I find in the streets. Even if these knots were not made consciously by people to remember something, they might as well have been. It triggers my imagination and adds the sense of confusing navigation to the labyrinth of the city.

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orthodox urbex

According to Lenin: ‘Religion is opium for the people’. Thus, religion was banned during Soviet era and most of the churches either destroyed or reused. Furthermore, some of them became home for museums of atheism.

According to Lenin: ‘Religion is opium for the people’. Thus, religion was banned during Soviet era and most of the churches were either destroyed or reused as factories, storages, schools or even prisons. Some of them even housed museums of atheism.

Despite recent aggressive revival of the church in Russia, there are still some abandoned ruined churches to be found all around Russia.

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sites we like

UK Urban Exploration

UK Urban Exploration documents urban decay in the UK with love and at some risk. The site has the following disclaimer:

The places you will see in the pictures we have taken are dangerous and should not be entered under any circumstances, UkUrbEx takes no responsibility for any harm you may come to if you decide to enter.

– But the atmosphere is more of melancholy beauty than macho daring.

UK Urban Exploration belongs to a group based in Birmingham but it roams all over the UK. However,  the coverage of West Midlands sites such as the Longbridge tunnels or the Central TV studios is particularly fascinating.

Image from The Hoarders House, Droitwich at ukurbex.co.uk