Without Ruins We Cannot See the New World is a project conceived by the Serbian artist Sonja Jo and completed during her 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 economic turbulence 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.
ARTWORK
WITHOUT RUINS WE CANNOT SEE THE NEW WORLD, 2019
Sonja Jo is a Serbian artist who works in sculpture and installation. Her works focus on the impact of visual culture in everyday communication, ranging from childhood games, TV commercials to the five-pointed red star. She traces the transformation of these everyday symbols, questioning the two irreconcilable concepts of living, past ideologies and contemporary life. The project, carried out during a residency with Kaunas Biennial, is based on the social and ideological transformations that took place in Lithuania in the 1990s when the country emerged from fifty years of Soviet control. In this project she recreated a theoretical pause between two historical periods: the Soviet regime and what came after, subdividing the space with a small wall made of brick, debris and modelling clay. To see the video the artist created and discover the new historical period, the visitor must pass this wall because, as the artist herself says, “Without Ruins we Cannot see the New World”.
