Eisenstein/Jugendstil

VIDEO · 2008

A pair of videos set in Riga, Latvia, about the new and old generations, those who remember the Communist regime and those too young to remember.

These works were made during a residency in Riga, Latvia, a heritage listed city for its Art Nouveau architecture. Its most famous buildings were by Mikhail Eisenstein, father of the famous director, Sergei. The work hearkening to the past is filmed and cut in the style of Sergei Eisenstein, while the other deals with youth with no memory of the oppressive Soviet-run Communist years. “Jugendstil” is German for Art nouveau but also translates literally as “young style”. Playing on this, some girls are dancing in a wintry park while the buildings twirl and turn into hallucinatory abstractions. These were projected outdoors near the city library.