The absurdity of the age. Jānis Deinats captures empty cultural places in a photo project / Article / LSM.lv

Jānis Deinats captures empty cultural places in photographsBaiba Kušķe, LR100:00 / 04:50

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In order to remind about the importance of these places and leave a documentary testimony to the history, the Latvian Association of Event Venues some time ago called the outstanding photographer Jānis Deinats to capture the “pandemic wintered” buildings. Now Jānis Deinats has done his job and created a selection of photographs.

“I just recorded this real situation, which is somehow a symbol of time. I hope it will all go away and these photos, these pictures show – yes, there was such a time, ”

points out Jānis Deinats.

The photographer has the ability to see local and global symbols in a seemingly normal environment. The large, empty halls and halls from which the chairs were removed give a surreal impression. Without life in hallways with black, muted monitors on the walls. Lonely cash register huts near the exhibition center in Ķīpsala, around which no traces of any person can be seen in the snow.

The huge poster at the music house “Daile”, which has been telling about a concert for months, or the red chair of a cultural space with a sign that you are not allowed to sit on it, seems absurd.

Jānis Deinats has also recorded moods at the Latgale Embassy “Gors”, Liepāja Olympic Center, Riga cultural site “Hanzas perons”, “Arena Riga” and elsewhere.

Looking at the photos, Deinats says: “The big arena, which has been full regularly, is now empty … But it is meant for a constant, large turnover of people, accompanied by expressions of joy, applause, emotional moments of uplift. All this is forbidden. Also these huge grandstands, where there are always many, many people. Now – emptiness … All this is paid for all the time, paid, paid … It is an expense to maintain it all.

And here is the symbol of the era – the chair you usually sit on, but there is a sign on it – you can’t sit. This is the absurdity of the age.

At the Latgale Embassy “Gors”, on the other hand, the hall now looks like this – all the chairs have been removed. But in the hallway again, this symbolic huge monitor is like a black square that hides a secret. In fact, yes, blackness – we don’t know much. We have been told a lot why nothing is happening, but we still don’t know much. ”

The impression of loneliness and emptiness in the photographs creates a sad mood, but when you see the cleanliness of the rooms and buildings, there is no sense of determination, it seems – just a moment and they will be filled with life again.

“I see that we are ready to work now. Just give us a chance. Both the people who have these rooms and those who want to go to these rooms are thirsty for an active, normal life.

But what is one of its very mournful things – ignorance. We do not know. There are often given one, another, third hope … But when they are not fulfilled, there is a huge disappointment. Consequently, these signals of ignorance that are transmitted are extremely harmful. Either this system, or vice versa – the lack of a system – that increases this ignorance … I would say it is harm. Because it affects the whole environment psychologically. After that, will the diseases that will remain from the pandemic be cured? ” asks the photographer.

However, Jānis Deinats emphasizes that he is not a judge, as a photographer he is an observer, but an observer with a very real view of what is happening.

What this time and this setting mean for him as a photographer and also as a person – to work remotely, he symbolically depicts in his project, which he started this winter. The heroes of Deinat’s photographs are creative personalities from very different fields, who can be seen in their close environments, only their images are transparent.

“I am photographing these distant people in landscapes, but since this situation has been going on for a long time, I am photographing them as transparent. Because – as we are, as – we are not. We seem to be losing each other, ”

explains Deinats.

Daumants Kalniņš, Intars Rešetins, Ingus Baušķenieks, Ivars Kalniņš, Pauls Timrots, Toms Treibergs, Inese Kučinska, Kristiana Dimitere are some of the photographic heroes of the new project, but Jānis Deinats is still continuing the project.

In turn, in the virtual environment, a project can already be seen, in which he has recorded the so-called winterized cultural sites. He was addressed by the Latvian Association of Event Venues to remind them of the importance of these venues and to perpetuate their current situation as a testimony of their time.

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