Alone/Together
I often feel quite lonely in an urban environment. It seems like everything just happens in the city and nothing really depends on my existence. Often the days melt into one: the coffee milk is spoiled, there are new neighbors in the stairwell, it's again Spring and the street-cats are expecting kittens and the city council has yet again cut down a tree. Round and round it goes, year after year. Then again, I find certain hope and longing in this seeming randomness, and perhaps that’s why I decided to approach Valga through not planning my next decisions but to meet whoever I meet when walking through the city and ask them questions that interested me most at that current moment. These short and unexpected conversations became a starting point to ask myself how to find myself in a small city and hold on to it until the end.
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Barbara Lehtna's installation maps Valga through the stories of local people. Lehtna asks how to be happy in an urban environment where most of what surrounds us is not dependent on the will of the individual, and how can unplanned encounters affect our sense of happiness.
CREDITS
Premiere: June 2024 | Route Diverse
Artist: Barbara Lehtna
LED-signs: Jānis Brolišs | neonlightroom
Photos: Danel Rinaldo, Ruudu Rahumaru
Thank you: Katrīna Dūka, Maria Krinal
Production: Route Diverse
Coproduction: Tartu2024