BARBARA LEHTNA

A performative installation on staying.  

THE STORIES OF MIGRATION is a performative installation about people who decided not to leave their country when their family members and people closest to them had decided to emigrate towards better economic and political conditions.

Placed into different public squares, the faceless illuminated figures playback the monologues of people who deem themselves as stubborn, patriotic, and nostalgic for a home they’ve never had. These stories create a portrait of a post-Soviet country going through the struggles of finding its identity in the first two decades after regaining independence.

Lehtna’s interest in the transformation of her own country which went through the biggest wave of emigration after the Second World War between the years 2011-2013 marks the point of departure for this work. The presence of the figures in the public space is used to enter a dialogue about identity, absence, and home.