New Year in Karosta actually happens twice. At eleven, Russians from the housing blocks begin with
rockets and cheap champaigne alongside their cousins in Moscow, one time zone away. By the time
midnight rolls around, the whole scene is pretty well lit up with legitimate and not-so-legitimate
displays, and the Latvian military base lends a hand with high-intensity, parachuting signal
flares. We spent an icy quarter of an hour on the beach watching everything glow before going back
inside to prepare for the evening's performances.
"Old Year's Night" began for us with an opening in the K.Maksla? gallery here in Karosta. The theme
was "sirdsapzina (conscience)", which followed closely on the themes of "corrupcija (corruption)"
and "leiputrija" [an untranslatable Latvian word referring to a mythical place where everything is
made of food and those who come there soon take no pleasure in eating]. This theme of conscience
strikes very close to the work which Sara and I are doing here by reading the "resonances" of the
buildings and objects which we find. The silent reception our "sketch" video [bones, beach, fortress, massacre, sea, beach, bones...] received
proved quite aptly that many people here are still not ready to confront issues of the past. Other
reminders of the past, like the bones I found last summer, surfaced this winter as
well. An old Russian shell, unexploded and chopped out of the ice by a local sculptor, featured
prominantly in the gallery show. Alongside this was a home-built still for making moonshine from
yeast and sugar --the purest booze known to man-- just in case one's conscience keeps them from
sleeping. For those wishing to audibly measure their conscience, a body-resistance-activated noise device was brought by Roman from Riga. The slight jolt it gave off was an instant hit with the local youngsters, who held hands to make long daisy chains, sending the voltage circling around the table.
The audio tracks for today are a selection of prepared and improvised [but isn't it always improvised at
the last moment?] material for the gallery opening and performance on new year's eve. Max Borisov's [String]
track was created to go along with a series of X-Ray photographs arranged by Carl Biorsmark, behind
which the subjects of these photos would stand. The two performance tracks, "hello 2 the old" and
"goodbye 2 the new" were recorded live between four and five am, new year's morning. The track made
with myself and Max Borisov is an improvisation for manipulated objects, prerecorded
environments [many of which have appeared or will soon appear in this webjournal] and live
processing. The second track is based around a collection of handmade and Soviet-era synths and
noise-makers from Alexei and Roman [aka Nr.11], with additional keyboards by Max and intermittant
vocals and noise by Handjah. A snapshot in time, leaving one year and moving on to the next. We're
glad you decided to join us...
---derek
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