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Bronzas cilveks un bezpajumtnieks: Performance Latvija toreiz un tagad

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Bryzgel A.

Materiali Latvijas makslas vesturei

2012

vol. 8

213-225

In 1987, Miervaldis Polis donned a bronze suit and hat, and stepped out into the streets of Riga with his face and hands painted bronze as well - he was a living, breathing statue. This performance came at a pivotal moment in Latvian history, following on the heels of the Latvian Independence Movement and Gorbachev’s policies of perestroika and glasnost. The effect of a statue that could walk and move, and was convincing as an object when immobile, prompted viewers to question the truth behind the character’s appearance, at a time when Latvian citizens were beginning to do the same with regard to the history of their country and its unlawful incorporation into the Soviet Union. Nearly twenty years after the Bronze Man graced Riga’s city centre with his presence, a new man emerged - not only on the streets of Latvia, but also on television screens and in radio broadcasts throughout the country, in the homes of everyday people. Gints Gabrans’s ‘Starix’ project (2000-2004) was a challenge to the media in post-Soviet Latvia. The task: to take a homeless man from the streets of Riga and turn him into a TV star. The project foresaw the boom of reality television series in Latvia in the same way that Andy Warhol had predicted the proliferation of mass media in the 1960s. Just as Polis’s performance did during the era of perestroika, Gabrans’s post-Soviet project reminds viewers that the man behind the suit may not be all that he appears to be. Although Polis believed that the Bronze Man had no place in Latvia after the country regained independence, indeed Gabrans’s project reveals that the concept still has relevance in contemporary Latvian society. Whereas the Bronze Man underscored the fact that the Soviet idols, along with their ideology, were more artifice than not, Starix presents a cautionary tale about fame and fortune in post-Soviet Latvia, a statement that is even more poignant in light of the economic crisis in the country that followed his rise to fame. In the post-Soviet period it is not only the appearance of wealth and prosperity that can be found false, but also fame and popularity that can be exposed as essentially unwarranted. This essay examines the manner in which the two artists have constructed similar narratives around the question of truth and appearance, both at different historical moments, and each in their own unique manner.

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1 Materiali Latvijas makslas vesturei

1 Bryzgel A.

1 2012

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Bronzas cilveks un bezpajumtnieks: Performance Latvija toreiz un tagad