Hardijs Ledinš (1955 – 2004) represented so-called‚ avant-garde art and underground culture of the late Soviet era (1980s-90s). Working in various fields – music, architecture, visual arts and literature, Ledinš created a multi-dimensional space for‚ actions that were both reflective and active towards the sociopolitical and cultural context of that time.
The film ‘Human in the Living environment’ (1987, Film, sound, 1 hour 13 minutes, Courtesy Latvian
Centre for Contemporary Art and Hardijs Ledinš family) is a work that combines critique about housing estate, anthropological research and reflections on the Zeitgeist of that time. It documents the environment and atmospheres of the late 1980s in a pictorial and emotive way, including performa tive, dada-like activities and educationally critical material on housing estate development in the light
of postmodernist discourse.

-Maija Rudovska

There was no choice. I arrived at this island with promises for better life. I quickly learned all the paths, finding shortcuts to anything. Solitude was close, very close, I could hear it at nights, flashing headlights through the dark trees. I never learned any street name, the web was vague and present. It was self-absorbed vacuum of comedy shows, improvised hockey games, dissolved fights, wandering and running. No one ever thought about the core, the core was an abstract being with shiny lights that we didn’t need. No one was lonely. We walked from 5 to 3 to 1 and back to 5. We didn’t question why our ceilings were low.

10 Minute Walk From Solitude was exhibited at Bozar (Brussels) as a part of Disorder section by Komplot in group exhibition Somewhere in Between. Contemporary Art Scenes in Europe.

ArtViewer
Mousse Magazine

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