Motherland: Far Beyond the Polar Circle
Georgs Avetisjans
Milda Books
Russian, English and Latvian
Hardcover
Edition of 500
Cloth-bound box containing photobook and archival print ephemera
120 pages
240 x 200 mm
2023
ISBN 9789934874840
This is a journey far beyond the polar circle that brings to light memories of Soviet deportees and contemporary stories through a photobook. The book “Motherland. Far Beyond the Polar Circle” is a visual and investigative journey to understand secrets guarded in the past. Using a Soviet-made medium format camera, the Salut, Georgs narrates the story of a town built upon the bones of Soviet prisoners 163 kilometres beyond the polar circle where many deportees once lived. Considered enemies of the USSR, many were taken to the Gulag camps and left to die from cold, starvation, and poverty. Georgs went to a town Far North in Siberia, where his mom was born in 1952 and where his grandma spent 15 years in exile. She was deported in 1941. The author went on the Trans-Siberian train from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk, where he boarded a small plane to Igarka. It was his journey through the past on the railroad tracks of exile.
Tracing these painful accounts made him imagine his grandma and her fearful journey into the unknown. Georgs wanted to see the town where his grandma lived and find the house where his mom was born. He wanted to experience the seemingly infinite landscapes of Northern Siberia and the Yenisei River surrounding the town and meet its inhabitants. While often romanticized by ordinary Russians, this vast expanse holds many recollections Georgs is excavating and bringing to the surface. We believe this book and inclusive materials, letters, and found diary entries will raise awareness of these political crimes, propaganda, and history that repeats itself in modern-day Russia, where deportations are still a political tradition of the Soviet Union. The book shows how quickly the past is forgotten. The Russian regime continues to use the same methods. More than a million are already deported from the temporarily occupied territories to the Far East regions in Siberia. It is essential to make awareness of such history through a multidisciplinary process, research, and compilation.
This book is the second chapter of the trilogy. Each part deals separately with the notions and meanings of Homeland, Motherland, and Fatherland from a deeply personal and autobiographical perspective. All three parts are multi-layered photographic narratives in the form of a photobook with cross-references like hyperlinks to additionally inserted stories connected to the subjects and landscape. The book is in three languages – Russian, English and Latvian. Designed and edited by Georgs Avetisjans, translated by Alyona Rydannykh, Zane Volkinšteine, Inta Nielsen, Maxim Orlov, Olga Pētersone and Sandra Ņedzvecka, text editing by Alyona Rydannykh, Lelde Beņķe, Tatjana Odiņa, proofread by Anna Akberdina, Carolyn Rose Anhalt, Maija Laizāne, supported by the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, Peter Ragauss, Antalis AS, the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, Arctic Paper, Mākslai Vajag Telpu, Lost Horizon Films, Green Print, Parallel – European Photo Based Platform, Kaunas Photography Gallery, Fondazione Modena Arti Visive (FMAV), Landskrona Foto, ISSP, European Month of Photography (Luxembourg), Fotofestiwal Lodz, The Library Project, Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, National Archives of Latvia, Permafrost Museum of Igarka, Library of Igarka, Archives of Igarka, and UL Academic Library.
(Source: https://www.mildabooks.com/product/motherland-with-diary-entries-print-version-and-postcard-collection)
About the Artist
Georgs Avetisjans (1985) is a photographer and visual narrator from Latvia who studied MA Photography at the University of Brighton, UK and had several exhibitions in Latvia, Italy, China, Netherlands, Slovenia and the UK. Mostly interested in a multi-layered, research-based narrative about contemporary issues from historical and ethnographical aspects, Avetisjans work falls on the line between reality and fiction. Working on authentic imagery in the field of documentary reality, he uses archival and vernacular photography, materials, notes and voice recordings to make his work.
https://georgeavetisyan.com/works/motherland
(Source: https://photoworks.org.uk/showcase-georgs-avetisjans)
About the Publisher
Milda Books is an independent Baltic-based publisher of documentary photographers, visual writers, artists and visual poets from the CEE region, founded in 2017. Milda Books produces one to three new books each year by contemporary artists and also focuses on authors from abroad who have made their work within this region. Their books have been awarded the prestigious Kraszna-Krausz Photobook Award, shortlisted for the Arles Prix du Livre Award and recognized twice – among the 50 and the top 10 books for the Athens Photo Festival Pick:24 Book Award!
https://www.mildabooks.com
(Source: https://www.mildabooks.com/about)
