Artist Pavel Rotts unveils the installation "Climbing a Memory." The installation mimics the recognisable form of a climbing wall. However, what makes the wall special are the colorful stones that represent baroque elements such as an angel's head or a flying Hercules. The baroque fragments come from the ruins of the bombing of Narva 80 years ago and belong to the Narva Museum. The artist has taken molds of these elements and cast them in plastic, allowing people to interact with them.
This is a continuation of the artist's project "Climbing a Memory," in which he addresses climbing as a method of dealing with trauma. In his research, he has collected material on how climbing as a sport is a means for many climbers to achieve mental clarity and deal with personal or collective traumas. He has adopted this practice, and in the first project from the series, he climbed using bombing holes in Helsinki, dealing with the complex past between Russia and Finland from the perspective of an Ingrian Finn. With this project, he has moved to Narva—a city with which he also has a personal family connection—and thus continues to unravel the complex past both within himself and externally.
The public installation offers the urban space a new alternative way to deal with and engage with a complicated past.
Pavel Rotts, (b. 1982 Petrozavodsk, USSR) is a multidisciplinary artist working with various techniques and forms, such as installation, sculpture, performance, conceptual art and artistic research. Since 2015, Pavel has been permanently based in Helsinki, Finland. He holds an MFA from the University of Arts Helsinki (2022), previously studied at St.Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design (2004) and graduated from Pro Arte Institute, St.Petersburg, in 2008. As an Ingrian Finn, Pavel draws upon his identity as a source of inspiration for many of his works. His family history has been closely intertwined with Finland and Estonia, heavily influenced by the historical relations of these countries with the Soviet Union and Russia.
Artist: Pavel Rotts
Curator: Kerly Ritval
Architect: Marco Manfredino
Graphic Design: Ljuba Terukov
Supporters: Finnish Cultural Foundation, Cultural Endowment of Estonia, Narva Art Residency, Narva Museum
Description
Many centuries ago, buildings were adorned with a variety of unique details, carved or sculpted from stone. Unfortunately, very few carved stone details from Narva houses have survived. During World War II, most of the city was destroyed, and only a small number of such elements could be saved from the ruins. Many of the rescued house decorations were severely damaged.
In different eras, various decorative elements were used to adorn houses. The name of such an intricate detail is a volute, and these details were usually placed at the top of columns that decorated the building. For example, the columns of the Narva Exchange building were adorned with volutes.
Here we see a piece of carved stone, the original function of which is difficult to determine as it has only partially survived. The fragment is made of local stone.
Local limestone and its subtype, dolomite, were extensively used to decorate buildings both outside and inside. Typically, craftsmen used local stone because transporting stone from afar was expensive and time-consuming. Fortunately, Estonia has many types of flagstone that are easy to work with: Lasnamäe flagstone, Orgita dolomite, Kaarma dolomite, and others.
Limestone was carved into a wide variety of ornamental details that were placed on the facades of houses as well as in interiors. Limestone is easy to work with. Flagstone was used to construct buildings, make portals, sculptures, tombstones, baptismal fonts, stairs, columns, and much more.
This beautiful detail is a volute. In Latin, volute means "twisted" or "rolled up." This is precisely the kind of spiral twist we see here. In architecture, such details were typically placed at the top of columns that adorned a building. This tradition is more than 2000 years old.
A preserved fragment of an angel figure. This is the angel's hand and its wing. Often, such sculptures were placed in churches, but images of angels could also be found in administrative buildings or private homes.
This is a former staircase step. Steps were made to be visually appealing and comfortable to walk on. The part we see here is specifically shaped as a rounded step. A rounded step could be more comfortable and safer than a step with a right angle.
On this piece of marble, two people fighting each other are depicted. This is part of a larger composition known as a bas-relief. A bas-relief is a type of sculptural relief in which the image projects from the background plane by no more than half of its volume.
Human heads and faces were often used in the decoration of buildings, especially above the main entrance. For example, the grand entrances of old buildings in Narva were richly adorned, and the decorated space around the entrance is called a portal. Sculptures depicting human figures were often placed on portals.
This element is part of a sculpture depicting a human or a humanoid angel. Since many stone materials are fragile, in wartime situations when buildings are destroyed, such sculptures often do not survive.
In the past, various stone elements were often used to decorate houses. Different details were carved from stone, and this type of craft is called stone carving.
The head of a small boy used to be a very common decorative element in buildings, especially in interiors. Such an element is called a putto or putti, which means "boy" in Italian. Often, such a boy also had wings.
In ancient times, cannonballs were also made of stone. Here is a partially preserved cannonball. Later, with the development of firearms, weapons and ammunition became more advanced and effective. Stone cannonballs fell out of use.
Photo of the Installation
