Group Photo.2017

The video is part of the bigger body of work ‘Dream is Wonderful, Yet Unclear’, which considers the history of the community surrounding a textile mill in Narva, Estonia, now closed, where members of the artist's family once worked. This video looks at the making of a group portrait of the former mill employees in front of the main gates of the mill, once a meaningful place in their lives. Altogether 160 former workers between the ages of 40 and 90 came. Everyone who posed received a copy of the image. This new video piece is an extended meditation on the themes that underlie the project as a whole, considering how community and historical memory intersect. The work looks at the story of one small community is set in the larger context of post-industrial cities worldwide as the loss of their former roles leave them seeking new identities.