When I Say 'Homesickness,' I Say 'Dream' - Projects

Wenn ich 'Heimweh' sage, sag ich 'Traum'

/ When I Say 'Homesickness,' I Say 'Dream' /

Project with Kristina Schwarzwald (Chernaya Rechka)

Linda Leine and Kristina Schwarzwald's joint artistic project explores and reflects on homeland, longing for one's native country, and individual culture. A person is, to a certain extent, a product of their culture. Everything surrounding them during their formative years - the color of the sky, the types of plants, the climate, local dialect, architecture, music, food, in short, all cultural characteristics - becomes permanently etched in their heart as something dear and valuable, something with which a person connects themselves, their sense of belonging, and their happiness. Encountering these familiar elements, whether in reality or memory, wherever one is, can evoke a feeling of nostalgia.

Art has the ability to perform wonders by breaking the boundaries of space and time, instantly transporting us to different times and geographical coordinates.

The project's final performative act immerses the viewer in the spirit of Latvian-Ukrainian culture, Slavic and Baltic narratives, raising questions within the observer about their own definition of homeland, their identity, and their nostalgia.

Latvian pianist Linda Leine performs compositions by Latvian composer Georgs Pelēcis, dedicated to the seasons – the snowy winters, rainy autumns, hot summers, and hopeful, life-affirming springs of Latvia, as well as a cycle of "Kitsch Music" by Ukrainian composer Valentin Silvestrov.

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As Linda Leine plays the piano, a video is projected onto the wall behind her. For the duration of the performance, the space suddenly becomes a space in Riga – through sound and visualization. Linda plays in an exhibition hall where Kristina's paintings and photographs are displayed, representing the theme of nostalgia. These include Latvian and Ukrainian landscapes, stylized in an old-fashioned manner, like a trace of the distant past, created specifically for the project. Compositions include people who seem to disappear in these landscapes, dissolve into them, and exist only halfway, seeing these countries in their dreams: After all, nostalgia is only possible in the state of physical absence, where important connecting elements with the presence in the now are interrupted. In addition to the visual works, flowers are placed in the hall, in moist soil but without pots - as a symbol of individual lives that have left their original place but have retained their soil that gives them life.

Kristina Schwarzwald

Kristina Schwarzwald (alias Chernaya Rechka) is an independent artist from Kyiv, Ukraine. Born in 1994, she studied art in the workshop of the well-known Kyiv artist Anatoliy Tverdoy and completed the Shevchenko Art School in the painting faculty. After graduation, she continued her studies alone, practicing and exploring old masters. Her works are in private collections worldwide.

In her paintings, she analyzes how reality becomes myth and overcomes the fine lines defining the existing and the fictitious. Her entire artistic experience is based on a never-ending, vigilant observation of the world. Her artworks reflect the eternal flow of matter's forms, the interweaving of existential meanings of everything on Earth. The motif of her monochrome song tells of the illusory nature of consciousness. How often is a logically constructed chain of life broken, and we see a perfect, inexplicable void that releases our mind into an undefined space? It seems that the vision exists separately from the viewer. One can familiarize themselves with the results of her independent existence in her works.

Exhibitions:

2017 Online group exhibition 'Landscapes', Colors of Humanity Art Gallery
2018 Group exhibition 'Open Exhibition' at NN Contemporary Art gallery, Northampton, UK
2021 VR exhibition BLINK ART WEEK

Publications:
2017 - Cover of '43 Magazine', 1st issue, Taiwan
2017 - 'Average Art' magazine, Issue #16, UK
2018 - Featured on Behance (curated gallery for visual arts)