top of page
2.JPG

Echoes

Interactive public sculpture​
Found object, programmed phone device
2024
 
Metal work: Edvards Lansmanis
Software programming: Eiad Rostom

This piece was produced for Sculpture Quadrennial Riga 2024 Public art festival - Conceptualised and  produced over the course of 3 years

Echoes is a public interactive sculpture that delves into the theme of freedom of expression and the impact our voices can have over time. Serving as a platform for collective storytelling, this instrument invites the people of Riga to participate in an ongoing shared narrative right on the city’s streets.
This piece repurposes an old phone booth and transforms it from a device that once connected people across physical distances into one that bridges temporal connections.
By taking familiar urban objects like the Lattelecom booth and repurposing them into public sculptures, Echoes challenges traditional notions of monuments. Instead of commemorating historical events or figures, it draws from the collective memory of Riga’s inhabitants, projecting a vision of the future through shared narratives.

5.jpg

Pick up the phone
Listen to a message from the past
Leave a message to the future

Your words will erase the ones before it, inspire it, carry it, play it, echo it.

The interactive nature of Echoes is key: when someone engages with the piece, they are invited to leave a message for the next visitor. However, to do so, they must first listen to the message left by the person before them. This process creates an ongoing, evolving dialogue, where each new message erases the previous one, symbolizing the transient nature of communication and memory. The guiding prompt for participants is simple yet profound: "Leave a message for the future". Through this, the phone booth becomes a living archive, capturing the layered voices and sounds of the city.

The inspiration for Echoes stems from extensive research into the role and symbolism of monuments, particularly within Riga's complex history. Traditionally, monuments celebrate events or figures, often associated with power, violence, and the victors of history—commonly white men. These symbols reinforce power dynamics and perpetuate narratives of supremacy. In response.
Echoes asks critical questions:
What would a feminist monument look like?
How might we replace patriarchal symbols with those representing care?
What impact could mindful, considerate communication have on our social relations and our perception of the world?

The spark for this project came from Rita Ruduša's book, Forced Underground: Homosexuals in Soviet Latvia. The book offers a poignant collection of testimonies, revealing the hidden struggles of homosexuals during the Soviet era in Riga. What stood out was the way different individuals recounted shared locations in the city—like the “Laima clock”—as significant meeting points, while the Freedom Monument, a prominent symbol, went largely unmentioned. This observation shifted the focus to urban elements that gain significance through collective memory rather than official commemoration.
Inspired by this insight, Echoes incorporates a decommissioned Lattelecom phone booth as a vessel for these untold stories. It transforms the booth into a tool that not only holds voices but amplifies them, allowing for a redefinition of monuments. The aim is to move away from glorifying hierarchical figures and instead highlight elements of shared memory, placing power in the hands of the public and the future. Ultimately, Echoes offers a new vision of what feminist public art can be, advocating for the reclamation of public space as a political act.
Note: All messages are completely deleted.

bottom of page