(1944-1991) Former NKVD – MVD – MGB – KGB Buildings

Indrė Šerpytytė’s series of photographs Former NKVD – MVD – MGB – KGB Buildings is centered on the after effects of WWII in Lithuania. Her black and white images of houses tell with graceful economy the poignant and almost forgotten story of what she calls a ‘brutal, inhumane’ war, in which people were interrogated and tortured in what were once family homes. She commissioned hand-carved wooden models from a Lithuanian craftsperson who based them on her photographs and archival imagery of the houses which Šerpytytė revisited and researched in depth. Rather than representing the buildings themselves, or showing the inhabitants or victims directly, Šerpytytė chooses a diverse approach in which the photographs of the models are the finished artworks. In using models, and a collaborative working process based on archival research and site visits, she is commenting on both the physical and humanitarian scale and memory of the events as filtered over time. In total her works make a powerful humanitarian statement about resistance, memory, fortitude and the long process of healing after trauma.

Includes an essay by Ossian Ward and Natalija Arlauskaitė.