At the moment I am finishing a video and an installation based on the conversations with my dad Slava Eksta about his experience as a soldier in the Soviet - Afghan war back in the 1980. It is a very personal work since my had father never talked to me or anyone else in the family about this. Although there was an archive consisting of around 30 letters that he was sending to mum during his two year long army service. I read those letters for the first time around ten years ago and they made me think a lot about my parents, their values and also how military service can change a person... Since that time I wanted to know more what my fathers thinks about all this now but nothing happened until the last year when I started to work on this video. The process was slow and intense and I am very grateful that it happened since it was also about reconnecting and getting to know each other better.
The work will be shown in the group exhibition "Difficult pasts. Connected worlds" in the Latvian National museum of Art from 27th of November. And yes, while everything else is closed because of the pandemics, the museums and art galleries remain open for visiting!
