Puns and Encouragement Signs. Ordlekar och Uppmuntrande Tecken.

Skulptur/object

When I was a little girl, I enjoyed digging through my grandmother’s old button box where, among many items and dust, two medals lay. These medals were never used in parades. One recognized ‘Bravery’ and the other one the ‘Capture of Berlin’. They belonged to my uncle, the only male in the family who came back from WW2. I grew up with the stories of the German occupation of Kharkiv through the voice of my grandmother. I know what price my family and the country paid. The idea that you can easily play, manipulate, remodel with countries, territory and borders feels absurd, yet we have reached that point today.

I browsed through the meaning of war through different times and countries to see what description and events were recognized with awards such as medals, and what events actually stand behind them. It was a ‘Forced Pacification’, ‘Capture’, ‘Liberation’, ‘Land Development’ and also ‘Conquering’. In the end – it always means the same: brutal action – bloody war – seizure of alien territory – or liberation with subsequent intervention.

My hometown Kharkiv is under fire, again.
What has changed over the past centuries?

Hemsida: irinalindqvist.com

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