Artists Diana Tamane
Date 18.06.2022–16.10.2022
Curator Shoair Mavlian
Venue Tartmus, Estonia
All images Courtesy by the artist and Tartmus. Photo: Mari-Leen Kiipli
Beginning in 2008, the year of her sister’s birth, Tamane began taking photos of their shared time together. This ongoing project, when viewed in retrospect, traces the life of Elina from birth to the spring of 2022. Separated for most of the year because they live in different countries, Tamane in Estonia and Elina in Latvia, the project is centred around the family’s summer house in Vārzas, Lat- via. Located 64 km from Riga, Vārzas, also known as Kursīši, is a village of around 400 summer houses developed for the workers of the VEF (State Electrotechnical Factory). Tamane’s maternal and paternal grandmothers both worked at the factory and in 1981 the family acquired a summer house. A place of deep significance for the artist, she returns to Kursīši each year to spend the summer with family, including her sister.
The use of this one fixed location in the project means the passing of time is evident both visually and metaphorically throughout the body of work, and several reoccurring motifs emerge. The greenhouse appears as a makeshift studio where each year a traditional portrait is taken, creating a timeline as Elina grows older.
