Duration: 9h 13 min
Time: 20th of December, 2020 (during Covid-19 pandemic)
Place: my living room
Materials: bookshelf full of books, wrapping paper
Action: wrapping all my books to get rid of all (un)necessary information and calm down.

Books contain numerous stories. I have an entire wall lined with books. About half of them belonged to my grandfather (the one who taught me to read). Among them are books he concealed from the Soviets by placing them inside other book covers. There are Latvian folk tales from my childhood, school textbooks, philosophy study materials, poetry, extensive lines of classical novels, and even my own diaries.

In this performance, I simmer down this huge amount of information by wrapping each book in craft paper and gradually immersing myself into a landscape of calm tones.

Over the course of a 9-hour process, my emotional and physical state underwent significant shifts – a transformation that was mirrored in the technique of wrapping the books, the pace and rhythm, as well as the arrangement of the books as I returned them to the shelf.

Ultimately, nothing commanded attention anymore.

This performance is a part of “Stay LIVE at Home – Home Performance series” realised by Performistanbul.