The 4th of May 1990, with the adopted declaration on restoration of independence of Latvia, is one of the two most important dates in Latvian history. It is a border between the period of Soviet occupation and the independent Latvia. One relates the date with a rippling tension in the air - cracking portable radio noises mixed with city sounds and a sea of flying Latvian flags at a folk rally on the coast of river Daugava. For some, this date is experienced and deeply remembered, but for those of us who were born in a free Latvia, we have grown up listening to stories about it.

We aimed to revive a part of this feeling in the urban environment. In such a loud and hurried part of the city, where cars, buses, the rumble of trams alternate with running people, to place an object that is calmly present. An installation which invites every bypasser to approach the flag and hear the tension rippling in the air, where the clatter of wooden lats alternates with the noise of the city. Take a few steps through this flag and become part of it, remembering that we each form part of the State and carry its freedom.

The shape of the modular structure is influenced by Latvian ethnographic signs, where the triangle is the sign of Heaven, symbolically protecting Latvia or its flag. Wooden lats, decorated in the red and white colors of the flag, hung by delicate chains, braid a link with the sounds of folk costume jewelry. Lastly, the 4 footbridges pointing towards the pedestrian sidewalk symbolize May 4th itself, through which one reaches free Latvia.

Date + Location Nr.2:
May 2023
in front of the Latvian National Library, Riga, Latvia