EXHIBITION // "RETAIN:" by Pavel Rotts

For the exhibition, Pavel collected old Soviet documents abandoned in former collective farms around Tartu and processed them into handmade paper. This paper was then used to make imprints of surviving traces of wartime bombardment on buildings in the city.

The works use a paper-squeezing technique derived from archaeological and epigraphic documentation. Discarded administrative records are transformed into records of the physical surfaces of the city walls, documenting Tartu’s wartime history.

 Pavel Rotts is a multidisciplinary artist based in Helsinki, working across performative installation, sculpture, and artistic research. His practice explores collective memory, microhistory, the trauma of war, and questions of identity and displacement.

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The project is supported by Kone Foundation, Oskar Öflund Foundation, Pelago Bicycles and A. Le Coq Beer Museum.