GEORGS AVETISJANS / Books

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Motherland. Far Beyond the Polar Circle

2019 - 2023

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First edition of 500

Available:
Milda Books Online Bookstore

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237 x 285 mm
Silk-screen printed linen box and cardboard hardcover with section sewn open spine Swiss binding
Photobook / 120 pages
107 photographs / including archives
Riso printed case folder / 4 pages
Letter #1 / 8 pages
Letter #2 / 4 pages;
Diary (Memories about Siberia by Valija Kampins) / 32 pages
Top-secret USSR document / 22 pages
Newspaper (interviews and newspaper clippings)
(RU/EN) / 80 pages
Newspaper (interviews and newspaper clippings)
(LV) / 72 pages
Newspaper cuts "The Polar Communist" / 42 pages
Family archives / 4 pages
Inclusive archival documents and photographs / 28 pages.

Published in July 2023 by Milda Books

ISBN 978-9934-8748-4-0

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About the project

The book "Motherland. Far Beyond the Polar Circle" is a visual and investigative journey to understand secrets guarded in the past. Using a Soviet-made medium format camera, the Salut, Georgs narrates the story of a town built upon the bones of Soviet prisoners 163 kilometres beyond the polar circle where many deportees once lived. Considered enemies of the USSR, many were taken to the Gulag camps and left to die from cold, starvation, and poverty.

Tracing these painful accounts made him imagine his grandma and her fearful journey into the unknown. Georgs wanted to see the town where his grandma lived and find the house where his mom was born. He wanted to experience the seemingly infinite landscapes of Northern Siberia and the Yenisei River surrounding the town and meet its inhabitants. While often romanticized by ordinary Russians, this vast expanse holds many recollections Georgs is excavating and bringing to the surface.

This book is the second chapter of the trilogy. Each part deals separately with the notions and meanings of Homeland, Motherland, and Fatherland from a deeply personal and autobiographical perspective. All three parts are multi-layered photographic narratives in the form of a photobook with cross-references like hyperlinks to additionally inserted stories connected to the subjects and landscape.

The book is in three languages - Russian, English and Latvian. Designed and edited by Georgs Avetisjans, translated by Alyona Rydannykh, Zane Volkinšteine, Inta Nielsen, Maxim Orlov, Olga Pētersone and Sandra Ņedzvecka, text editing by Alyona Rydannykh, Lelde Beņķe, Tatjana Odiņa, proofread by Anna Akberdina, Carolyn Rose Anhalt, Maija Laizāne, supported by the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign, Peter Ragauss, Antalis AS, the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, Arctic Paper, Mākslai Vajag Telpu, Lost Horizon Films, Green Print, Parallel – European Photo Based Platform, Kaunas Photography Gallery, Fondazione Modena Arti Visive (FMAV), Landskrona Foto, ISSP, European Month of Photography (Luxembourg), Fotofestiwal Lodz, The Library Project, Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, National Archives of Latvia, Permafrost Museum of Igarka, Library of Igarka, Archives of Igarka, and UL Academic Library.

www.farbeyondthepolarcircle.com

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Book /
Diary Entries | Motherland. Far Beyond the Polar Circle
2019 - 2023

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First edition of 250

Available:
Milda Books Online Bookstore

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First edition of 250
105 x 148.5 mm
Silk-screen printed softcover
Perfect binding
72 pages

Published in July 2023 by Milda Books

ISBN 978-9934-8748-5-7

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During my journey to Siberia in 2019-2020, I was writing a personal diary and reflecting on my thoughts, observations, and the process of making the work "Motherland. Far Beyond the Polar Circle".

It was my journey through the past on the railroad tracks of exile. My destination was Igarka - a town in the Far North of Siberia where my mom was born in 1952, and my grandma spent 15 years in exile. She was deported in 1941 from Latvia.

The book is in English. Designed, written and edited by Georgs Avetisjans, proofread by Carolyn Rose Anhalt and supported by Antalis AS.

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Photobook dummy /
Motherland, Far Beyond the Polar Circle
2018 - 2021

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The first edition of this dummy was produced in association with the Photobook Masterclass 2021 with Paulius Petraitis (Paul Paper) by Kaunas Photography Gallery and Parallel – European Photo Based Platform.

The dummies were sewn and bound by Andrėja Taranda and Elachi, silkscreen and riso print by Gabrielė Gudaitytė, Hands on Press and the boxes were made by Inga Navickaitė Drasutė, Hands on Press in Kaunas, Lithuania

The dummies with the inclusive materials were printed at iPrint, Popieriaus salonas and Hands on Press (Kaunas, Lithuania)

Edition of 2

Photobook dummy /
Krunk. The Crane that flew over the Fatherland
2018 - ongoing

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The first edition of this dummy is produced in association with the 2018 ISSP Photobook as Object
workshop by Yumi Goto and Jan Rosseel.

Edition of 2

Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / 2nd Limited Edition / Published by Milda Books July 2018

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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / 2nd Limited Edition / Published by Milda Books July 2018
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / 2nd Limited Edition / Published by Milda Books July 2018
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / 2nd Limited Edition / Published by Milda Books July 2018
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / 2nd Limited Edition / Published by Milda Books July 2018
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / 2nd Limited Edition / Published by Milda Books July 2018

Homeland. The Longest Village in the Country
2015 - 2018

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Second limited edition of 750, first printing

Available:

Milda Books Online Bookstore

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230 x 280 mm
Silk-screen printed hardback clothbound with blind letterpress
174 pages / including foldout pages
128 photographs / including archives
Memory Book / 44 pages
Newspaper / 24 pages

Published November 2018 by Milda Books

ISBN 978-9934-8748-0-2

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About the project

'Homeland. The Longest Village in the Country' (2015-2018) is a multi-layered photographic narrative in a form of a photobook with cross-references like hyperlinks to additionally inserted stories connected to the subjects and landscape. The book is about the village where my Armenian-Greek father once had a dream to build a house for our family, but unfortunately couldn’t finish it as he passed away when I was only 6 months young.

The project explores the sea, the land and memories, how the time affects and changes our sense of a place at the same time serving a nostalgic representation of the village in Latvia - Kaltene and its recent history from World War II until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 via interviews, notes and archival imagery. As the Iron curtain fell, the local economy changed and upon joining the EU in 2004, it changed again. These historical shifts made a huge impact on the society and its dreams, many of which the younger generations have abandoned.

The place is located between the forest and the sea about 100 km northwest of the capital Riga. In the latter half of the 19th century and early 20th century it was the second most productive village in the country as 55 seagoing sailing ships were built there.

Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016

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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016
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Georgs Avetisjans - Homeland / Handmade 1st Limited Edition / Self-published September 2016

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This book and its two inserts are part of the first, 30-piece limited edition

The four special editions were sewn, bound and hard covered

by Hannah Moore and Stewart Graham-Hyde in Lewes, England

The remaining 26 editions were sewn, bound and hard covered

by Georgs Avetisjans in Brighton, England

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Self-published September 2016

Hardback clothbound

163 pages (including foldout pages)

118 photographs (including archives)

Memory Book : 44 pages

Newspaper : 36 pages

195 x 230 mm (portrait)

Homeland, the book was printed at L&S Printing (Worthing, England)

Memory Book and Newspaper, the inserts were printed at Prontaprint (Brighton, England)

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The four special editions are SOLD OUT!

The first limited edition - £175 / €195 / $225

SOLD OUT!

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Special price £145 was available @ Photoworks/ Brighton Photo Biennial (BPB) and Brighton Photo Fringe Publishers' Market

Event Dates: 22 – 23 October 2016

Venue: Phoenix Brighton, 10-14 Waterloo Place, Brighton BN2 9NB

Public Opening times: 11:00 – 17:00 on both days

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Last copy £200 / €230 / $250 was available @ PhotoQ Bookshop, Amsterdam

Adress: PhotoQ Bookshop, Wijdesteeg 3A, 1012 RN Amsterdam, Netherlands

Opening times: 12:00 – 18:00 from Tuesday to Sunday