As an architect, I have always been interested in the subject of cult structures. The entire process of their emergence, the gathering of donations, volunteers, the construction process, and finally the feeling of peace within a chapel.

At the exhibition ‘Islands’ in St Petersburg, there was an opportunity to fulfill this idea, to reenact the creation of a chapel in miniature. When someone decides to donate clothing to the church, they put it aside in a plastic bag, and sometimes it remains in the closet, gathering dust for years. We collected these kinds of belongings using them to fill the glass jar walls of the chapel. This created place of meditative human presence and refuge from the external world, which becomes surreal, obscured by the lens-like walls of the jars.

Architecture: Olga Treivas
Year: 2010-2011