Evita Vasiljeva

1. Third Place, 2026
   4 sculpture outdoor installation
   Custom-made galvanized steel trolleys, plexiglass, cast concrete, wheels.

   The Third Place is produced for Manifesta 16 “This is not a church” 
   21/06/2026 - 04/10/2026
   Marienkirche, Essen, Germany

   Creative mediators: René Block and Leonie Herwig 
   Works are produced at The Workshop

   Special thanks for support:  VV Foundation and Valsts Kultūrkapitāla Fonds  
   Photos: my iPhone, Silviu Guiman and Natasha Batby  
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7. Third Place (2026) is a series of outdoor sculptures created for Manifesta 16 in Essen, Germany. Installed around St Marien in Essen, the work directly responds to a neighbourhood shaped by vacancy.

   Using inverted shopping carts as a base, the sculptures are custom made, welded, and combined with concrete and coloured plexiglass. Transformed into raw architectural structures, they exist caught between construction and decay.

   The title references sociologist Ray Oldenburg’s concept of the "third place" as a space for community outside home and work. Informed by Vasiļjeva’s upbringing in Riga during the collapse of the Soviet Union, where ruins and unfinished structures formed the backdrop of a changing nation, the installation explores fragile public spaces and asks what kinds of shared environments might still emerge.

Evita Vasiljeva ©