Evita Vasiljeva

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

   The Third Place is commissioned and 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 , Valsts Kultūrkapitāla Fonds  and Wanzl
   Photos: my iPhone, Silviu Guiman and Natasha Batby  
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7. Evita Vasiļjeva's series of 4 outdoor sculptures titled "Third Place" (2026) was created specifically for the context of Manifesta 16. Based on inverted shopping carts, the artist extends their industrial metal mesh language by hand-welding and bending metal frameworks, raising these everyday objects to a human scale and transforming them into modular architectural units. Joined with cast concrete and colored plexiglass, these framework structures exist between becoming and collapsing, in an intermediate state between the past and an unfulfilled future.

   During her first visit to Essen, Vasiļjeva noticed the city's rapid transformation, the many closed shops, and churches that had lost their original function. Inspired by the transitional state of this region, where the previous economic and social order has faded but a new identity has not yet formed, Vasiļjeva created sculptures in a similar threshold state. They balance between a sacred atmosphere and lost status, becoming a new space whose function and meaning remain open to each visitor's individual interpretation.

   The sculptural installation was exhibited in public space between St. Mary's Church and the adjacent "Lidl" store, exploring the search for individualism and singularity within a standardized environment. The title of the work refers to sociologist Ray Oldenburg's concept of the "third place," designating a space for social life outside of home and work. The installation examines the fragility of public space and imagines what future gathering places might look like.

Evita Vasiljeva ©