installation, 125×250 cm, iron sheet, 10 electric furnaces, 700 tin soldiers, injection molds
Sergey Katran, 2014
The installation “The Saga of Tin Soldiers” refers to the theme of the absurdity of war and the illusory necessity of destroying a huge number of human lives for achieving dubious goals. War gives birth to another war – death leads to new and new deaths. The Tin Soldier for the first time as a literary artistic figure, appeared in the cultural space of Europe and the world with the help of the genius of the Danish writer-storyteller Hans Christian Andersen.
The Tin Soldier became a common denominator of steadfastness and courage. As in the fairy tale of the Danish writer, the tattooed soldiers of Katran do not have their will, they are subordinated to external circumstances and forces. They bravely fulfill their duty to the end.
The red-hot metal in the artist’s installation destroys the army, turning it into tin ponds and rivulets, which are spilled into molds, degenerating once more into tin soldiers, obliged to swear and die for the sake of a new war.