Garden of Lost Revolutions – Bolek Greczynski (co-founder of the Living Museum) and The Battlefield Crew
Installation, Mixed Media,1990
Originally Exhibited at MOMA PS1,1987
“Who ever thought that a revolution would go well? Who? Who?”
Gilles Deleuze,1996
Revolutions happen because the situation is untenable. They are the outcome of
oppression, tyranny, extreme exploitation, corruption, and societal hardship. These
are often based on prejudice, ignorance, and greed. The pot boils over and things
erupt.
Even when revolutions fail, or go badly, that still never stopped or prevented people
from becoming revolutionary. We must not confuse two absolutely different things:
the conditions in which the only outcome for people is to become revolutionary, and
the situations where revolutions go badly and get hijacked afterwards.
The distinction between revolutionary action and the actual outcome of revolution is
important. Most revolutions and maybe even all, end up badly. The Russian with
Stalin, the French with Napoleon, the Haitian with extreme poverty and huge,
punishing payments to the French banks still to the present; Iranian with Khamenei
and the morality police, and on and on. The various revolutions in the mental health
field seem to have backfired too often, sending patients into the streets or even
worse, to prison.
The Garden of Lost Revolutions is an homage and reflection on the confusing and
complex issue of things well meant, yet not working. The installation was part of the
larger “Battlefields” project, which was an ongoing and unfolding series of art created
with the collaboration of artists/patients who worked with artist-in-residence and co-
founder of the Living Museum, Bolek Greczynski.