Author: admin

First thirst Flesh blush
Bogna Wisniewska
through conversations
with curator Katie Lenanton
9/03 – 11/04/2019

Smitten, making a space together, fresh paint, treats, eyelashes, thinking of your eyes / hearts / stomachs, no sorries, not guilty about pleasure, first flush.

Dear Bogna,
The first time I ate a Karelian pie (karjalanpiirakka), I anticipated heady pleasure—the salty tang of cheese—but instead found myself masticating a bland potato-y paste. My tongue went searching for something that wasn’t present here, but I knew existed.
Perhaps now you anticipate where this is going. After frequenting so many exhibitions, solo searching, hoping to be moved, I saw a painting so audacious I laughed on the spot. I looked around grinning wildly, trying to intercept a gaze, hoping to share the sensation of facing off against a 2.5m piirakka, gamboling brush strokes, pillowy, reverent, wide-eyed ridiculous, self-deprecating, generous, sincere. That it existed (in that moment, in that place, counter to all prior exhibition impressions that would be too cumbersome and boring to recount) made me so happy. Fuck, thinking of it now, I’m breathless and stunned.
Months later, curiously googling your name after another out-and-about encounter, I gasp and we three are (re)united.
I get so much pleasure starting every day smiling at this piirakka you have kindly loaned me, and of course this pleasure is inseparable from our friendship, a thing suffused with pleasures—comfortable company, uncomfortable honesty, unwavering support, a space to test how things sound out loud, exposure, things moving through us, a working exchange that makes all the other aspects of artworking worth it (+ the feasting and skumppa and shared witnessing and adventures, and for me at least, a deep satisfaction around all that is unspoken).
You know that so often I become despondent, wondering what a painting (what making a thing) can do these days that exists outside the maker’s desire to make visual their unfolding thinking, inscribe moments, enshrine, provide others access to their lens, make the air more toxic, permit an inhabiting rather than an articulating. Can painting not be selfish?
You let me peel off some tape, and as I saw parts of their surface discarded, I realised these paintings-in-progress privilege residue. They are decidedly unsentimental. They are generous in that your lens is there, but you provide a green screen too, for others to project and meld their lens with yours. A soft, shared making of space, welcoming others into a sphere of affinity. A thing worth doing.
Hanging out to think about Riga, we are aware that something is coming. For more than 17 years you have trusted painting, and I trust you. The other day I mentioned the word precipice. I’m so happy to be teetering here with you.
With love,
Katie

Bogna Wisniewska ( b.1988, Poland ). Lives and works in Helsinki. Since 2018 member of artist run gallery SIC in Helsinki. Selected exhibition include “Altered Flakes” SIC, Helsinki, Finland 2018; “fullonornamental” 2,04 gallery, St. Petersburg, Russia 2018; ”kesärulla/ summer roll” SIC Helsinki, Finland 2017;“rethinking digitalisation” Exhibition Laboratory, Helsinki, Finland 2017.

Support: VKKF, Arts Promotion Centre Finland Taiteen edistämiskeskus – Taike, The Paulo Foundation, Finnish Cultural Foundation

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Photos: Līga Spunde

Aminals
Alexander Iezzi & Viktor Timofeev
Curator: Marta Trektere
25/01 – 1/03/2019

V−E+F=∑i(ei3-ei2+1)=∑i(1−ei6)=2

This pattern began down the center of the iris’s blade, right in the inflorescence, somewhere between its symmetrical six-lobed flowers. The pattern was adorned with consistent veining and small dots. In the centre of the blade it had a beard full with tiny insects that were crawling around the magnificent, purple flower. The queen bee is assigned with a challenge: solve the most complex math task that has ever existed.

Kas dārzā, kas dārzā?
Bitīt’ rožu dārziņā.
Kas dārzā, kas dārzā?
Bitīt’ rožu dārziņā.

Ložņā, bitīt,
Caur zaru zariem,
Caur zaru zariem,
Caur lapu lapām.

Ja citu atrod,
Liec to savā vietā.

Three bees were at the table next to me. At first, I didn’t know they were bees, at first I thought they were wasps — the ones which sting so painfully. When I was a kid a wasp flew on my nose. I remembered my father used to squash them with just one finger — even once on his nose — it seemed easy and painless. Well, it wasn’t this way for me. I squashed the wasp with my finger and a sudden heatwave took over my face. It was a feeling like when you burn yourself with a cigarette. I ran to my grandma’s. She was boiling potatoes for dinner. I was crying so hard and said that I just wanted squash the wasp like the grown-ups do. The next day, my face appeared as if I was a sibling of the Michelin Man.

Parallel to this unpleasant childhood memory — in just the same minute — I looked into one’s eyes and realized it was not wasp at all. It was the Queen Bee, drone and the worker who referred to herself as a parasite. Queen Bee had the most exquisite yellow dress, rhinestoned from head to toe with Swarovski’s. Drone was wearing a little black fedora which he felt would look quite good with a striped black and yellow tuxedo. The parasite looked very humble, wearing no colors, just a plain, gray turtleneck. Parasite said that she was tired from working in a factory and pretending to be happy and that she really wants to HoH’egh.

Queen bee poured dressing on her salad and tossed the leaves around her plate. Drone poured his wine and ladled soup, and all the time, parasite filled the plates and tore the bread. The table was small and hexagonal. You could imagine that there is enough space for all of them, but the Queen Bee took the majority of table. The other two were cramped, but they were efficient nonetheless. Apparently they were coming here often and had been practicing serving and eating with the Queen. Queen’s face slipped and chopped; she didn’t talk once. Had I touched her shoulder and asked for the time, there would have been snarling — a flash of teeth.

– Marta Trektere

Viktor Timofeev born 1984 Riga, Latvia. Recent exhibitions include: “God Room” at Alyssa Davis Gallery, New York (2018), “HAPPINESS” in collaboration with Anni Puolakka, Jaakko Pallasvuo, TARWUK at Cordova, Barcelona, (2018), “Portable Landscapes” at the Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga (2018), “Stairway to Melon” at Kim? Contemporary Art Center, Riga, 2017; “S.T.A.T.E.” at Drawing Room, London (2016). Recent releases include Zolitude, in collaboration with Kaspars Groševs, Quantum Natives (2017), Palace of Peace and Reconciliation, lobitlandscapes (2016).

Alexander Iezzi born 1987 Tucson, Arizona, USA. Recent performances and exhibitions include: “Some Elementary Dinner Sculpture” at Peach, Rotterdam (2019), “Signs of Invasion” (performance) with Billy Bultheel at Ku’damm Kuree, Berlin (2018), “Tripping Autonomy” at De Kroon, Rotterdam (2018), “Kunsthalle For Music” (performance) at Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2018); “My New Feelings Whip” (performance) at Galleri Syster, Luleå (2017), “BOOKLUB 10” (performance) at MoMA, New York (2016).

Support: VKKF, CBK Rotterdam, VKN, Valmiermuižas alus
Special thanks to Laura Adamoviča, Artūrs Kalvāns

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Photos: Līga Spunde

Benevolent Nerves
Adam Shiu-Yang Shaw
26/01 – 1/03/2018

21st Century E.G.G.

Black tea leaves (1 cup)
Sea salt (2/3 cups)
Wood ash (3 cups)
Charcoal ash (3 cups)
Calcium Oxide (3 cups)
Rice Husks (1-1.4 kilo)
Duck Eggs (1 dozen) *
* 56.7 g (mass)

– Brew tea, infused at a 1:8 ratio, in boiling water. Once brewed, let steep for one hour to strengthen.

– Using a sizeable vessel – combine salt, wood ash, charcoal ash and calcium oxide. This combination of natural alkaline compounds aids in activating the preservation process.

– Once steeped, add 3 cups of tea as well as strained leaves to the mixture. Stir thoroughly, adding surplus tea as deemed necessary, until a slurry-like consistency is achieved.

* Adorn latex gloves as the hybrid is mildly corrosive and may result in tissue damage.

– Place six eggs into alkaline solution, coat thoroughly and let sit for 15 minutes. Fill a second vessel with rice husks. After the immersion period has commenced, tumble eggs in husk basin to yield uniform coating. Apply gentle pressure where required as to assure a secure bond. Repeat with two succeeding batches.

– Leave encrusted eggs to sit overnight.

– Come morning, prepare a bed of natural soil – preferably with high clay-content. Select an outdoor location that receives ample precipitation and will be left undisturbed by human activity.

– Construct a long and narrow trench, 1 ft. deep at minimum, in which to place the 1 dozen eggs. Replenish the channel with soil, packed loosely as not to cause structural damage to the preserves.

– In warmer climates (upwards of 15 °C), leave the eggs to process for a minimum of 100 days. For colder temperatures (below 15 °C), they may sit for up to 240. The preserves should be checked individually and intermittently, onwards of presumed completion date.

*Pídàn is said to have originated within China’s Hunan Province. Various renditions of this preservation method can be traced to Shanghai, Guangdong Province, Laos, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

Adam Shiu-Yang Shaw (b. 1987 Edmonton, Canada) currently lives and works in Berlin and Stockholm. He received his  MFA from the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm, SE (2016), was a guest student at Piet Zwart Institute (2015), Rotterdam NL and his BFA from Emily Carr University of Art, Vancouver, CA (2013).  Selected exhibitions include Jugend ist Trunkenheit ohne Wein, Bikini, Basel (2018), vinegar stone and the language of flowers, Towards, Toronto (2017), Gabinete de Moda, Gabinete, Lisbon, PT, Grounds for Magical Thinking, J Hammond Projects, London (2017), Peach, W139, Amsterdam (2016), Kamias Triennial, Kamias Special Projects, Kamias (2017), Cruising, Mariella Viking Line, Stockholm, SE, (2017), Dinner Room Terravore, Oslo10, Basel (2016), and Veins of Gypsum Mortar, Ashley, Berlin (2015).  Benevolent Nerves is his first solo exhibition in Latvia.

Support: Nordic Culture Point, VKN
Special thanks to Daria Melnikova!

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Photos: Līga Spunde

Joy and Mirror. Port City
21/01 – 26/02/2016

Preview : Thursday 21/01 19:00 with music by classik_woman and
Rytis Saladžius

Group show : Gediminas G. Akstinas, Antanas Gerlikas, Petras Išora, Ona Lozuraitytė, Rūtenė Merkliopaitė, Marija Olšauskaitė, Jurgis Paškevičius, Rytis Saladžius, Emilija Škarnulytė, Jonas Žukauskas

Organised by : Jurga Daubaraitė and Monika Lipšic 

Joy and Mirror is a travelling artists residency that aims to rearrange and disrupt the landscape of cultural activities. Guided by a principle of joy, encounters with localities unfold in a mirroring mode. 

What if activities from Sardinia, Gardone Riviera or Athens could be reflected in other locations and in other circumstances? How long did the reflection travel to meet the identical of itself. In a travel from Joy to Mirror, forms and contents repeat and recreate, and also change in a time of observation. 

Port City is a gathering of artists’ works that has been collected during and after the time together in Sardinia, Lago di Garda, Athens and Vilnius. It is a sequence of proposals for a barter, a support, for a video camera, a friend, a window, a floor, a talk, a hearsay, subjects, time, a shopping list and other. Joy and Mirror like a Port City is a practice of exchange. 

: well, a heater as a palm tree should be ok.

: let’s think that Riga is by the sea and there is plenty of salt in the air.

: it is winter now, and it would be great to have a fountain-pisuar. Or is it more appropriate for the spring? You see there are not many fountains in Vilnius.

: there is a seed of a tree, you take it and plant it – the tree grows. So all this cosmos that is imagined, that we have never seen, is here.

: I would really like to pour very salty water on the floor.

: well, we still miss something.

: don’t forget to say that a bridge handrail will be slippery.

: maybe we should dress up so no one can recognize us?..

: why to dress up if nobody knows us there anyway?..

: when Gedas was wearing an invisible man costume in Sardinia, not knowing it was a Halloween night.

: it would be good if someone from Riga plays during the evening. 

: what if we find that Riga’s underground celebrity, who hasn’t performed anything for the last 10 years, that I was shown but saw him only passing behind a column?

Support: Lithuanian Council for Culture, State Culture Capital Foundation and VKN

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Joy and Mirror. Uostamiestis
21/01 – 26/02/2016

Atidarymas: 21 / 01 ketvirtadienį 19:00, muzika : classik_woman

Grupinė paroda : Gediminas G. Akstinas, Antanas Gerlikas, Petras Išora, Ona Lozuraitytė, Rūtenė Merkliopaitė, Marija Olšauskaitė, Jurgis Paškevičius, Rytis Saladžius, Emilija Škarnulytė, Jonas Žukauskas.

Organizuoja : Jurga Daubaraitė and Monika Lipšic 

Joy and Mirror tai keliaujanti menininkų rezidencija, skirta pergalvoti ir perkurti kultūrinių įvykių kraštovaizdį. Vadovaujantis malonumo ir džiaugsmo principu, naujos pažintys ir situacijos kiekvienoje vietoje vėliau atsikartoja veidrodžio principu. 

Kas jeigu tam tikri Sardinijoje, Gardonėje ar Atėnuose vykę veiksmai galėtų atsispindėti kitose lokacijose ir kitomis sąlygomis? Kiek laiko keliavo atvaizdas, kol sutiko tokį patį kaip jis? Kelionėje nuo Joy iki Mirror, įvairios formos ir turiniai atkartojami ir perkuriami, o tuo pačiu keičiasi juos betyrinėjant.

Uostamiestis – tai menininkų darbų paroda, kūriniai sukurti per ir po laiko kartu Sardinijoje, Lago di Garda, Atėnuose ir Vilniuje. Tai pasiūlymų virtinė mainams, video kamerai, draugui, langui, grindims, nuogirdai, subjektams, laikui, pirkinių sąrašui. Joy and Mirror, kaip ir Uostamiestis, yra mainų praktika. 

: na, šildytuvas kaip palmė visai ok.

: reikia pagalvoti, kad Ryga yra šalia jūros, ore bus labai daug druskos.

: dabar žiema, o būtų faina turėti fontaną-pisuarą. Jis gal toks labiau pavasariškas. Matai, Vilniuj fontanų nėra.

: yra medžio sėkla, tu ją paimi, pasodini ir užauga medis. Visas tas kosmosas, kurio nesam matę, įsivaizduojamas. Jis yra irgi čia. 

: labai norėčiau užpilti grindis su labai druskuotu vandeniu.

: vis tiek dar kažko trūksta.

: pasakyk, kad lieptelio turėklas yra slidus. 

: gal reikia persirengti, kad niekas nepažintų.

: kam persirengti, jei tavęs ir taip nieks nepažįsta.

: o kai Gedas persirengė nematomu žmogumi Sardinijoje, nežinodamas kad yra helovynas?

: būtų faina jei kas iš Rygos pagrotų.

: gal netyčia ta Rygos undergroundinė žvaigždė, kur jau 10 metų nieko nedaro, kurią man parodė, bet pamačiau jį tik praeinantį už stulpo.

Parodą remia Lietuvos Kultūros Taryba, KKF, VKN

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Photos: Līga Spunde

Glyph
Marianne Vierø
19/02 – 17/04/2015

Comprised of prints and modular wall-like structures Glyph morphs a variety of media and methods to test their defining elements as rendered through the employment of various digitized and real life brushes. Made in an analogue color darkroom the prints are done on photographic C-paper and build up from multiple exposures of filtered light. They combine projected images of exported Photoshop files with traditional photogram techniques where objects are placed directly on the surface of the paper. Although the prints are highly layered the photographic paper leaves them absolutely flat and conceals the choreography of their production. The flatness of the prints is contrasted with the lushness of the textures applied to the wall-like structures. Distributed throughout the space and worked over with a solution of pigments and plaster the structures record the syntax of every movement employed.

Marianne Vierø studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam and has been a resident at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin and Triangle Arts, NYC. She has had solo shows at P/////AKT, Amsterdam (2012), Officin, Copenhagen (2013) and Fotograf Gallery, Prague (2014). She has participated in group shows such as “Architectooralooral” at 1857 (2010) and “Protein Mix” and at Henningsen Gallery, Copenhagen (2012). She is the coeditor of “Danske Kunstnerbøger/Danish Artists’ Books”, published by Møller/Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther König in 2013.

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Photos: Marianne Vierø

FAREWELL
Augustas Serapinas, Līva Rutmane, OAOA, Lev Kazachenko, Linards Kulless, Marija Olšauskaitė, Vivienne Griffin, Jóhan Martin Christiansen
26/04 – 31/05/2014

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Photos: Rauls Pauls

Beer Metaphysics. The Kitchen
Vytenis Burokas
14/02 – 16/03/2017

A month is a perfect time to brew a gruit of metaphysical investigation. 427 space will become a kitchen-incubator of fermentation and a stage of it’s manifestation trough the human bodies. There’s no accident, yeast will adapt to the new conditions of this particular space in the wobbly whirling universe. Also a play Beer Metaphysics: symposium of humans and microorganisms will be present as a source of liquid recipe and as a text on the tip of a tongue and/or mind. The nature of the characters in the play will be revealed during the processes of fermentation and spiritual transformation, thus the epopee, Dionysian pleasantry, metaphysical fisticuffs, can be experienced (not necessary, though). 

Accompaniment: Φ 

Beer Metaphysics: symposium of humans and microorganisms. The first and only book of cosmogonic rumours – is a humorous demonstration of his research and methodology that pulls ideas around philosophy, science, fermentation, rituals, inebriation, and food into a vortex. Rather than merely cite and quote his research, the artist stages an increasingly drunken discussion between himself and a crowd of philosophers, scientists, and theoreticians. In the play, Burokas ventriloquizes, and is inhabited by, a strange constellation of characters who have all dealt with the properties of the clinamen in some way, including the philosophers Aristotle, Epicurus, Lucretius, Julia Annas, and Michel Serres, the scientists Henri Poincaré and Ilya Prigogine, and the composers and theorists John Rahn and Michel Dellvile, amongst many other voices.
– Post Brothers

Vytenis Burokas (b. 1990, Vilnius, Lithuania) is an artist and curator, interested in visible and invisible manifestations of history and memory fragments, documenting time passing and responding with choreography, movements, narrative to highlight traces, slips of a tongue and language. His focus lies in rituals and happenings in social environments, architecture. Vytenis Burokas has graduated Contemporary Sculpture BA, MA at the Vilnius Academy of Arts (2009-2015) and completed the Rupert Educational Program in Vilnius (2013-2014). Burokas has exhibited in Autarkia (Vilnius, LT), Contemporary Art Center (Vilnius, LT), Šiauliai Art Gallery (Šiauliai, LT), Komplot (Brussels, BE), Nida Art Colony (Nida, LT), Granada Film Festival (Granada, Spain), performances at Rupert (Vilnius, LT).

Support: State Culture Capital Foundation, Lithuanian Council for Culture, VKN, Malduguns