Category: 2016

15.12. – 26.01.
Carl Palm
15/12/2016 – 26/01/2017

Carl Palm (b. 1980, SE), based in Stockholm

Palm’s work spans across a wide variety of media including drawing, sculpture, print, installation, expanding into the realm of curating. Palm is interested in the step-by-step consideration of the process of art production and presentation and through predominantly sculptural gestures constructs his pieces as the points of emphasis. Intricate and unique in their own right, Palm’s works often point somewhere else, generating content without possessing it, acknowledging the context and presence of the other pieces in the show. Palm was educated at the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, MFA.

Carl Palm is the founder of the publication Good Times & Nocturnal News with contributions from international artists and writers. Previous issues have been presented at Komplot in Brussels, Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius, Center, Berlin, Untitled, Miami, Friends with Books in Berlin and in connection to the 56th Venice Biennale and the Copenhagen Art Festival at Overgaden.

His recent and upcoming exhibitions include: Diesel Project Space (BE), S1, Portland (US), 427 Riga (LV), Nosbaum Reding (LU), X Bienal de Nicaragua (NI), XII Baltic Triennial at CAC (LT), Yautepec Gallery (MX),Cultural Foundation of Tinos (GR), GL Strand (DK), Overgaden (DK), Parallel Oaxaca (MX), Association Le Commissariat (FR), Kunsthalle Athena (GR), MACBA (ES), TOVES (DE), Kunsthalle Wien (AU), CAC (LT), Center (DE), ARTIUM (ES), Nosbaum Reding (LU), Komplot (BE) Index – The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation (SE) and IASPIS at the 12th Istanbul Biennale (TR).

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Photos: Kristiāna Marija Sproģe

Celestial Stems
Agata Melnikova and Daria Melnikova
30/09 – 27/10/2016

Daria Melnikova (b. 1984) has graduated from the Art Academy of Latvia, Visual Communication department. Her solo-exhibitions include: “Yesterday Is The New Tomorrow“ ISSMAG gallery, Moscow (2017), “EX-UVIA” Konstanet, Tallinn (2016), “Room 2. Fool’s Gold” MVT Summer House, Riga (2015), “Room 1. Brewing Harmony” Vita Kuben, Umeo (2014), “A Green Silhouette of Grey” (2014) and “Dashing Lines and Forming Heaps” Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2011). Selected group exhibitions: “Dedication, Exploitation & Haute Collaboration“ Silberkuppe, Berlin (2017), “Stoneroses #5” Riverside, Berne (2016), “Le Fragole del Baltico” Careof, Milan (2015), “Something eerie” Signal Center for Contemporary Art, Malmo, “Lily’s Pool” Art in General, New York (2015), “Literacy-Illiteracy” 16. Tallinn Print Triennial, KUMU, Tallinn (2014), “Present Tense” Kalmar konstmuseum, Kalmar (2014), “Vortex” Project Space Garage, Moscow (2014), “Sculpture Is Space” Hobusepea, Tallinn (2013). Daria is the first laureate of the Kim? Residency Award.

Agata Melnikova (b. 1988) has graduated from Jāzeps Vītols Latvian Academy of Music, Music Theory and History department. In 2015, she created the Closer To The Equator EP for a one-act contemporary ballet performance at the Latvian National Opera. Agata is a Red Bull Music Academy Montreal 2016 alumna.Working under the alias Sign Libra, she has performed live at the Montreal planetarium and at the Ambient Church in New York. In 2016, she started to practise in visual arts.

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Photos: Kristiāna Marija Sproģe

Content
Inga Ģibiete
29/07 – 26/08/2016

Viewer:
Shadow of a column. Cool. Metal head with an antenna. Covers from the light. Poles. Head in the bushes. Trees washed by the stream at the coast. A bus with dirty water. Dead dinosaur by the water. Theatrical wood scene. Blue guy in white. Golf club bag on a mountain. Head upside down. Honorary ribbon. Blazer and white skirt.

Support: State Culture Capital Foundation, Akmeņlauzis

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Photos: Līga Spunde

Nothing Lost, Nothing Found
Evita Vasiļjeva
21/06 – 22/07/2016

Nothing Lost, Nothing Found
(Reflections on the work of Evita Vasiljeva. Exhibition at the Ateliers, Amsterdam 17-5-16)

First view: In the distance a glimpse of a tall construction made up of several rectangular frames gives an impression of being both light/transparent and imposing.

The white wall seen through the empty frame adds to an antiseptic atmosphere. A fluorescent light placed conspicuously in front of the object suggests being in a workplace with an object still under construction. But as one gets closer, the more or less ethereal quality of an empty frame waiting to be completed changes drastically. Gray, textured surfaces, grainy and worn appear all over the frame; right behind it one discovers traces of the remains of an organic being. At this point the fluorescent light transforms this ‘workplace’ into a stage or podium. Metal rails aligned on the floor imply something mechanical. Could this be a machine of some kind? A machine on display? The idiosyncratic mixture of clean transparency and almost morbid organic traces combined with grey and moldy building materials recalls a literary masterpiece (artists are allowed to read): Franz Kafka’s In the Penal Colony.

The central interest in the penal colony focuses on an elaborate apparatus that administers capital punishment by engraving the law on the body of the condemned prisoner via a multitude of needles. A pre-Nazi example of the revenge of language on mankind. Consequently, one could conclude that Vasiljeva’s exhibit, staging its own apparatus combined with open and empty spaces, gaps, and hygienic decay, is an ode to the missing of the twentieth century. In other words, a dialectical work that explores the tension between representation and life (of the missing).

Second view: Chrome tubing, likely originating from three pieces of furniture, forms another type of frame; a small pastel object resembling a Russian Constructivist architectural model sits precariously on the edge of the tubing. Instantly one discards all pre-war obsession with language and a dialectic of the missing. Here stands a (semi-) frivolous objet trouvé. Like all readymades it uses the context of its newfound artistic environment to draw attention to its origins: not art, but industry. The inclusion of the small architectural model adds to this salute of the industrial, especially since architecture has always been more a question of industrial design than autonomous art. (not to mention the tendencies of Russian Constructivism) Therefore it can be said that the autonomous artist here, Vasiljeva, quotes from an elsewhere, that is, from at least two past artistic movements as well as industry as a major life force.

And the more one inspects other objects in her space, from molded rubber tapestries and naked steel rods to various Constructivist models, the more one senses the presence of invisible quotation marks throughout. This quiet irony falls in line with a tradition that attempts to reconcile the obvious antagonism between freedom and the universe of production, a tradition no longer concerned with the lingering dilemmas of an earlier generation – memory and the redeeming of the past.

Third view: The whole space. Objects and flat images, grey, black, occasional pastel color. The atmosphere, that of an attic or hidden laboratory. In spite of an abundance of daylight, the scattered artworks conjure something opposite, something opaque. Another impression: a teenage girl’s bedroom (A’s room?), just no poster of a pop music icon on the wall. And this overall view is the key: it negates utterly the standpoints of the previous two views. In keeping with the first view, one could have considered this ‘attic’ a parable, a scene or even a crime scene suggesting that the missing of the past will go on haunting us in the future. But taken all together, these works display no memories, no past, only the present. And whereas a museum creates a non-space for readymades, a no man’s land whereby an ordinary industrial object is neither transformed into art, nor allowed to maintain its functionality as everyday object, Vasiljeva’s space offers an entirely harmonious, natural environment that totally dismisses the idea of a tension between art and daily life or industry. Chrome tubing, rubber, and steel rods are no longer re-cycled industrial residue looking for recognition, but part of a completely new universe.

It is a dramaturgy that makes the event of this universe possible, its actuality. One is lead by the artist on an imaginary itinerary through the space without being aware of it. A mixture of raw materials, especially surface textures and sparse color, grips one’s gaze (a similar use of dramaturgy can be found in architecture as in Rem Koolhaas’ Netherlands embassy in Berlin with its signaling use of color and ramped walkway). Perception is the key here, not meaning a sense of awareness, but rather a tingling of the senses. One is stimulated to touch the curious surfaces and approach the objects, peeking into them even when they may be hermetically closed. The cohesiveness of the entire space, rather than challenged by this striking appeal to the senses, is strengthened by it.

Cohesion – opposing elements that belong together. Counterpoint. Opacity and daylight.

So finally nothing of the obsessions of the traditional avant-garde, like the ‘problem’ of language, or ethical responsibility toward the world and History. A turning one’s back on text and especially on context. Still, the pure event with the faintest of external references cannot avoid some present-day relevance: willingly or not, the artist posits opacity and incites perception, quite simply opposing the designer tendency in the arts of neo-liberal times.

Opacity and daylight. Cantatas in Dresden, a taste of Lutheran mysticism.

– Stefan M
Amsterdam, June 2016

Evita Vasiļjeva (born in 1985) is a Netherlands-based Latvian artist. Graduated from the Fine Arts program at the Amsterdam Gerrit Rietveld Academie (in 2012), worked at the artist residency De Ateliers (2014-2016), Amsterdam. Latest solo-exhibitions: “Nothing Lost, Nothing Found” gallery 427, Riga (2016); “Form X” V240, Amsterdam (2016) and “Parallel to Vertical” Kim? Contemporary Arts Centre, Riga (2013); group exhibitions: “Potlach” De Ateliers graduate exhibition, Amsterdam (2016); “A Bigger Peace, a Smaller Peace” the Latvian Museum of Railway History in Riga (2015); “Lily’s Pool” Art in General, New York (2015), “New Participants” De Ateliers, Amsterdam (2014), “Aspen-Kemmern” Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2014); “Vortex“ Project Space Garage, Moscow (2014), “NF Presents: from A to Be to SEE to D” Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga (2014), “Monograms” Vita Kuben Gallery, Umeå (2014); “Indian Summer” Gallery Fons Welters, Amsterdam (2013).

Support: State Culture Capital Foundation, VKN, Kim? Contemporary Art Centre

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Photo: Līga Spunde

x kg
3/8
24/05 – 10/06/2016

Just as a affluent tourist from Berlin in a few days it appears at a sweltering city in North of Portugal. It’s look has changed a bit – a few scratches, something has been battered and broken, but still alive. Hairy, broad-shouldered benefactor takes it in his hands and as if knowing, where it comes from and where it has to go, takes it with him. In a few days it’s look has changed – it has put on some weight and has started to shake impatiently. Trip to Latvia will bend over France, Spain and twice more though midlands of the Netherlands causing certain agitation. It knows that with every stop it will weigh more and the costs of shipping will be more unbearable.
“Travel smart!” shouts some underground office’s advertisement in local newspaper. Also the mailman glides by wearing brand new pants and holding almost empty mug in his hands. The city feels – the package has arrived.

Collective “3/8” consists of four artists that do exhibitions and publications since 2014. The collective works on art works as exploration of mutual collaboration mainly emphasizing the process of creation. “3/8” consists of Kristiāna Marija Sproģe, Jānis Dzirnieks, Jānis Krauklis un Rihards Rusmanis.

Atbalsts: Valsts Kultūrkapitāla fonds, VKN

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Photos: 3/8

CGDGCE
Vicente H. J. Mollestad
14/04 – 13/05/2016

I don’t know how to play this! Why not try it this way?
I was playing this morning, and I suddenly thought ‘Hey, Maybe that’s the tuning!’
So I tried different things, pulled and slackened some strings and I’ve come up with this. Frankly, with that much distortion, who can tell the difference?
– Airborne Nun

Vicente H.J. Mollestad (1987, La Paz) is currently an MFA student at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam. His work revolves around an extended process of devotion to own experiences and ambitions. By following these instincts to a romantic extreme his practice relates to a discourse found somewhere between neo-conceptualism and abstract expressionism.

Support: State Culture Capital Foundation

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Photos: Līga Spunde

The Crocodile Dilemma
Amanda Ziemele
10/03 – 8/04/2016

What is crocodile thinking about? Is consciousness as a part of nature rather similar to photosynthesis, digestion of dancing?

A crocodile has stolen a child. He then tells the child’s mother, “I will return the child if you guess correctly whether or not I will do so.”
The mother replies, “You will not return my child! Therefore return it because I told the truth.”
Crocodile replies, “On opposite – if I return the child, you didn’t tell the truth.”

Amanda Ziemele (1990) works with painting and plays and step-dances in the band Biezoknis. She has graduated from the Painting department at the Art of Academy of Latvia. Has participated in group shows, including “Apzīmētājs” at Tabacco Factory, Riga (2015), “M.S.” at 427, Riga (2015) un Survival Kit 6, Riga (2014).

Support: State Culture Capital Foundation

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Photos: Līga Spunde

Invisible Field
4/03/2016

If a branch falls in a forest but no one sees it, is it really happening? If no one hears how the branch breaks, is the sound even there?

This event by being made into words becomes a theoretical speculation that’s over-crocheted with pseudo-philosophical theories.

We invite you to open the white curtain and quietly look at the invisible.

Fashion display Invisible Field 2016. World premiere.

Participants: Armands Berģis, Aksels Bruks, Margrieta Dreiblate, Ivars Krasts, Origo Boys, Konstantīns Paturskis, Dāvis Sliecāns, Kārlis Sliede, Deniss Ševeļovs, Tv Maskava

Support: Valsts Kultūrkapitāla fonds, VKN

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Photos: Elīna Vītola

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