Kim? Open Call 2023 the aim is to promote the development and visibility of Latvian contemporary art and related processes by providing focused attention and developing a dialogue between the artist/curator and/or collective of artists/curators and the art institution. Within the framework of this competition, persons aged between 18 and 30 are considered to be artists, curators and other representatives of creative skills of the new generation.
This initiative was born in 2016 with the aim of promoting the timely discovery of promising and talented artists and/or curators, providing the best possible conditions and framework for the successful implementation of their creative ideas. Previous laureates of the competition are the artists Jānis Dzirnieks, Toms Harjo, Jānis Krauklis, Sabīne Šnē, as well as the curator Laura Brokāne.
Annemarie Gulbe. Believe it or not
Annemarie Gulbe. Believe it or not. Video, screenshot. 2020
How to look at collective faith or disbelief in religion after a period in which it did not officially exist, but at the same time united society, providing refuge and salvation? How to look at how visual, spatial and sound (or silence) elements can evoke a blissful rapture, a desire to admire the impressive space or altar? Is your breath taken away from an aesthetic experience or because you have encountered the divine?
Annemarijas Gulbe’s mixed media installation will be created around a video created by combining fragments of collective and personal memories, photo documentation of the archive of the baroque interior of the Varme Church, which burned down in 1971 as if struck by lightning, TV Skrunda scenes in which Annemarija Gulbe is seen singing in the school choir in front of the altar of the renovated Vārme church, as well as texts from the book I am an atheist. 25 answers to the question: Why are you an atheist? (1982). Annemarija Gulbe’s exhibition research carefully questions the relationship between religion and aesthetics, while analyzing the author’s neutral (indecisive – neither yes nor no) position regarding the practice of a religion.
Annemarija Gulbe (1997) works with photography, video and installation. Graduated from the visual communication department of the Latvian Academy of Arts (2021). Currently, she has returned from an internship at Komplot curatorial collective (Brussels) and is continuing her studies at the Latvian Academy of Art’s master’s degree. The artist has studied photography at the ISSP school and Andrejas Grant’s studio on Annas Street, she has improved her knowledge in various master classes.
Karlina Mežecka. Fragility archive
Karlina Mežecka. Free flow. 2023
Fragility archive is a time capsule co-created by artist Karlīna Mežecka and curator Žaneta Liekīte, which preserves the fragile formation conditions of the regional subconscious and the attachment to the otherness of space and time. Reworking the past for the future with an intuitive orientation, it contains delicate and emotionally saturated materialities translated into others. Intimate flashbacks in the room are linked by a veil of haze, with no clearly visible connection points. The depicted “tracking of the past” is at times left in half-circle, with the further thread lost, in other places “imagined present”, just as the mechanisms of memory fill in burned-out, white spots. The deconstructed sensory memories and objects found in the “Hide of Time” play with the viewer’s perception of materiality in a collage-like manner, as if transferring the knowledge of ancestors into new narratives. Through the lens of the archeology of knowledge, befriending Robert Smithson’s insight about “the future as the past inverted,” Fragility archive aims to uncover the burned areas and write the “history of the present” of poetic self-analysis.
Karlina Mežecka (1995) currently lives and works in London. Obtained a bachelor’s degree from the Latvian Academy of Arts, Department of Ceramics (2020) and a master’s degree from the Royal College of Art, London, Department of Ceramics and Glass (2022).
Ieva Jakuš and Gundeg Strauberg. Low-priced Riga
Ieva Yakuša, Gundega Strauberg. Exhibitions Budget Airlines. We Are All the Jet Set view (museum Van Abbe Museum). 2021. Photo – Peter Cox
Airport Riga is the third fastest growing airport in Europe. The airport’s leading airline is airBalticthe second most popular airline is Ryanairwhich invested 165 million euros in Riga in 2022 and opened sixteen new routes. Ryanair the marketing strategy for this destination stops at low prices and in the form of a guide to nightlife, leaving the rich cultural heritage of Latvians out of the spotlight. Unlike most other European destinations, souvenirs in Riga are still handmade by local artisans. Although these objects describe the country’s folklore and history, they do not correspond to Ryanair the nature of the brand’s immediate consumption. With this project, Gundega and Ieva want to translate Ryanair mentality and information obtained from research into exhibits using tourism media, materials and objects as raw materials. Working with a graphic designer, the author duo will focus on playing up the meaning of the word “cheap”, presenting it as a concept that represents more than just a low-end price.
Ieva Jakuša (1996) and Gundeg Strauberg (1996) have graduated from Eindhoven Design Academy in 2020. While developing their practice in parallel, they have joined together in several projects, in which Gundega’s visual approach to creating narratives is strengthened by Ieva’s critical view, research skills that challenge and complement each other. Their work has been exhibited at Europe’s most prominent design events, such as the Netherlands and Milan Design Week.
