The central event of “Art summer in Strenči” is the exhibition “Before the fir tree falls” – a photo exhibition in the premises of the former Strenči photo studio at Rīgas street 17 – a building built more than 100 years ago by the now legendary photographer Dāvis Spunde, who worked in the studio with the family of photographer Konrād Krauklis.
Documenting stretch marks has already been in the sights of “Orbita” artists – for example, in the photo book “Stikla Strenči”; The collection of glass panels of the Strenči photo workshop stored in the attic of the photo studio has been included in the Latvian national register of the UNESCO program “Memory of the World” since 2021, and a part of this collection has been compiled in cooperation with the Latvian Museum of Photography and curator Anna Volkova in the international award-winning photo book “Stikla Strenči” published by “Orbītas” (2019).
The exhibition “Before the fir tree falls” is an ideological continuation of “Stikla Strenču” – the center of the exhibition is a recently acquired historical photo negative – a fir tree falling on the banks of the Gauja River, which, it turns out, was once redrawn on fabric and used in the Strenču photo studio as a background for countless photographs taken in this studio. The curator of the exhibition, Anna Volkova, admits that the building of the Strenči photo workshop was largely responsible for the changes in the fate of this photo collection, when the roof of the workshop was changed in 2004, and the glass plates ended up in the Latvian Museum of Photography. Now, on the eve of the next renovation, Viktors Gustsons, Spunde’s heir, has reserved the premises for an exhibition. In preparation for this event, a glass negative plate with a falling fir tree was found in the workshop, which had been redrawn in the form of a background seen in many pictures of Strenču’s photo workshop.
The exhibition will include photos not included in the book from the glass plate collection of the Strenču Photo Workshop in the collection of the Latvian Museum of Photography, objects found in the photo workshop this spring, as well as an object created from photo negatives by the photographer and artist of the “Orbīta” association Vladimir Svetlov, which was created by Svetlov and Armanda Andže, who are included in the mini-festival program (“Baltic analog lab”) during the master class of Strenču glass panels from the glass negatives created by the master class participants.
There will be a display case at the facade of the photo workshop, which will allow you to digitally look into the premises of the workshop – a small part of the exhibition can also be viewed outside of working hours and on the showcase website “fotodarbnica.lv”.
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Similarly, “Art in the summer in Strenči” will also feature environmentally oriented sound artworks, which mark the beginning of the project “Strenču sonification station” curated by Artūrs Puntes, a member of “Orbītas”. For example, the outdoor sound and light installation “No étera” (“Orbīta”), as well as the audio installation “Gaujas manuports No. 1” (Artūrs Punte, Maksims Šenteļevs), which uses field recordings and fragments from interviews with experienced Gauja rafters.
The festival “Art summer in Strenči” is included in the cultural development program of the Valmiera region “Dynamic city”. The head of this program, Liene Jakobsone, emphasizes that the development of contemporary art processes in Valmiera region is the basis of the “Dynamic City” program, therefore cooperation with “Orbita”, their interest in Strenči, the contribution of the Spunde studio and its actualization in ever new forms is a great benefit for both local residents, both for the national and international cultural space.
It is planned that the festival will become an annual event.
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2023-08-27 05:08:50
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