The exhibition is an important part of the Irish Independence Centenary programme, marking the centenary of Ireland’s self-determination and subsequent establishment of the Free State in 1922. The ambitious exhibition is the culmination of a three-year research project focusing on the new nation-states that emerged after the First World War. It explores the role of art and artists in relation to expressions of national identity, the formation of the state and its administration.
In creating the project, the Irish Museum of Modern Art has collaborated with museums, other institutions and collectors from Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Poland, Finland, Egypt, Turkey and other countries. The exhibition offers to get to know the common experience of these countries, shown through works of art – both historical and contemporary. “Today we look at Ireland as a Latvian “province”, where many Latvians have gone to live and where they have created a strong diaspora, but our countries also have a similar history,” emphasizes the development and cooperation manager of the Museum of Literature and Music (RMM), the exhibition in Ireland project manager Leonarda Ķestere, who is sure that this exhibition will also attract the attention of local Latvians.
The exhibition as an impulse
Creating the story of Latvia’s independence, the Irish curators have chosen artifacts from the collection of the Latvian National Art Museum, an important private collection and the RMM collection for the exhibition. “In anticipation of the centenary of the Museum of Writing and Music in 2025, we have created a permanent exhibition Christmas room In Mežaparka’s Great Stage, we are working on the permanent exhibition Procrastination and creation opening at Mārstaļu Street 6 and entering the international arena, which also becomes our daily work in this global world,” says the representative of RMM. She expresses her joy at the opportunity to participate in this project as an equal partner. The RMM team has devoted about a year to this project. Sanita also worked in it Duka, Katrina Kukoy and Ineta Antone.
The most significant impetus for the cooperation between the Irish Museum of Modern Art and the Museum of Writing and Music was the exhibition opened last year at Pulka Street 8 Stored Stories. Riga Workers’ Theatre (1926–1934), whose curator was S. Duka. “It is interesting that the Riga Workers’ Theater opened and closed its activity with productions of plays by the Irish playwright Bernard Shaw, which proves the popularity of the works of this sharp and skilled master of words in Latvia in the interwar period,” adds L. Ķestere. Riga Workers’ Theater became a kind of creative laboratory of Latvian theater directors and other artists. It stood out for its contemporary repertoire and innovative visuals. “In a sense, we can build a bridge from the Riga Workers’ Theater to today’s independent theaters in Latvia, which today are important drivers of theater processes,” describes RMM’s head of development and cooperation.
Nature and resources
Several objects from this exhibition about the Riga Workers’ Theater have arrived in Dublin. At the exhibition part of the Irish Museum of Modern Art National identity the plays of Jānis Grot are exhibited as a visiting card at the entrance, set of decorations by Herbert Līkums Welcome to free Latvia! for the production at the Riga Workers’ Theater in 1929, reveals S. Duka. On the other hand, the international success of Latvian theater art in the first decades after the independence of the Latvian state is reminded by the stage model of Jānis Munčs for the play of the already mentioned Irish playwright B. Šova Caesar and Cleopatra (for the Fine Arts Theatre), which was exhibited at the Paris International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Art in the Latvian Pavilion in 1925 and won Grand Prix.
One of the interests of the Irish curators has also been the plays of the German playwright Georg Kaiser (1878–1945). Gas productions in different countries and in different theaters. It has been one of the most popular works of its time, performed around the world, and its story is told in the exposition part Nature and resources. “This play was planned to be staged at the Latvian National Theater in 1922, but the stage light was never seen, but the scenery casts of Ludolfs Liberts (1895–1959) have been preserved from this idea, which is a bright example of the artist’s stage painting from the works created in the manner of functionalism and cubism. The play was staged in the Riga Workers’ Theater in 1926, so in this part the overall story is complemented by the Latvian translation manuscript by Kārļis Freinberg (1854–1936) and the program from the RMM collection, as well as a set of decorations from a private collection,” says S. Duka.
Immersion in each From the exhibition of the National Art Museum of Latvia, the paintings of the modernist group of Riga artists Aleksandra Beļtsova, Ęedert Elias, Jēkab Kazak, Niklāv Strunke, Roman Suta, Leo Svempa, as well as the stylization of the national ornament by Jūlij Madernieks and donation stamps drawn by Anš Cīrulis, are exhibited, a total of fourteen works of art , who are included in various thematic parts of the exhibition, creating a reconciliation of Latvia’s story with the message created by the curators of the exhibition. “This has been dealt with in the exhibition with amazing craftsmanship and interest, delving into the art of each country and understanding the European contexts of the XX and XXI centuries,” emphasizes L. Ķestere. This exhibition also exhibits the works of twenty-two contemporary artists, including the multimedia work of the Latvian author Ieva Epner. Green schoolin which she works with early childhood education ideas applied to kindergarten Green school. It consists of video (13 minutes), archival material, photos, children’s toys and nursery furniture.
Exhibition Self-determination. A global perspective will be considered until April 21 of the following year. More information about it can be read on the website Imma.ie.
2023-12-27 10:56:06
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