From November 28 to February 7, the dome hall of the main building of the Latvian National Museum of Art will host the international exhibition “Uncomfortable Past. Connected worlds ”, the museum representatives informed.
As the organizers of the exhibition explained, “the project will shed light on awkward, often hidden themes in the Baltic and Eastern European region and address the complex heritage of the 20th century, which, although excluded from the collective memory, still affects today’s reality.”
The exhibition features artists from the three Baltic States, Ukraine, Poland, Chechnya, Finland and the Netherlands. Their work focuses on events and experiences that are often forgotten or ignored and excluded from official history, calling for both listening to personal life stories and exploring wider layers of cultural memory.
“Striving to transcend local and national boundaries, the project encourages reflection on the relationship between these complex histories, their impact and presence today through a shared historical perspective.
– building dialogue, commitment and solidarity between the various awkward histories that are often perceived in mutually exclusive or competing positions, ”says the exhibition application.
Vika Eksta. “Yellow Shirt” (Sovhoz “Graveri” youth at the Friendship Mound Festival in July 1978). Archive materials
Photo: Publicity image
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What consequences have Soviet and post-Soviet colonial policies had on individual lives and entire nations in the 20th and 21st centuries? The artist Vika Eksta reminds of the now forgotten war in Afghanistan, in which many residents of the Soviet republics, including Latvia, were drawn against their will. Aslan Ġoisum talks about the violence in Chechnya.
The exhibition also sheds light on the often-hidden experiences of women, through stories about their participation in the freedom struggles, such as the portraits of Zuzanna Hertzberg, women who took part in the Spanish Civil War, and the tragic experiences of deportation brought to life by Ülo Pikkov. Jaana Kokko’s film reveals the everyday experiences of women, which alternate with memories of the time of occupation and the Roma genocide, – the author focuses on this history, studying the life story of the writer Hella Vuolijoki in Valga and Valka.
The works in the exhibition also highlight the so-called post-memory experience, as the tragedies of the past live on in future generations, in the memories and “body memories” that continue through the stories of parents and grandparents. These works reveal the connection between the body and the environment: the body becomes a place, thinking about the incomprehensible scale of the famine caused by artificial hunger in the interpretation of Lia and Andrii Dostliev (Lia Dostlieva, Andrii Dostliev). In Ūlo Pikkov’s animation, the apple orchard of a long-abandoned house remembers people and their belonging to places where they were forcibly separated.
“What is each of us involved in this past?” asks the artist Paulina Pukytė, reflecting on the coexistence of the past and the future, on the repetition of a repressed and “unprocessed” history. “How to think of them today, when the totalitarian ideology has been replaced by neoliberal consumer capitalism, which also manipulates our desires and free will?
How can we understand the relationship between colonialism, Soviet socialism and capitalism? ”
Quinsy Gario asks: whether Latvia’s historical connection with the colonial past through the temporary colonies of the Duchy of Courland in the 17th century can be perceived as a factor of national self-confidence – as often interpreted in various cultural works, plays and films – or as part of a violent global history of colonialism?
The exhibition is part of an international and interdisciplinary project “Exploring the Complex Past”, which addresses issues of the recent past and the impact of the past on the Baltic region and its neighbors. The project seeks to develop collaboration and synergies between artists, curators and researchers who, by analyzing the awkward legacy of the recent past, look for new approaches and ways to explore it and overcome defaults.
Latvian Center for Contemporary Art
The Latvian Center for Contemporary Art (LLMC), the curator and producer of international and national art events, is the largest institution of contemporary art in Latvia. Since 1993, it has been researching and shaping the processes of contemporary art in Latvia and internationally in order to provoke a critical reflection on the issues of modern society. Among the hallmarks of the LLMC are the most ambitious annual contemporary art event in Latvia – the Survival Kit Festival, contemporary art exhibitions at the Latvian National Museum of Art, the Year of Hardy Ledins and Latvia’s representation in international events such as the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Venice Art Biennale “Manifesta”, Rauma Biennial of Contemporary Art, etc. LLMC maintains the only Latvian contemporary art archive.
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