“(Re)construction of Friendship”

2014 05 01 — 2014 10 19
Author Echo Gone Wrong
Published in Events in Latvia

Within the framework of the “Riga 2014” thematic line “Freedom Street”, on 1 May the opening will take place of the international contemporary art exhibition “(Re)construction of Friendship”, which will feature the participation of artists from Ukraine, Germany, Kosovo, Iceland, Sweden, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia.

The exhibition has been created in a particularly significant location, given the current general political context, i.e. in the former State Security. Committee(KGB) building or, so called, “Corner House” in Riga as part of the project “KGB Building. File No. 1914/2014”. Situations will be highlighted in the exhibition “(Re)construction of Friendship” and studied with artistic approaches, in which representatives of superpowers enter into “friendship” with smaller countries and social groups, as was the case, for example, with the USSR’s great “friendship of peoples” or the US military presence in Iceland. Each of these, as well as other situations, are characterised by a peculiar atmosphere of cohabitation, which has left its imprints both on people’s mentality and the environment in which they live.

Many of the art works in the exhibition “(Re)construction of Friendship” are related to the subjects of trauma, repression and violence; they reflect political events and personal experience and their interaction. Through narrative, irony and curiosity, the exhibition will engage viewers, inviting them to think about the complexity of the current geopolitical situation, boundaries and meaning of friendship.

Participants in the exhibition “(Re)construction of Friendship” are Daniel and Geo Fuchs (Germany), Nikita Kadan (Ukraine), Sandra Krastiņa and Kristaps Epners (Latvia), Alban Muja (Kosovo), the collective “ORBĪTA” (Latvia), Tanel Rander (Estonia), Spessi (Sigurtór Hallbjörnsson) (Iceland) & Erik Pauser (Sweden), Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas (Lithuania), Johan Waerndt and Monika Marklinger (Sweden) and Helena Wikström (Sweden).

The exhibition’s curators are art historians: Inese Baranovska and Æsa Sigurjónsdóttir (Iceland), Inga Lāce, Kārlis Vērpe and Kitija Vasiļjeva. The exhibition is being organised by the association “Art Space”.

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Homepage: http://artspacereconstruction.wordpress.com/