At 6.30pm on Thursday, 2nd February, the Samanta feminist zine will be unveiled at the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art’s Office Gallery. Visitors to the event are invited to arrive for a Red Yoga session conducted by Agnija Tiļļa at 5.30pm. Artist Ingrīda Pičukāne’s work on the Red River mural at the LCCA Office Gallery will be concluding simultaneously with the opening of Samanta zine.
A limited edition of the zine has been released by artist Ingrīda Pičukāne in collaboration with authors Rasa Jansone, Agnese Krivade, Elizabete Pičukāne, Zane Zajančkauska, Linda Curihe and Jana Kukaine, illustrators Zane Zlemeša and Anete Melece, photographers Viktorija Eksta, Diana Lelis, Marija Luīze Meļķe and Luīze Lote Nežberte.
“This first feminist magazine is dedicated to body positivity. To be positive towards one’s body means accepting it, and the bodies of others, and accepting menstruation, hairs, pimples, cellulite and aging instead of continually trying to improve this through dieting, waxing, hating, undertaking plastic surgery and still being ashamed. Unfortunately, Latvian women’s magazines mainly indulge in body shaming. Visits to the beauty parlour are spoken of as a self-evident part of each woman’s daily routine and young girls are mainly used as models. Images which have been modified by Photoshop software are used in advertising, showing women with perfectly smooth skin without pores and wrinkles, without excess kilograms and cellulite – ideal female cyborgs. We have created an alternative magazine or zine, Samanta, to discuss the feminist perspective on the female body and to create opportunities for new, positive perception and images: fashion pages with non-standard models, articles about menstruation, sports and problem zones, about hair, dieting, and about vaginas. This is all written, edited, photographed and published by women,” is how Ingrīda Pičukāne describes the aim behind the publication of the zine.
Artist Ingrīda Pičukāne’s work on the Red River mural at the LCCA Office Gallery will be concluding simultaneously with the opening of Samanta zine. The artist’s story is embodied by an image which experiences various stages of the menstrual cycle – pre-menstrual syndrome, strong pain during menstruation and the subsequent relief and joy of existence, as such, on the conclusion of menstruation. The painting has been created by using the successive tales’ method, a common art form from the Middle Ages, which has been used in many of Ingrīda Pičukāne’s drawings.
The creation of Ingrīda Pičukāne’s exhibition and the publication of the zine has been supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation, the Rīga City Council, Dardedze Hologrāfija and Arctic Paper.
Entry to the event is free, but you must register first by writing to anda@lcca.lv if you want to take part in the yoga session from 5.30pm to 6.15 pm.
Ingrīda Pičukāne attained Master’s degrees at the Estonian Academy of Arts’ Animation Department and at the Art Academy of Latvia’s Department of Visual Communication, and studied painting at the Janis Rozentāls Art High School in Rīga. She has created illustrations for several children’s books for the Liels un mazs Publishing House. She was the design author for Jana Kukaine’s book Daiļās mātes (publisher: Neputns, 2016). Ingrīda Pičukāne has participated in the SURVIVAL KIT Contemporary Art Festival on many occasions, and the comics that she has drawn are published regularly in the Š! Baltic comics magazine, and have also been included in exhibitions of Latvian comics internationally.