The public programme of the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art's exhibition "All's Good Between Us" will conclude with a symposium on 27 March at 15.30 Dzirnavu Street 60A-21.
Participants: Kalle Hamm (FI), Andreas Kalkun (EE), Rūta Jumīte and Ieva Laube (LV), Igors Gubenko (LV), Viktorja Kolbenšnikova and Augustas Čičelis (LT), Raisa Maudit (ES). Moderator: Andra Silaptere (LV)
The symposium will focus on gender, sexuality and queer questions, analyzing them in the context of art and culture in the Baltic States and the Baltic Sea Region. It will bring together cultural workers, artists and researchers who are currently, in different projects, revising and highlighting the representation of queer history today, focusing on the documentation of stories, archival accumulation and the interpretation of processes concerning broader social developments.
Historically, LGBTQ+ narratives have been excluded from public art and culture history collecting practices, as well as the interpretation of objects in the context of different historical and present issues. The thematic exhibitions dedicated to queer and sexuality diverse narratives is a relatively recent phenomenon that in a global context can be traced back to the early 1980s. The subject, the stories and the experiences have been silenced and ignored for decades as well in the Baltic States, but we are now experiencing a moment when different projects, exhibitions and research are active in the art and culture sphere, dedicated to highlighting the unknown, marginalised and oppressed narratives while seeking to redefine conventional assumptions about the body, identity, sexuality and equality. The participants of the symposium will discuss how do we currently interpret different issues of queer history in the region, how queer culture might be documented in the present and the future, how to consider the engagement of the past with the present through a queer perspective?
The exhibition and the public program All’s Good Between Us is part of the project "Islands of Kinship: A Collective Guide for Sustainable and Inclusive Art Institutions", supported by the European Union and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia. The exhibition is supported also by the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia (SCCF). The symposium is organized with the support of the Nordic Culture Fund and Frame Contemporary Art Finland.
Participants and presentations:
The Living Room of Stories. Rūta Jumīte and Ieva Laube
The Living Room of Stories is a platform for bringing history to life, exploring the experiences and life stories of the LGBTQ+ community, as well as wider social developments. The idea was developed especially for the exhibition “All’s Good Between Us” and made as an interactive area designed for visitors to share their experiences and record histories. The room is providing tools to communicate testimonies and encourages reflection on how queer culture can be documented in both the present and the future. The room is divided in two areas: "The Living Questions Wall'' maps personal, social, and political questions formulated in collaboration with members of the LGBTQ+ community, while "Seating Stations'' comprises furniture inviting people to stop and share their experiences – either by writing them down or telling them, inspired by the questions and stories displayed on the wall.
The initiative aims to identify ways in which, through public participation and engagement, it may be possible to collectively fill gaps in knowledge about our recent history and its social, political, and cultural aspects, and to enable the community to ensure that its history is documented and made accessible.
Rūta Jumīte is a Riga-based multidisciplinary designer, focusing on design methodologies for non-extractive futures and eco-centered care relationships. She is working in the mediums of research, graphics, space, and process design.
She recently graduated from the Creative Sustainability MA program at Aalto University, and currently working on several projects as an independent designer in collaboration with Art Academy of Latvia, leading art institutions of Latvia, NGOs and more. Within the year 2023 she was awarded by the National Design Award of Latvia for a design project for youth-oriented NGO called Young Folks. Jumīte created a visual identity — system that can be continued by the kids and youngsters themselves. Therefore, the project brings a wider impact and contributes to democratize graphic design and making it more available in the not-for-profit sector.
Ieva Laube is a curator of education projects, writer, and researcher, devising learning projects, rooted in critical pedagogies and collective, participatory practices.
She has devised education programming for Pauls Stradiņš Medicine History Museum, National Library of Latvia, Finnish Museum of Photography, Espoo Museum of Modern Art, as well as community projects for Helsinki Design Museum and Espoo municipality. She’s one of the organisers and tutors of Art Academy of Latvia summer schools, rooted in design activism and urban eco-social problematics. Ieva has worked as Education & Publishing Officer at Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA). Currently working as Education project manager at Pauls Stradiņš Medicine History Museum.
“išgirsti” Lithuanian queer archive. Augustas Čičelis and Viktorija Kolbešnikova
The stories of people condemned to the margins remain on the margins. These stories are contradictory, overlapping, and their existence is made meaningful by a shared silence and mystery. Queer people’s stories are trapped between absence and presence. In this way, stories become queer not only because they are about queer people. They become queer because they resist any generalisation, reduction to a single narrative, straightening. We will talk about the story of “išgirsti” Lithuanian queer archive and project space (isgirsti.lt), other existing queer archiving practices in the region, share knowledge and personal experiences about queer history and its presentation in culture.
Augustas Čičelis comes from Vilnius, Lithuania. He is a co-founder and co-curator of the “išgirsti” queer space, gallery and the Lithuanian Queer Archive (isgirsti.lt), and co-founder, programmer and coordinator of the 11-year-old Vilnius queer festival “Kreivės” (festivaliskreives.lt). Augustas holds a degree in Gender Studies and has been involved in social and cultural queer and feminist movements since 2006, acting in the wider field of social welfare, support and self-expression.
Viktorija Kolbešnikova is a team member of Vilnius Queer Festival “Kreivės” and co-curates “išgirsti” Lithuanian Queer Archive. She is active in feminist, queer and labour union movements in Lithuania and Eastern Europe. Viktorija co-runs the social centre “Emma” in Kaunas and was an organizer of first pride in Kaunas, Lithuania. Her educational background is in history and gender studies.
"In the Name of the Desire" exhibition at the Latvian National Museum of Art. Igors Gubenko
In April 2024, the exhibition In the Name of Desire, co-curated by Līna Birzaka-Priekule, Laura Brokāne and Igors Gubenko, will host, for the first time in the history of Latvian National Museum of Art, a selection of Baltic queer art grouped under the heading Queer Longings. The concept of longing is chosen to describe queer desire in a heterosexist social framework based upon the repression of queerness. The exhibition will feature works by Andris Grinbergs, Vėra Šleivytė, Felicita Pauļuka, Rolands Kaņeps, Skuja Braden, Anna-Stina Treumund, Mark Raidpere, Mētra Saberova, Atis Jākobsons, Jaanus Samma, Aksels Bruks, Mare Tralla, Janina Sabaliauskaitė, Konstantīns Žukovs, Adomas Danusevičius, Andris Kaļiņins and others. Looking to expand the concept of queerness in art, queer narratives and aesthetics will also be traced in works by artists who had never openly identified as queer. Igors will discuss the curatorial approach to queer art in the broader context of desire.
Igors Gubenko is a philosopher, writer and curator. He teaches aesthetics, philosophy of art, cultural semiotics and feminism at the University of Latvia and gives occasional lectures at the Art Academy of Latvia. Igors’s articles on visual art and culture have appeared in Studija, Arterritory, Satori, Punctum and Kino Raksti magazines. Since 2023, he is part of the editorial team of Satori, an online contemporary culture magazine in Latvian. Igors has curated solo exhibitions by Daniela Vētra, MAREUNROL'S, Anna Dzērve and Krišs Salmanis. Together with Līna Birzaka-Priekule and Laura Brokāne, he is curating the group exhibition "In the Name of the Desire" at the Latvian National Museum of Art.
Elisàr von Kupffer and Jaanus Samma. Provocative questions about the past. Andreas Kalkun
Exhibition Elisarion: Elisàr von Kupffer and Jaanus Samma (Kumu Art Museum, 22/03/2024 – 08/09/2024) brings together the works of the Baltic-German artist Elisàr von Kupffer (1872–1942) and the Estonian artist Jaanus Samma (b. 1982). Elisàr von Kupffer was a colourful personality, versatile creator and something of a visionary. He was passionate about painting, literature, art history and philosophy. He was also one of the founders of the neo-religious movement Klarismus. Today, Kupffer is recognised as a pioneer who promoted tolerance for people of different sexual orientations. The gender fluidity and public display of homosexuality that characterise his work make him a pioneering figure in the history of visual culture.
In the exhibition, Kupffer’s art is in dialogue with works by the Estonian contemporary artist Jaanus Samma, who explores the sexuality of Estonian peasants, queering ethnographic art. His work highlights the relationship between Estonian peasants and the German-speaking elite. Living side by side for centuries, both groups had to borrow and learn from each other and try to adapt. Along with fear and hostility towards the Close Other, there may have been feelings of desire that differed from the heterosexual norm.
Andreas Kalkun, PhD, Estonian Folklore Archives of the Estonian Literary Museum, Senior Researcher, andreas@folklore.ee. Andreas Kalkun has studied the history of Estonian folkloristics, the folk religion of the Setos, and Estonian queer history.
Pink Submarine. Kalle Hamm
Kalle Hamm is a visual artist who graduated from the Lahti Fine Art Institute in 1994 and as a Master of Arts from the University of Art and Design in 2002. Hamm worked as a principal at the Taika Design and Art School from 2000 to 2003 and as an educational curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma from 2003 to 2007. Hamm has collaborated with visual artist Dzamil Kamanger since 1999. The works made together examine the relationship of marginal groups with the mainstream population: exclusion, inclusion, and equality. Key themes are cultural interaction, multiple identities, and the individual's position in society.
Kalle Hamm talks about the Pink Submarine project, which collects oral history about LGBT+ migration in the Baltic Sea region in the 1960s–90s. In the project, material is collected by a seven-person working group, and based on the material, a cultural-historical exhibition is made at the Helsinki City Museum. Hamm presents the project's background and working methods, and tells about the project's current situation.
We are Born of Blood and we are going to fight back. Workshop. Raisa Maudit
From Raisa Maudit's artistic practice and centered in the process of The Vampire Manifesto project. This workshop will be centered on vampiric mythology and writing as an artistic process. We will explore structural violence in an approach close to theory-fiction to turn it around into some empowering revenge fantasy using writing as fight-back strategy.
Raisa Maudit is an artist, curator, writer, and director of Storm and Drunk art space. She uses representation systems to analyze and show the contradictions and blind spots of the dominant systemic narratives and the performative possibilities of identity through multifaceted processes where music, scenography, performance, text, video, sculpture, installation, robotics, or curating are intermingled and propose other possible realities.
Her work has been present in MUSAC, Gitte Böhr Galerie (Berlin), Galeria Códice (Nicaragua), CA2M, Museo El Chopo (Mexico D.F), Fundació Joan Miró (Barcelona), Galería Formato Comodo (Madrid), MACBA (Barcelona), HOME (Manchester), Kingston Gallery (Los Angeles), Konsthall C (Stockholm), Kunstraum Flat1 (Vienna) Museums Quartier (Vienna), CentroCentro (Madrid), UNION DOCS Center for Documentary Art in New York, among others. She has written books such as Cartas a Virginia Wolf, Los disidentes (with Martí Manen), and Días de ira. She has published texts and essays in different digital art criticism media such as A*Desk. Since 2014 she has run Storm And Drunk, an artist-run-space and publishing house. Since 2020, she has been part of the Visionary Women Research Group focused on the study of the relationships between dissident spiritualities, feminism, and art. She has curated exhibitions at the Supermarket Art Fair (Stockholm), MIAC (Lanzarote), PS Mirabel (Manchester), and TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes. With the artist and curator Andrés Senra, she directs the curatorial project of non-normative studies La Academia Desposéída, weaving networks between spaces, museums and agents such as the MNARS Documentation Center, Union Docs Center for Documentary Art in New York, The Book Lovers (Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp), London School of Psychic Studies, Emerge NYC New York and SUNY Old Westbury University New York.