„Revisiting Footnotes II” will be on view in Riga till 31 July and on 2 August it will go on tour around Latvia’s regions.
The 2nd part of the exhibition “Revisiting Footnotes” will present a wider panorama of current processes, imprints of the Soviet time and their interpretations in the works by Baltic artists. During the artists’ presentations, there will be a chance to know more about the creative work of Kristina Norman whose film “Monolith”, demonstrated at the exhibition, outlines the conflict that emerged around the Bronze Soldier monument in Tallinn in 2006–2007.
Indrė Klimaitė will tell about her project “On continuous and systematic nutrition improvement” that analyses the Soviet canteen culture as a phenomenon and ideological mechanism of the system.
Aija Bley will reveal that Latvia’s suburbs have visually similar counterparts in geographically distant places like countries of Central Asia.
Henrik Duncker will present his idea of taking photographs of Soviet-time objects still kept by their owners who complement them with captivating stories. The exhibition will also feature works by Marge Monko (EE) as well as Igor and Ivan Buharov (HU).
It seems that enough time has finally passed to allow a more dispassionate view of the recent Soviet past. After all it is possible to look over the traumatic part of experience and, armed with irony and natural curiosity, start “excavations” in the Soviet time, revealing still present but partly covered, heterogeneous and multivalent discourses. It is especially important, considering that a new generation has grown up, knowing this period only from word of mouth, printed stuff or films.
Attempting to study the shared experience of post-socialist territories in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, one has to conclude that socialism as the dominant ideology of the time had different manifestations and faces in different countries. New possible parallels and similarities in the interpretation of socialist experience today emerge through the kaleidoscope of thematically and geographically varied footnotes.
The project is organised in cooperation with the culture centre Drugo More in Rijeka, Croatia, culture platform IZOLYATSIA in Donetsk Ukraine and KSA:K – centre of contemporary art in Kishinev, Moldova.
The project is supported by European Cultural Foundation, Riga City Council, State Culture Capital Foundation, Embassy of the Republic of Estonia, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania, Embassy of the Republic of Poland, Open Ukraine Foundation, LuxExpress, KOLONNA, Rīgas Laiks.
The exhibition “Revisiting Footnotes II” is on view at the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art, 13 Alberta Street, 7th floor. Entrance free.