Winner of the Baltic Book Art Competition 2016!
252x202mm
Compilers: Ieva Astahovska, Māra Žeikare
Authors of the articles: Juris Boiko, Hardijs Lediņš, Ieva Astahovska, Boriss Avramecs, Pēteris Bankovskis, Eckhart Gillen, Liāna Langa, Normunds Lācis, Jānis Lejnieks, Ilmārs Šlāpins, Jānis Taurens, Māra Traumane, Māra Žeikare
What was the new wave? Why the avant-garde is not avant-garde? How do you dance the binocular dances? Where do you end up by going to Bolderāja once a year? How to go about restoring that which has never existed? What is the nature of the business of the Approximate Art Agency? Why are postmen yellow? How did discotheques begin in Latvia?
Book examines the most avant-garde phenomena in Latvian art from the mid-1970s up to the early 2000s. During the Soviet period, disconnected from the art development processes in Europe, there were a number of artists actively working in Latvia, who did not fall within the ideological framework and worked beyond the representative institutional system establishing their own unique artistic syntax. Juris Boiko and Hardijs Lediņš were the most outstanding artists from this circle. Their creative work encompasses avant-garde and underground music, visual arts (multimedia art, video art, action art, etc.), absurd literature and poetry, theories on architecture, performances, installations and other creative disciplines. Performances, music records, actions and interventions were made with contributions of numerous artists, musicians and other creative individuals, revealing a completely new means of expression in Latvia at the time and destroying the boundaries among artistic disciplines.
“NSRD was an island of genuine creativity at a time when art was administered and divided into various ‘sections’ of the Artists Union. To be free, versatile and creative as they were – it was the fruit of great audacity and deeply felt motivation.”
Helēna Demakova, art historian and curator
“NSRD is art as a process where no boundaries exist between life and art. And there is no need for them. I think it is a high form of culture.”
Kaspars Rolšteins, musician and producer
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