Ieva Epnere

Green School

HD video, installation, 2017

“...Beginning from August 1908, lessons are taught at the kindergarten according to a universally recognised foreign example by four children's gardeners, with Ms M. Rink as head. The children are divided into 4 groups: each has its own classroom in its own special colour (even the furnishings are of the same colour).” (Jonīte, Vineta. Latvju bērnu dārzu māte Marta Rinka. Dzīves gājums un veikums fotogrāfijās un dokumentos [The Mother of Latvian Kindergartens Marta Rinka. Life and Work in Photographs and Documents]. Riga: author's edition. 2012, p 30)

Green School is the kindergarten of Augusts Dombrovskis' factory, established in 1900. Upon receiving the invitation to create a work for SURVIVAL KIT 9, Epnere had no in-depth knowledge about this educational institution, but the process of researching this school turned into an exciting journey during which the artist encountered the book Latvju bērnu dārzu māte Marta Rinka [The Mother of Latvian Kindergartens Marta Rinka] and its author, the only scholar of Marta Rinka's biography in Latvia – kindergarten historian Vineta Jonīte. Marta Rinka was the establisher, backbone and soul of the Green School. She was educated in the renowned Pestalozzi-Froebel-Haus in Berlin in order to return to Latvia and introduce her singular pedagogical system in the Green School. The life story of this woman is very special yet unfortunately little known to the broader public.

Artist's bio

Latvian artist Ieva Epnere (b. 1977, Liepaja, Latvia) currently lives and works in Riga, Latvia. Her artistic practice involves photographs, video works and films where personal, private stories are the starting point for artistic reflections on identity, traditions and rituals. “Ieva Epnere’s art attests to the quest of the ideal space in one’s secular life. Her photographs, videos and multimedia projects are intertwined by a system of values that exists irrespective of the current circumstances, political intentions and selfish interests. This kind of art looks for actual clarity and purity. It reveals inner spiritual connections amongst people of different generations, man and nature, man and the past.” (Anita Vanaga)

Special thanks to historian of kindergartens Vineta Jonīte, VFS FILMS (Vides Filmu Studija), shop “2zoles”, flower shop “Ar putniem”.