Participants: Patrik Aarnivaara (SE), Kasper Akhøj (DK), Christian Andersson (SE), Ēriks Apaļais (LV), Zenta Dzividzinska (LV), Elsebeth Jørgensen (DK), Flo Kasearu (EE), Cato Løland (NO), Julija Reklaitė (LT), Anngjerd Rustand (NO), Shirin Sabahi (DK/IR), Oļa Vasiļjeva (LV/NL), Iliana Veinberga un Ainārs Kamoliņš (LV).

 

Curated by: Maija Rudovska

 

Whether it be a question of vestiges or the body of another person, we need to know how an object in space can become the eloquent relic of an existence; how, conversely, an intention, a thought or a project can detach themselves from the personal subject and become visible out- side him in the shape of his body, and in the environment which he builds for himself.

 

Maurice Merleau-Ponty (2002) Phenomenology of Perception, translated by Colin Smith, Routledge Classics, p. 406.

 

The Inside and Out started as a study of space and spatial structures, their relations, which are constituted by the historically and socially constructed assumptions, such as oppositions “center – periphery”, “global – local”, “outside – inside”, “real – imaginary “, etc. Here space is addressed as an abstract entity that is not yet structured and defined, as something we call into question and only imagine. This is a potential space – a third space, which spatially forms border cases it represents, granting certain tangibility to the interspace where the hybrid emerges and originate all of its meanings.

Within the spatial choreography of this exhibition Iliana Veinberga, Ainārs Kamoliņš, and Elsebeth Jørgensen explore the archives and employ the material for spatial construction of memories, working with social assumptions about the history, people, values, etc. Christian Andersson speculates about probable events, unknown possibilities and hidden findings, leaving open the possibility that the known is the not-yet-discovered. The work by Anngjerd Rustand evokes a spatial inversion: a novel by Joseph Conrad – Heart of Darkness (1899) – is being read from the end to the beginning. To the creation of interspace contributes also Flo Kasearu’s video work about an Estonian girl in Texas who virtually constructs her identity via You Tube videos, implementing and experiencing her desires, while at any time precisely defining her audience and dwelling into sentimental reflections about the feeling of beingat home.

Oļa Vasiļjeva and Cato Løland use socially and historically constructed artefacts, found objects and things as instruments to revise existent and create new meanings. Oļa’s Vasiļjeva’s installation Komplekts draws its inspiration from once-prominent brand of Latvian textile industry – Ogres trikotāža – and emphasizes that the anonymous artisan’s work remains peripheral relative to the hegemonising nature of artist’s work.

Shirin Sabahi and Kasper Akhøj explore the architecture of a particular place, through the image and narrative posing a question: where is the boundary between documentation and fiction, between telling tales and stating facts? Patrik Aarnivaara in turn fuses static geometrical shapes with principles of narrative and interprets these combinations as diagrams of sequences of events and causes, treating them as cinematic effects. The principle of elements of relations and forms as an essential linguistic component in creation of certain kind of universe characterises also the work of  Ēriks Apaļais, while Zenta’s Dzividzinska’s Kontaktu burtnīca  (1) (Contact copybook) – a succession of photographic negative frames from 1965 – generates a peculiar effect of a stream of consciousness rendered through images, and, in spite of its subjective and poetic nature, it provides the only chance to grasp memories and, in some sense, to document history.

 

Artists Krists Pudzēns, Reinis Hofmanis and art historian Alise Tīfentāle have contributed to the display, design, as well as visual and narrative interpretation of the artworks; Jūlija Reklaite is the author of exhibition’s architecture.

 

Collection of essays Inside and Out brings together five authors – Patrik Aarnivaara, Alise Tīfentāle, Iliana Veinberga, Ainārs Kamoliņš and Anngjerd Rustand; editors of the publication – curators Maija Rudovska and Zane Onckule; layout design – OAOA group (Ola Vasiljeva). Publication is supported by Baltic Art Center (BAC) and Paths Crossing Production Residencies.