Saules Suns: Latvian Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition (Venice, Italy)
10.5.2019 - 24.11.2019
We're open
The Latvian Pavilion 2019 will present a new site-specific installation by the artist Daiga Grantiņa, titled Saules Suns the exhibition is jointly curated by Inga Lāce and Valentinas Klimašauskas.
In her practice, Daiga Grantiņa uses a wide range of everyday materials, from the synthetic to the organic, often inverting and trespassing beyond the limits of their traditional uses, creating associative formations that direct the view in manifold ways both secluding and revealing.
The source of inspiration for the installation is the notion of light and simultaneity. Saules Suns is a multi-centred landscape that unfolds around several suns, several sources of light traversing manifold materials and shapes. As if the scene of some cosmological dawn, it opens itself up as a site and moment for the generation of possibilities. Our sense of these possibilities is strengthened by the multitude of potential paths and perspectives through the installation.
She bends metal into spirals, casts light into shadow, fluffs cotton into fuchsia purple blossoms. However, the piece is not about the materials themselves, but with the help of these elements something is expressed. Through her own unique manner of expression, her language, the artist communicates and shapes the world offering alternatives to the current state of affairs. This gains magnitude in an environment of heightened populism and fake news, when the verbal means of communication tend to fail. It reminds of arts’ fundamental characteristic – to search for an alternative language beyond words, stories and it is especially important in this moment and, of course, in the context of the Biennale.
The curators of the Latvian Pavilion, Valentinas Klimašauskas and Inga Lāce, are excited to work with Daiga Grantina, an artist they admire for her ability to combine materials in unexpected ways. By bringing together the synthetic and the organic in arrangements reminiscent of life forms and molecular structures, she develops sculptural installations that read like three-dimensional scores for imagined vibrational patterns.
The project team is composed of commissioners Zane Čulkstēna and Solvita Krese, curators Inga Lāce and Valentinas Klimašauskas, architect Dagnija Smilga (ĒTER), graphic designer Toan Vu-huu (Baldinger Vu-Huu Studio), deputy commissioner Alexey Koshkin and coordinator in Venice Alessandro Zorzetto. Project is organized by Kim? Contemporary Art Centre and Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art.
Latvia has been participating in the International Art Exhibition since 1999. The organizers of the Latvian Pavilion 2019 would like to express their gratitude to the general supporters of the project, The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia, Jānis Zuzāns, SIA Alfor and Galerie Joseph Tang and to the supporters of the exhibition – Magnetic Latvia, Delfi, Arctic Paper, Krassky Interior Showroom, Magnum NT, Mousse and Pēteris Viņķelis.