Trajectory 3: Where We Work From

Exhibition opening: May 25, 6PM

Curator Stella Rollig (Austria) invites artists to comment on the conditions for creating an art work that includes infrastructural background in an abstract sense as well as in the context of the particular exhibition. Deciding to choose the museum clearly refutes the marginalization of contemporary art. Where would the artists best be seen and heard, if not in Riga's "palace" of fine art?

This is a location, an institution whose task is to write the history of Latvian art, thus supplying not only the material for the formation of the self-awareness of the people of this young state, but also essentially influencing a certain concept of art. Painting, graphic art and sculpture are its media, firmly rooting it in pre-modernism. This is contrasted by the media works of our project, which are placed in the exhibition rooms of the collection: an installation, high-tech photography, videos and a highly complex digital sound production.

"Where We Work From": the definition of a place, undertaken by six artists, four from Riga, one Austrian living in Munich, and one French artist currently based in Vienna. It is a definition of a place that is not primarily intended to be a geographically oriented investigation, but is to be taken in a much more comprehensive way. Where do we work from? Which standards apply, what are the criteria? In which networks do we work? What do we want to achieve? How far do our possibilities extend, where are our limitations?

Artists: Uli Aigner (DE / AT) Michael Blum (IL / FR / AT), Katrīna Neiburga (LV), Ēriks Božis (LV), pureculture (LV)

With "Where We Work From", what started as a reflection on institutional critique turned into taking stock of current art production, a view of the foundation on which the participating artists locate their work: political history, art history, social networks, the search for spirituality in the loud hustle and bustle of the global art temple.

Whereas historical institutional critique formulated the demand "this is how it should be", the artists involved in this project show what exists. And this offer is not a bad start for a dialogue: a dialogue between contemporary art, the museum and the audience.

Trajectory 3
Where We Work From
Kurator: Stella Rollig

mit Uli Aigner, Michael Blum, Eriks Bozis, Katrina Neiburga, pureculture