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8/5/2003

Arnis Balcus

Giedre Bartelt Galerie, Berlin

Myself, Friends, Lovers and Others

Arnis Balcis (born 1978 in Riga) belongs to the first post-Soviet generation of artists which is self-determined, at home in global culture and works equally intensively both on the production of art and on its own artistic image. Balcus who had participated in a museum exhibition already at the age of sixteen published his first catalogue book at twenty-one - a remarkable step in the biography of an artist from Eastern Europe considering how rarely monographies and even publications on art or photography generally were published in the countries of the former Eastern bloc until very recently. It is not surprising then that some see in him the shooting star of Latvia's art scene.

Meanwhile Balcus has also attracted attention in Europe and the United States with his exhibitions and contributions to photography magazines. In Germany his works were shown at the 2nd Triennale of Photography Ars Baltica.

Balcus' career as an artist began with self-portraits in black and white and colour. They ranged from diary-like registrations of singular emotional states to theatrical presentations of bodies with costumes and props and once lead to a "nomination" of the author for the title of Latvian Dorian Gray.

Balcus has expanded his choice of motifs by now: he doesn't take pictures of himself exclusively but also of his friends, lovers and acquaintances (as the title of this exhibition indicates), as well as the places they live in and the inner and outer traces of their lives. But these images could also be called self-portraits. The faces, bodies, gestures, conversations and occupations of those shown seem so familiar to Balcus himself that they look like an interior monologue of the author or like an extremely intimate narrative.

It appears that the author worries least about the technical aspect of photography. The eyes on these pictures soemtimes shine with such intensive read that one can almost hear the imagined audience say 'I could do better than this' (instead of the somewhat sadder 'I could have done that'). But beware: Balcus not only accomplished his studies of photography at a technical college - he had also been a student of Andrejs Grants for four years, Latvia's most important teacher of artistic photography since Egons Spuris.

Thus Balcus' works are also perceived in the context of this small but very strong 'school' and can be compared to the long-term project of its most famous representative Inta Ruka who has been documenting her compatriots for decades. Arnis Balcus has not only expanded this view geographically but has also shifted it socially: he portrays the new, first generation of Latvia that has grown up with MTV and Hennes and isn't any different from its Western contemporaries.

9 May - 5 July 2003. Tue-Fri 2-6.30, Sat 11-2
Opening Friday 9 May 7-10pm

A catalogue is available

GIEDRE BARTELT GALERIE
Wielandstr. 31, 10629 Berlin-Charlottenburg, Tel./ Fax 030/885 20 86

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