Arnis Balcus
dal 25/5/2009 al 22/6/2009
Segnalato da
25/5/2009
Arnis Balcus
Riga Art Space, Riga
Amnesia. The artist displays large-format colour photos in his exhibition staging various rituals that have died out from our daily life due to social and political changes. In his series Balcus has played upon milk drinking breaks at schools and kindergartens, civil defence classes, girls' entertainment habits in the 90ies and other situations that feature the lifestyle of Latvians and inhabitants of other post-Soviet countries for the last 30 years.
curated by Ieva Zariņa
From May 26 until June 23 the Riga City Exhibition Hall “Riga Art Space” presents a solo exhibition “Amnesia” by the artist Arnis Balčus.
The artist displays large-format colour photos in his exhibition staging various rituals that have died out from our daily life due to social and political changes. In his series Balčus has played upon milk drinking breaks at schools and kindergartens, civil defence classes, girls’ entertainment habits in the 90ies and other situations that feature the lifestyle of Latvians and inhabitants of other post-Soviet countries for the last thirty years. Collective amnesia – forced or voluntary suppression (applied after Latvian has regained its independence) of separate memories – has contributed to the fact that these rituals have fallen in oblivion for both to deny the Latvian Soviet identity and get over recurrent political and economic failures.
The task of the project is not to justify the former regimes or to romanticise the Soviet ethos. It is to form a link to our past, to analyse it and to evaluate consequences of collective amnesia. The author’s nostalgia is not attributed to the renovation of the past, it can be sooner considered as a certain resistance to the idea of nowadays about time, history, progress, values and national identity.
A catalogue with essays of A. Balčus and Sergejs Kruks in Latvian and English will also be published.
Arnis Balčus (born in 1978) lives and works in Riga and London. In 2002 he graduated from the University of Latvia obtaining BSc in communication studies, while in 2005 he graduated from the University of Westminster in London earning an MA degree in photographic studies.
The artist has had several solo exhibitions in Riga Gallery (2006, 2008), in Matthew Bown Gallery in London (2005, 2006), in Giedre Bartelt Gallery in Berlin (2003, 2007), in Exhibition Hall Arsenals of the State Museum of Art in Riga (2004), in Overgaden Copenhagen (2003) and others.
A. Balčus has also participated in group exhibitions, for instance, M-ZZZ – a Latvian photography and video art exhibition in Langhans Gallery in Prague, Privat in Winzavod in Moscow (2008), 2. Ars Baltica – a photo triennial in Germany (1999–2001); and in video festivals – Pesaro film festival in Rome (2008) and Bochum video festival (2005). The author has published five books. His photos have been published in such European and American titles as New York Magazine, Dazed & Confused, Flash Art, Photo&Video, Time Out, Imago, Fotokvartāls and others.
The exhibition is supported by the Charity Fund of Aizkraukle Banka.
Informative support: Studija, Fotokvartāls, 1189, 1188, LETA.
Address: Riga City Exhibition Hall “Riga Art Space”, 3 Kungu Street (under the Town Hall Square).
Working Hours: Tuesday -Sunday: 12:00-19:00, closed on Mondays.
Press contact:
Inga Lāce
Riga Art Space
Marketing Manager
Phone: + 371 67181328; + 371 27898434
e-mail: inga.lace@riga.lv
Exhibition Curator:
Ieva Zariņa
Riga Art Space
Programme “Intro” Manager
Phone: + 371 67026274
e-mail: Ieva.Zarina@riga.lv
Riga Art Space
Kungu street 3 - Riga