Latvian participants

“We want people to smile much more”

The competition for participating at Eksperimenta! was announced in August 2010 by the Ministry of Culture of Latvia, asking young authors – students of Latvian art schools – to prepare ideas, not finished artworks. In October 2010, 18 bright ideas for artworks were selected by the jury.

The theme of the idea competition for the Latvian exposition was “My Space of Thoughts, Ideas and Relations – Closed? Active? Provocative?”. Young artists were asked to explore and visualize their relations with the society and the surrounding world.

54 ideas created by students from 70 art school were submitted to the idea competition for Eksperimenta!. Some of the applications were almost finished works (paintings, photos), some – preliminary designs, models, visualizations and texts. The jury selected the participants of Eksperimenta! on the basis of the following crucial aspects: convincing idea, artistic and interactive expression.

Latvian participants

In their upcoming works the young artists demonstrate a very diverse spectrum of attitudes towards communication and relationships with people and the surrounding world. What is interesting, is that the predominant feature of the selected ideas is a desire to go against the standard model of life – boring thoughts, stereotypes and behaviours – and an idealistic wish to affect and change it.

Some excerpts from the students‘ ideas which were actualized in the process of creating the final artworks:

“I want to encourage people not to be afraid of being different from others.” (Annija Korpa)

“The main idea of our work is to bring smiles on people’s faces. We want people to smile much more.” (Inga Zotova and Solveiga Kalva)

“My work urges us to set other people’s lives in motion.” (Toms Burans)

While preparing for the exhibition, all participants are trying to visualize their thoughts. Students are seeking the most appropriate ways, means of expression and materials to clearly express their ideas. There are discoveries, inspiration, doubts and failures in the process, as well as interactive communication with teachers and the curator.

The process of preparing for the International Contemporary Art Triennial Eksperimenta! in Tallinn is a challenge to actualize the link between contemporary art and art education in Latvia and an opportunity for Latvian students to gain a useful experience.

Ilze Kupca
Curator of Eksperimenta! Latvian exposition