Catalogue of the festival

SCULPTURE QUADRENNIAL RIGA 2008 DICATORSHIP OF THE MAJORITY

Sculpture Quadrennial Riga 2008 is one of the biggest art events in Riga in 2008. It includes international exhibition DICATORSHIP OF THE MAJORITY, exhibition of the group Little Warsaw which earner Grand Prix in NEW EUROPEAN SPACE – SCULPTURE QUADRENNIAL RIGA 2004 international conference PERIPHERY AND IDENTITY, educational program NEW EUROPEAN CULTURE SPACE. Sculpture Quadrennial Riga 2008 will be organized in cooperation with culture organizations, artists, art critics and culture professionals and operators from various countries.

The activities of Sculpture Quadrennial Riga 2008 aim at increasing importance of the marginal zone and fostering cooperation between the periphery and centre. Sculpture Quadrennial Riga 2008 researches historical inertia of the peripheral zones and striving of the centre for culture diversity in New European Space.

Sculpture Quadrennial Riga 2008 is a European level event that seeks solutions for breaking down elitism in the artistic and public space by means of openness and art accessibility, giving the decision-making rights to art perceivers, as well as fostering the dialogue between art consumers and art professionals.

Project description

Main attention of Sculpture Quadrennial Riga 2008 is focused on the art in contemporary public space. The project seeks experimental and innovative cooperation forms between groups of the society. The project fosters understanding and links between the centre and periphery in contemporary art, city space, and European regions. The activities of Sculpture Quadrennial Riga 2008 aim at breaking down elitism in art and culture space through openness and culture accessibility, involving groups of the society whose environment is rarely a site for contemporary art events. The main interest of the project is not to identify particular city space, but rather the feelings, emotions and lifestyle of the inhabitants of marginal, suburban, and disadvantaged city areas, looking for the contact points of intercultural dialogue and dialogue between different groups of society.

One of the main objectives of Sculpture Quadrennial Riga 2008 is to involve various groups of society into culture processes and to encourage dialogue between art creators, art professionals and consumers of the public art.

City periphery holds the processes and historical proofs that have not been considered as topical in contemporary centralized culture space. The aim of the project is to re-discover these territories, looking for material and nonmaterial cultural values, as well as looking for the cooperation links between the city centre and society in general. The project is essential for the inhabitants of Riga city because they will be given the opportunity to participate in the design of the image of the city and public art (international exhibition DICATORSHIP OF THE MAJORITY).

Festival activities

International exhibition: DICATORSHIP OF THE MAJORITY. The exhibition is organized in cooperation with other international art and culture organizations. The exhibition is held from 29 August until 10 October, 2008 in Latvia, in Riga public space of Latgale suburb which is a rather peripheral place. The exhibition includes interactive objects in public space as well as artworks of contemporary public space. At the beginning of the year 2008 the call for proposals is passed for artists of different countries to submit their proposals for the development and exhibition of artworks. In order to foster the participation of society and its integration in contemporary culture processes, Riga city inhabitants are encouraged to take part in the evaluation and selection for implementation process of the proposals. The inhabitants of Latvia were invited to become jury members of DICTATORSHIP OF THE MAJORITY – SCULPTURE QUADRENNIAL RIGA 2008. The selection was based on the information submitted in the application forms. People had to explain why they wish to participate and become one of the jury members. Applicants had to indicate the art exhibitions they had recently visited. The members of jury represent different age and sex groups, professions, interests and nationalities. 10% of all the applications were submitted by Russian speaking population of Latvia. The jury consists of 10 people: Kristaps Ezerins, Lubova Fintjugova, Aiga Freimane, Janis Hadkevics, Eva Ikstena, Janis Karlis Krievs, Andrejs Lebedevs, Viktors Runtulis, Remigijus Skersis and Vita Smite. During the exhibition the link between the periphery and centre will be ensured by the help of a multidisciplinary Pink House, thus involving wide audience and disrupting distance between the centre and periphery. The aim of the exhibition and its concept is to seek new ways to foster the dialogue among different groups of society, intercultural dialogue among artists, local inhabitants and wider audience by interactive means. In order to ensure links between the centre and periphery various means of documentation will be used to register the interaction between the local inhabitants, artists, and wider audience, and it will constitute a great part of the exhibition and will serve as the basis for the international conference PERIPHERY AND IDENTITY.

• International conference PERIPHERY AND IDENTITY. The conference will be held on 1, 2 September, 2008 in Riga, Latvia. The participants of the conference include art professionals, artists, actors, musicians, art historians, students, representatives of state and local governments, as well as participants of NGOs and other interested parties. The main objective of the conference is to give rise to the debates and to find new ways to establish feedback between the creator of art and its consumer in the widest sense in New European culture space, paying attention also to the urban space identity of European cities. In the conference debates these territories are re-discovered, looking for material and immaterial cultural values, as well as links and cooperation between the city centre and city inhabitants. The conference will concentrate on experimental ways of cultural cooperation, fostering the discussion on the breaking down of elitism in art and culture space through openness and accessibility of culture. The conference will also investigate the contemporary identity of regions. Conference materials will be summarized and published on the web page of SCULPTURE QUADRENNIAL RIGA 2008, and the discussions launched during the conference will be continued on the web page in discussion forum.

• Educational program NEW EUROPEAN CULTURE SPACE. The educational program takes place in August – September, 2008 in Riga, Latvia. It is organized in cooperation with the region’s higher education establishments by means of involving students and teaching staff. The workshops where the students will present their works and where they will be analyzed by the art professionals will take place in Riga, Latvia. The participants of these workshops will cooperate with the artists of the exhibition DICTATORHIP OF THE MAJORITY and help them to implement their projects, thus gaining unique experience and practice opportunity within the framework of an international exhibition, as well as having opportunity to get familiar with the artworks of the exhibition, their development process and context in public space.

ARTISTS

Agata Erlacher (Lithuania), Bartlomiej Struzik (Poland), Daan Roosegarde(The Netherlands),Kai Schiemenz (Germany), Kirils Panteļejevs (Latvija), Lenka Klodova (Czech Republic), Ludwika Ogorzelec (France), Maarten Vanden Eynde (The Netherlands), Marc Schmitz (Germany), Maria Rebecca Ballestra (Italy), Mark Claire (Irland), Rita Beiks un Norman G. Spence(Canada), Sven Kalden (Germany) Egons Peršēvics (Latvia) Kārlis Īle (Latvia).