On 5th of April Riga Photography Biennial 2018 exhibition’s Today I’m a Mermaid. Tomorrow I’ll Be a Unicorn will have an opening event at the gallerie MuseumLV, Riga with a a performance – tamed fashion show Kebab by Ivars Grāvlejs and Margrieta Griestiņa.
The title of the exhibition has been derived from a popular slogan mass printed on infant sleepsuits, t-shirts and other items of clothing to promote sales in stores and online. The ambiguous message can be interpreted either as a critical socio-political commentary on contemporary society, its shifting values and peculiar heroes, or as an invitation to let one’s imagination roam free, without defining or limiting oneself within set frameworks of identity and thinking.
The artists participating in the exhibition are Kristians Brekte (LV), Ivars Grāvlejs (LV/CZ), Margrieta Griestiņa (LV), Reinis Hofmanis (LV), Alina Kleytman (UA), La BAE by Natalia Ibáñez Lario (ES/MEX), Floris Schönfeld (US/NL), Mike Diva (US), Grimes (CA), Harmony Korine (US), Die Antwoord (ZA)
The exhibition draws attention to the influence of fantasy, fiction and the absurd on various social groups within 21st century reality, where particular significance is given to social identities such as national, ethnic or cultural belonging. There is a particular focus on “magical identity”, which continues to exist as a form of mythological thinking within the consciousness and habits of rationally-based Western civilisation. In the child’s world, magical identity co-exists with other social identities depending on the desired projections, effortlessly transforming the child into a princess, an astronaut, an elf, a soldier, a mermaid, or a rainbow coloured pony/unicorn. As the individual grows up, this imagined identity may become a way to provoke society outside the group with which the individual identifies, or to express protest and criticism in the context of various youth subcultures. Often such magical identities are created with help from literature, cinema, art, history and pop culture, which in and of themselves are vivid mirrors of society’s values and fantasies. A significant role is also played by globalisation and the growth of information media, which has resulted in hybrids of Western and Eastern pop culture as well as ironically exotic exhibitions in postcolonial countries.
Expanding on the visual potential of the subject, representatives of pop culture are also present at the exhibition. Their projects are characterised by powefull cooperation between different artists, experimental formats, and the ability to transform contemporary mass culture products into both colourful visions and social activism.
Two events accompanying the exhibition within the framework of RPB 2018 educational programme: “RE-CREATING” – master class with Floris Schönfeld for young artists and photographers, taking place on April 7th at Gallery “MuseumLV” and Latvian Museum of Photography and “MAGICAL HEROES” – workshop with photographer Reinis Hofmanis for children, families and other interested parties taking place on April 29th, at Gallery “MuseumLV” and Latvian National Museum of Art. Participation with prior application.
The Riga Photography Biennial is an international contemporary art event, focusing on the analysis of visual culture and artistic representation. The term ‘photography’ in the title of the biennial is used as an all-embracing concept encompassing a mixed range of artistic image-making practices that have continued to transform the lexicon of contemporary art in the 21 st century. The biennial covers issues ranging from cultural theory to current socio-political processes in the Baltics and the wider European region. Riga Photography Biennial attempts to record changes taking place all over the world and invites us to collectively interpret them whilst translating the complicated and oversaturated contemporary visual language into meaningful relationships between our daily reality, the camera lens, historic material, contemporary art, technologies and the future.
Riga Photography Biennial 2018 is part of a wider programme celebrating the centenary of the Republic of Latvia.
Please visit www.rpbiennial.com to see the full programme of Riga Photography Biennial 2018.
