Ieva Balode, part of the series “Invisible images”
“Greeks [..] go much further back, to the immemorial intelligence displayed in the tricks and imitations of plants and fishes. From the depths of the ocean to the streets of modern megapolises, there is a continuity and permanence in these tactics.” (M. de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, 1984)
The exhibition “Resilience. Secret Life of Plants, Animals and Other Species” derives from an interest in plants and animals as a metaphor for certain patterns in human behaviour currently and historically, as well as an occasional desire to plant oneself in a flowerbed.
Focusing on the idea of resilience as one of the characteristics inherent for many plant and animal species along with tactics like camouflage and tricks, the exhibition strives to highlight examples of contexts where adaptation has become a necessary tool. This kind of adaptation could be attributed to societies of the Eastern Europe during the Soviet Union and the transition processes in the nineties, as well as in a broader geographical and temporal area – in societies that meet violence, radicalism and other forms of oppression.
Meanwhile as entangled as the present moment may seem a suggestion also comes through plants – considering the “plant-thinking” or thinking through and within plants appears as an open possibility that my direct thinking towards a non-linear, diagonal ways that take diversity and manifold positions into account.
“Resilience. Secret Life of Plants, Animals and Other Species” with Ieva Balode, Karolina Grzywnowicz, Žilvinas Landzbergas, Laura Prikule, Kaspars Lielgalvis, Andris Indāns. Curated by Inga Lāce
Opening March 17th, 7 pm
18.03. – 9.04.2016
Büro für kulturelle Übersetzungen,
Aurelienstraße 48, 04177 Leipzig
supported by LCCA- Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art Riga and Kulturamt Leipzig
