THE ESTATE / AUTUMN
Opening: Wednesday, October 31, 6pm
Dates: November 1 – December 15, 2019
Venue: Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga
Curated by Zane Onckule
Kim? is pleased to announce the opening of the second chapter AUTUMN of Tobias Kaspar’s THE ESTATE on Thursday, October 31 at 6 pm.
What if an art collector—or in more modest terms, a person interested in art who from time to time also happens to purchase, exchange, and receive art works as gifts—spent summers in rural Latvia? What would that house—let’s play it grand—that estate look like? Of what would it be reminiscent of? Would the house pay homage to the shabby chic of Anna Karenina, or the Eurodesign that dominated 1990s interiors? Would it lean towards the Soviet-esque, or stick with a pre-war, Baltic-German style?
The SUMMER edition of THE ESTATE, the first part of the four season cycle which took place in the off-site location in Salacgrīva parish and imagined a collector who could have lived in a remote place such as this and surrounded themselves with different artworks, ephemera, and leftovers from artistic productions together with everyday utensils. For AUTUMN, THE ESTATE becomes more theatrical.
The exhibition space turns into an architectural maze without walls, turning its focus on deacquisition. The collection includes furniture from the summer house and new works realized on site during the SUMMER edition exhibition are placed in a dystopic installation, endowing the collection on a slightly grotesque background.
Looking at the displayed artworks, it becomes clear that the collection or taste of our “collector” is far from blue chip, where “signature style” and key works” prevail. It is instead inclusive of many by-products and leftovers. Smaller, earlier works provide an image of a rather dirty but engaged collection, in which the artworks form part of what could be described as a “conversation piece”, to quote the eponymous 18th-Century English portraiture style and 1974 Luchino Visconti film.
For Tobias Kaspar’s large scale installation AUTUMN the exhibition space at Kim? Contemporary Art Centre in Riga is lacquered in black paint, celebrating the black box theatre and encouraging movement as if evoking another cinematic reference – Lars von Trier’s Dogville (2003) – for visitors to step on the stage and to become actors and actresses themselves. The rest of the scenery exists merely as white painted outlines suggesting a life size floor plan.
Inlcuding artworks by: Eriks Apalais, Tristan Bera, Gerry Bibby, Drew Kahu’āina Broderick, Stefan Burger, Merlin Carpenter, Nicolas Ceccaldi, Vija Celmins, Jay Chung & Q Takeki Maeda, David Douard, Ramon Feller, Ffixxed Studios, Gina Folly, Oleg Frolov, Ryan Gander, Liam Gillick, Edgars Gluhovs, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Guerilla Girls, Karl Holmqvist, Daniel Horn, Morag Keil, Emil Michael Klein, Fred Lonidier, Miltos Manetas, MAY, Daria Melnikova, Daniele Milvio, Jonathan Monk, Sveta Mordvskaya, Carter Mule, Kärt Ojavee, Josephine Pryde, Cinzia Ruggeri, Hinrich Sachs, Cindy Shermann, Mike E. Smith, Sarah Staton, Rikrit Tiravanija, Lucas Uhlmann, Miriam Visaczki, Danh Vo, Marie-Pascale Wellinger, Pedro Wirz, Seyoung Yoon, Artur Zmijewski.
Supported by: Minitry of Culture, State Culture Capital Foundation, Riga City Council, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Riga Black Balsam, Green print.