Krišs Salmanis, “The red button”
From 18 January until 20 April 2014, at the Arsenāls Exhibition Hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art (1 Torņa Street, Old Riga), viewers will be able to see the exhibition „1914” which is one of the major events of the year of Riga as the European Capital of Culture. The aim of the „1914” project is to correlate visual and artistic evidence about World War I as a point of reference in the historical, social and cultural development of 20th century Europe.
The range of events planned in Riga, as the European Capital of Culture in 2014, provide a unique opportunity to present the city together with the whole of Latvia in the context of common European cultural values. On the centennial of the outbreak of the First World War, the „Freedom Street” (Brīvības iela) theme within the Force Majeure programme envisages a discourse on historical issues. In sharing this experience, analysing how problems developed and examining the psychological aspects, we may re-assess collective memory, one element of which is the identification and neutralisation of painful episodes in our history.
The exhibition „1914” has been created specially for the Arsenāls Exhibition Hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art, a historic building that was originally intended for military needs, namely, as a weapons store (1832). Following repeated changes in the function of the building which accompanied changes in the political regime, in 1988 the old arsenal was adapted to serve as a museum and exhibition hall.
„1914” is a narrative and at the same time an architectonic construction, focusing on three areas of conflict – conflict in the temporal dimension, where a new age irreversibly replaced the earlier system of values and frames of reference; internal human conflict – the capacity for changing one’s life by sacrificing it to war and to the fight for the Fatherland, and even giving up one’s life; and lastly – conflict in geographical space, where a new balance between the great powers and political forces appeared, along with the formative New Europe.
An examination of the long-standing conflicts between nations and states represents one aspect of the search for balance within the contemporary common European identity. Europe strives to overcome these historical ‘traumas’, and overcoming them constitutes an aspect of national identity. Why must we discuss war at the present day? And why must we recall the First World War, an event that we might sooner consign to the realm of distant memory?
The events of the ‘Great War’ were simultaneously tragic and favourable for Europe, because the collapse of empires, the revolutions in Russia and Germany, and the change in the balance of power between different states led to a ‘complicated peace’ – the symbolic Treaty of Versailles signed on 28 June 1919. French historian Serge Berstein has drawn up a kind of balance sheet for the First World War, setting out the human and material costs, the crisis of material values, and general statistics: more than 8 million dead, 6 million crippled and an immense drop in the birth rate. No statistics, however, can reveal the true significance of the war, which brought the collapse of the empires of Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary, and was a challenge for the Old Europe, bringing a change in the value system along with immense sacrifices, as well as the possibility for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe to gain their independence in the shadow of the conflict between the great powers. The new states established as a result of the First World War (1918–1919) include Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. It was a transformation of the geopolitical situation in Europe. Along with the creation of the League of Nations, on which great hopes were placed in Europe at the time, the establishment of the new states was considered a positive result of the Great War. This particular aspect deserves much closer attention.
On the ruins of empires
The war was catastrophic for the cultural heritage, bringing unprecedented destruction of castles, manors, their interiors and unique works of art. The reference to the period before 1914 is at the same time a reminder of that section of Latvia’s cultural heritage which was lost forever in the First World War: the manors, castles, churches, interiors, art collections, libraries and painting collections. Also destroyed was an intellectual space along with an intellectual history. We recall not only the harm caused by foreign powers. The exhibition also demonstrates our own attitude towards our heritage, and the historical tradition with regard to the protection of those monuments that have perhaps been viewed partially as the legacy of an alien landowning class, leading to the exclusion of a stratum of culture, and causing damage through disregard or belated action, without an appreciation of causal relationships.
The installation that introduces the exhibition shows for the first time part of the unique collection held at Rundāle Palace Museum: architectural details and interior elements, works of art and religious objects that have suffered in war, in the upheavals of regime change and in the ravages of time. It may be that these objects will not in the near future enjoy any kind of second life or resurrection, but they have been saved, systematised and carefully preserved. In this intermediate condition, between total destruction and restoration, they have become symbolic of a lost world and of the fate of the people belonging to it.
The riflemen
The Latvian Rifle Battalions, later regiments, formed in 1915 within the imperial Russian Army, have become a symbol of Latvian national identity and national pride. In the exhibition „1914” the story of the Latvian riflemen – with photographs from the Latvian War Museum and private collections – reflects the psychological journey from the maximalism, enthusiasm and romance of youth to the battles in defence of the Fatherland at Tīreļpurvs and Nāvessala, the legendary Christmas Battle and the battle for Riga. The war transformed and disrupted lives, demanding a sacrifice of love, the courage to take risks and the readiness to accept suffering in the name of the Fatherland, perhaps even giving up one’s life. The story of the riflemen is also a story about dissension and the embrace of left-wing ideas; at the same time it traces the emergence of the Latvian Army and reveals the preconditions for victory in the War of Independence. Writer Kārlis Skalbe summed up the mission of the riflemen: „We know what we’re fighting for. Every Latvian soldier knows and feels it. This war is a war of the people. And in this war the people are leading the way.”
Eyewitnesses
In the period approximately coinciding with the Great War a phenomenon developed in social consciousness – a need to build a new system of values, denouncing those of the preceding age. This found expression in art in the Futurist manifestos and the challenge of Dadaism to define art as a form of protest. Marcel Duchamp created his readymade objects, Kasimir Malevich published the Suprematist manifesto and painted a black square on a white background, Piet Mondrian created Neoplasticism. The First World War was begun with enthusiasm, succeeded by bitter condemnation. The states born of this military conflict came on the scene as a new political force, and the war changed attitudes towards the very concept of statehood.
The exhibition provides the opportunity of an acquaintance not only with the works of Latvian Classical Modernism, but also with paintings, graphic art and unique examples of sculpture from the countries that gained their independence in the First World War: Latvia’s neighbours in the Baltic, Estonia and Lithuania; the Nordic country of Finland; and the Central and Eastern European states of Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Hungary. Altogether, 17 of the most prestigious art museums and national galleries from 11 countries are represented in Riga, with the main aim of presenting the contribution by those artists of the region who witnessed the First World War firsthand or experienced the times.
In the art of this period, the documentation and reflection of the theme of war – with scenes from the front, depictions of the war’s impact on ordinary people, the rear of the front, everyday wartime activities, refugee life, the general emotional and psychological mood, and the attitude of the artist as eyewitness – is combined with a quest for innovative approaches to artistic expression. The First World War represents the formative period of Classical Modernism. In a paradoxical form, the quest for novel forms of artistic expression brought together the emotional experiences of the war with the manifestation of modernism, as well as reflecting the artist’s choice between tradition and novel forms of expression. The spirit of the age and the experience of the times, covering the period 1914–1924, is reflected in the exhibition by the Slovak Futurist Anton Jasuch, the Lithuanian Expressionist Pranas Domšaitis, the Finnish adherent of Cubism Henry Ericsson, the Polish Suprematist artist Władysław Strzemiński, along with the Latvian Modernists Jāzeps Grosvalds, Jēkabs Kazaks and many others.
The exhibition is supplemented with a contemporary viewpoint on events a century ago. Thus, three Latvian artists, Ēriks Božis, Krišs Salmanis un Andris Breže, present their work to the public. The contemporary philosophical commentary is an unusual reference to the theme of war, and at the same time constitutes a broader visual message provoking intellectual discourse.
It is paradoxical that mankind still makes war, while simultaneously engaging in the analysis of war in terms of human psychology. The exhibition „1914” poses the question: is the world war a formula of the past, or is present-day aggression fuelled by a human propensity for war? Do the gains of war outweigh the sacrifices? Through this discussion of the war as an indelible experience, we are re-enlivening and explaining the myths once again, and laying the building blocks for a consciousness of the past within a contemporary interpretation.
Text by Ginta Gerharde-Upeniece
COOPERATION PARTNERS:
The National Gallery (Prague), Gallery of West Bohemia (Pilsen, Czech Republic); Museum of Contemporary Art (Zagreb, Croatia); Tartu Art Museum (Tartu), Art Museum of Estonia (Tallinn, Estonia); Lithuanian Art Museum (Vilnius, Lithuania); National Museum (Warsaw), Muzeum Sztuki (Łodz, Poland); Museum of Contemporary Art (Belgrade, Serbia); Slovak National Gallery (Bratislava, Slovakia); Božidar Jakac Art Museum in partnership with the National Gallery of Slovenia (Kostanjevica na Krki), National Gallery of Slovenia, National Museum of Contemporary History, private collection (Ljubljana, Slovenia); Finnish National Gallery, Ateneum Art Museum (Helsinki, Finland); Hungarian National Gallery (Budapest, Hungary); Rundāle Palace Museum (Pilsrundāle), Ģederts Eliass History and Art Museum of Jelgava (Jelgava), Latvian War Museum, National History Museum of Latvia, Mūkusala Art Salon, private collection (Riga, Latvia).