TUR_telpa is pleased to release the photos documenting the exhibition “StiTcHeS of iTcHes” which ran between the 6th of July and the 5th of August, 2023 at their space on Tallinas ielas Kvartāls, Riga. It was the second exhibition of the Summer series “Monumental Encounters” after the Purvitis Prize nominated exhibition “Voices in my Heads” by Rūdolfs Štamers. The exhibition was documented by photographer Kristīne Madjare.
Central to her first big solo show, Anna Malicka crafted three immense textile works which were suspended on three of the sides of the 5x5x5 meter cube central to TUR_telpa. To the techno rhythm of the sewing machine Anna Malicka crafts patchworks of embroidered abstract drawings and sketches. She assembles layers, stitching together the fabric but also the sediments of her personal, artistic experience. Within her work she weaves a veiled variety of self constructed characters, often reflections of her chaotic self, that inform her process: the party gurl, the radical baby; the unreal agent; and other, often personal elements, informed by the niche youth culture she identifies strongly with. The layers that she creates are both an assemblage of the physical materials – textile, sewing thread, upholstery – and, the traits that reflect her social, artistic and private identities. Through her work, Anna Malicka seeks to create spaces that are in between the real and the imaginary. This “unreal estate,” as she calls it, creates a space from which she can hold a semi-confrontational mirror up to reality. It is a place from where she feels a level of comfort, from where she can remain herself without having to answer to more conventional forces of reality. Tying the monumental textile works together with the space, Malicka and her all women dj collective – PR0_Bi$TR0 – have put down a layer of hard dance, pop and folk music to cut, accompany and challenge the visitor to the experience of her “StiTcHeS of iTcHeS.”
Anna Malicka (1995) was born and is based in Riga. She is a graduate of the Latvian Academy of Art and recently received a MA from the same institution where she was part of the first graduating class of the new POST program. During her bachelor studies she also spent a year at the KASK School of Arts in Ghent, Belgium. She is a multi-media artist working mainly with textiles, drawings on paper and audio-visual content. Her crafted work is often inspired by scribbled abstraction, handicrafts, everyday aesthetics and ideas around sedimentation which she uses to construct excerpts of imaginary spaces.
TUR_telpa is an independent art space that values experimentation and process-based art. Since 2020, TUR_telpa has become an important contemporary art space in Riga, organizing contemporary art exhibitions as well as concerts, performances and poetry readings. Since opening three years ago, several of the exhibitions have been nominated for the Purvītis Prize. This year both “Voices in My Heads” in June by Rūdolfs Štamers and “Lapa uz lapas” by Maija Kurševa in April were nominated. The other nominated exhibitions were “O” by Sabine Verners and Kristine Krause-Slucka’s solo exhibition “Forced Movements of the Past.”
The three exhibitions of the summer series “Monumental Encounters” are curated by Dutch artist Edd Schouten in close collaboration with the artists and team at TUR_telpa. “StiTcHeS of iTcHeS” is open to the public from Tuesday to Saturday, from 17:00 to 22:00 and runs till August 5th. For the latest news and events, please follow TUR_telpa’s Instagram (tur_telpa) and/or Facebook page (TUR)
Curator: Edd Schouten
Organized by: Uldis Trapencieris, Rūdolfs Štamers, Edd Schouten and Kristīne Ercika
Production: Kristīne Ercika
Exhibition mediator: Andris Freibergs
Technical Support: Maksimilians Kotovičs
Graphic design: Estere Betija Grāvere
“StiTcHeS of iTcHeS” was supported by: State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia, Art Academy of Latvia, Rigas Dome, Tu jau zini kur and Rilak Paints.
Photo documentation by Kristīne Madjare
