How can you cope with a situation where you suddenly discover that someone close to you has lied profoundly? What if you uncover that one of your family members has done something terrible in the past? What is the right reaction, and is there some adequate response? The brittle feelings that balance between sadness, rage, confusion, or perhaps frustration are what we examine. The sudden reveal of the truth.
The exhibition presents works of the Latvian artist Elīna Vītola, who, in recent years, has been untangling the life and legacy of her relative while also using it as a source of inspiration for her own art practice. She knew that he, too, was an artist and had disappeared during World War II. However, while searching for traces of his later life, Vītola learned much more and might have uncovered the truth.
Through this exhibition project, we explore how to use, exhibit, and talk about artworks inspired by the person who had been unmasked, and overall, how to personally deal with such a discovery. The exhibition features both new works inspired by the exposure of the truth, as well as works that were created earlier in connection with the inspirational elements of Vītola’s relative; these works are shown in a new context, with updated interpretations.
The exhibition consists of seven projects from recent years. The Apple of My Eye (2024) object explores themes such as family tree, belonging, property, and reproduction. The immersive gesture paintings from The Line series (2024) tend to refer to territory and time. The Picnic (2024), monumentally painted ready-made from the Common Issues in Painting and Everyday Life series, is about community, hope, and naivety. The site-specific sugar mural Sweet Deal (2025) focuses on the meaning of loss, forgetting, and ephemerality. Base-Relieved (2025) questions the purposes of monuments and plaques, while Document frescos (2024) reveals our obsession with preserving memories. The exhibition closes with the (bitter)sweet message Double Truth: Reveal (2025), created in collaboration with the curator.
All projects make significant use of historical materials and experimental techniques inspired by history itself, and therefore carry many layers of meaning and stories within.Each exhibited work is essentially a painting, even if this may not be apparent at first glance, and all represent the diverse possibilities of painting and its varied language.
DOUBLE TRUTH: REVEAL
Elīna Vītola
Curator: Diana Kněžínková
Graphic design: Nikola Iljučoková & Barbora Tomová
13.9 – 9.11.2025
Emil Filla Gallery, Ústí nad Labem, Czech Republic
Photography: Elis Kondelíková
