The Exhibition ‘Op. 89: New Geometry of Irregular Forms’ by Reinis Dzudzilo runs at ALMA (Tērbatas iela 64, Riga, Latvia) Until 11 March. The opus, published as Op. 89, is the almost 200-year-old Winter Journey – Franz Schubert’s Romantic song cycle Winterreise for voice and piano. The voice has been lost or cried out during the exposition, and all the lyrics of the 24 songs written by poet Wilhelm Müller remain left behind at rest stops, along with the piano accompaniment. The traveller’s staff – walking stick, once used to break the ice, now stands in the exhibition hall as a monument. A memento.
This exposition serves as a kind of conclusion to the trilogy of Reinis Dzudzilo’s most recent solo exhibitions. ALMA, where this “-logy” began, is also where it concludes: the first part, NEVER ENDS, the second, ONE WILL HEART ONE (TUR_telpa Space for Contemporary Art, 2024), and now the third OP. 89: NEW GEOMETRY OF IRREGULAR SHAPES (2024/2025).
It wasn’t planned, it just happened so. Painter, Sasha Okun, in the very last July issue of Rīgas Laiks magazine, slightly paraphrasing poet Marina Tsvetaeva, remarked: “It happened so is a religious view on things.” Perhaps it is indeed.
None of these exhibitions is or will be viewed simultaneously; yet, when the past, present and future are all placed into the same time, they become parallel. And Dzudzilo often works this way, or more precisely, it often happens so with him.
The complete recording was released on two vinyl records by Deutsche Grammophon in 1962.
Pianist: Erik Werba
Baritone: Hans Hotter
Poetry: Wilhelm Müller
Special thanks to Einārs Bagāts, LowTech, Ivars Ozols, AKKA/LAA
Supported by Valsts kultūrkapitāla fonds, Rīgas Dome
Photography: Ansis Starks