On 20 December at 18.00, in the pre-Christmas atmosphere, the bookstore Robert’s Books in Riga will host an event for the launch of WunderKombināts III. Latvian Art Yearbook 2024, the third edition of WunderKombināts, a collection of articles on current processes in Latvian art.
This year’s edition could be described borrowing the title of the visual essay by artist Linda Boļšakova Protective Reactions, emphasising the paradoxicality and coexistence of contradictions in the intersections and overlaps of different cultural fields, revisiting the boundaries of visual art and its relationship with other fields. Revealing protective reactions as a search for new narratives and relationships.
The yearbook collects texts by specialists in visual arts as well as other fields of humanities and alongside Latvian authors it also includes texts by researchers from Lithuania, Estonia and Ukraine. Focusing on the interaction between art and politics, the yearbook examines the ideological, institutional and cultural-political autonomy of art, as well as the systemically unstable relationship between creative work and social security, from several perspectives, offering insights into the parallels between contemporary culture and socially significant processes in the Baltics. Responding to current debates in the art world, the yearbook also covers topics such as art and ecology, the relationship between culture and wellbeing, and art education. The analysis of the history of curatorial practices is continued in the issue by curator and art scholar Maija Rudovska. In a departure from the usual format, the publication also features a conversation with the painter Andris Eglītis by the art historian Antra Priede.
WunderKombināts III, like the two previous volumes, is a selective, non-academic coverage of important developments and issues in Latvian visual art and contemporary culture, balancing the editorial vision and the research interests of its authors. The interdisciplinarity of perspectives and thought-shifts is still essential, as well as the aim to contextualise the development of art in the framework of locally and regionally significant cultural and socio-political processes. The publication has changed it’s external appearance – WunderKombināts III will be presented to its readers with a new visual identity, created by designer Anete Krūmiņa.
The publication includes texts by Maija Rudovska, Antra Priede/Andris Eglītis, Roberta Atraste, Egle Grebliauskaite, Airi Triisberg, Artis Svece, Anastasiia Omelianiuk, Inga Surgunte and Ieva Laube, and a visual essay by Linda Boļšakova. The publication WunderKombināts III. Latvian Art Yearbook 2024 is published by Wunder Kombinat, edited by Laura Brokāne and Elīna Ķempele. The yearbook is designed by Anete Krūmiņa and printed by Jelgavas tipogrāfija.
The Yearbook will be available for purchase after 20 December. It will be available at a special price at the launch event.
In January 2025, the launch of the yearbook will be accompanied by a series of interviews and podcast conversations in collaboration with the literary and cultural magazine Punctum, which will develop several of the themes covered in the publication from different perspectives: the autonomy and censorship of art, the interplay between culture and society, and the localisation of internationally relevant theoretical discourses and terms.
The project is organised by the cultural organisation Wunder Kombinat (WK), which brings together several Latvian curators, researchers and producers. WK focuses on the Latvian art scene: researching, supporting and promoting it locally and internationally, looking for broader commonalities in the context of Eastern Europe and the Nordic region, as well as highlighting and promoting socially critical artistic practices.
Partners of the project: literary and cultural magazine Punctum, bookstore Robert’s Books.
The book is published with the financial support of the State Culture Capital Foundation of Latvia (Valsts kultūrkapitāla fonds).
