Riga Photography Biennial at the Tartu Art House
Tartu Art House
15 мая / On Thursday, 17 May at 6 p.m. Riga Photography Biennial 2018 exhibition „Today I’m a Mermaid. Tomorrow I’ll Be a Unicorn” curated by Šelda Puķīte will be opened in the small gallery of the Tartu Art House.
Participating artists: Reinis Hofmanis (LV), Floris Schönfeld (US/NL) and Margus Tamm (EE). Graphic design: Darja Meļņikova.
Exhibition’s Tartu edition represents updated version of two shows that took place in Riga this April. Itdraws attention to the influence of fantasy, fiction and the absurd on various social groups within the 21st century reality. There is a particular focus on “magical identity”, which continues to exist as a form of mythological thinking within the consciousness and habits of the rationality-based Western civilisation. Often such magical identities are created with the help of literature, cinema, art, history and pop culture, which in and of themselves are vivid mirrors of society’s values and fantasies.
“I Want You!” is a collaborative project between Latvian photographer Reinis Hofmanis and Estonian artist, designer and critic Margus Tamm. Following the finest traditions of commercial advertising and propaganda posters, the banner on the wall of the Tartu Art House calls on everyone to join the Baltic “magical army,” in which the imagined and the real merge into a single invincible machine. By putting the fictional heroes onto advertising banners, the project’s authors are following the example of gamemasters in changing the rules of the game.
The Riga Photography Biennial is an international contemporary art event, focusing on the analysis of visual culture and artistic representation. The term ‘photography’ in the title of the biennial is used as an all-embracing concept encompassing a mixed range of artistic image-making practices that have continued to transform the lexicon of contemporary art in the 21st century.
Attached: Reinis Hofmanis. LARP. Digital print. 2015–2017
The exhibition is open until 22 June.
Additional information:
Indrek Grigor
Tartu Art House gallerist
[email protected]
5559 1425
www.kunstimaja.ee
Tartu Art House (Vanemuise 26, Tartu, Estonia) is open Wed–Mon 12–18. Exhibitions are free of charge.
The exhibitions of the Tartu Art House are supported by the Tartu Town Government and the Cultural Capital of Estonia.
Последнее изменение 15.05.2018