Contemporary Histories of Photography II
The ISSP Gallery hosted the second part of the exhibition cycle Contemporary Histories of Photography as part of the Riga Photography Biennial 2024, bringing together several artists' perspectives and interpretations on the process of writing a local history of photography.
The task of Latvian photography researchers in the 21st century is to construct and deconstruct simultaneously – to fill extensive “blank spaces” and critically review existing narratives. The exhibition cycle highlights the subjectivity of every version of history and various facets of local photography. Contemporary artists have created new works in dialogue with photographers and phenomena from different periods. Their alternative historical interpretations illuminate the diversity of perspectives and offer a departure from a potentially didactic canonical version.
Annemarija Gulbe’s installation highlights roads as symbols in the Latvian landscape, exploring the legacy of photographer, cinematographer, and director Uldis Brauns – both in photography and in his only feature film ‘Motociklu vasara’ (Motorcycle Summer, 1975). Brauns’ extensive photographic archive is locally unique in its humanistic reflection of the post-war Latvian environment. Gulbe emphasizes the intersection between documentary approaches and the poetry of montage in forming a place’s identity. Meanwhile, Konstantin Zhukov continues his artistic research on queer histories in Latvia, this time focusing on the Latvian National Opera as a stage, an urban locale, and a community. Referencing Tchaikovsky’s ballet ‘Swan Lake’ and using a soundtrack by the band ‘alejas,’ Žukovs highlights the unspoken and censored aspects of history – personal stories that are often hidden in family albums or official visual archives, but can rather be read between the lines.
Annemarija Gulbe (1997) works with photography, video and installations. She graduated from the Department of Visual Communication at the Art Academy of Latvia and studied photography at the ISSP School and Andrejs Grants’ Studio. She was one of the winners of Kim? Open Call (2023), was a finalist in the BDO Young Artists Awards (2023) and received the Grand Prix and residency at the contemporary art biennial Jeune creation Européene in Paris (2019), and the FK Prize as best young Latvian photographer (2018). Her most recent personal exhibitions include: Under Stone Vaults in Domed Structures (Kuldīga Municipality Artists’ Residence, Alsunga, 2023), Challengeable Heritability at Look! Gallery (Riga, 2023); Love Re-search at the ISSP Gallery (Riga, 2020) and the photography festival Organ Vida (Zagreb, 2019).
Konstantin Zhukov (1990) lives and works between Riga and London. Zhukov’s artistic practice takes inspiration from various texts and literary sources – from homoerotic poems of the Islamic Golden Age to the love letters of Oscar Wilde and Foucault’s work on sexuality. Using literary texts as a starting point to aid in the unveiling of personal stories that explore different forms of love, attachment and sexuality, his work strives to arouse the imagination and provoke curiosity through a highly charged symbolic language. After graduating from the Riga Secondary School of Design and Art, Zhukov continued his studies at the Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and the London College of Communication in the United Kingdom.
Exhibition dates: 04.07.2024.. - 16.08.2024.
Curator – Liāna Ivete Žilde. The scenography of the event was created by artist Liene Pavlovska, referring to the historical cyanotype technique. The objects displayed in the outdoor space of Bergs Bazaar form another layer of interpretation for more or lesser known images from various periods in Latvian photography.
Partners and supporters of the exhibition: State Cultural Capital Foundation, Riga State City Council, Society Integration Foundation, Museum of the History of Riga and Navigation, Mystero Museum, Artglass, printing house “Adverts”, Valmiermuiža Craft Brewery, Arterritory.com, Echo Gone Wrong, NOBA. The cycle of exhibitions is a part of the Riga Photography Biennial 2024 programme.
The curatorial concept of the exhibition has been developed within the project "Landscapes of Identities: History, Culture and Environment" / IDEUM (Nr. VPP-LETONIKA-2021/1-0008) of the State Research Programme "Letonika for the Development of Latvian and European Societies" of the Latvian Research Council.