Lost Territories Archive at the RIBOCA (LTA 8)
Najsilniejszy i najbardziej spójny tematycznie rozdział biennale znajduje się w na wpół zachowanym przedwojennym mieszkaniu łotewskiego filantropa Kristapsa Morbergsa (1844–1928).
Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA).
Biennial in Riga, Latvia
“Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More”.
Curator: Katerina Gregos.
The biennial’s strongest, most thematically cohesive chapter is located in the half-preserved prewar apartment of Latvian philanthropist Kristaps Morbergs (1844–1928). Here, the legacy of Communism is revisited via its traces, with works employing archival and documentary forms to address relationships between the built environment, social transformation, and collective memory. In one room, Sputnik Photos, has created a site-specific installation based on their project “Lost Territories Archive” (2008–16). Enlarged photographs from the archive—of, for instance, a half-built futuristic tower in Anaklia, Georgia, that was part of a failed development project championed by former president Mikheil Saakashvili—peek out from beneath torn wallpaper that appears to be original to the apartment, the combination suggesting a reverse palimpsest that hints at the excavational nature of their work.
Rachel Wetzler for “Art in America” magazine.
