The exhibition „Living Spirit” was on view at the Riga Gallery, 2nd floor, for one week from 13 to 18 December. It dealt with an important mean of expression in contemporary art, namely, animation.
The show demonstrated videos by young artists, created particularly for this exhibition and supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation, emphasising the manifold ways in which animated elements could be used. Works were created as references to the title of the exhibition “Living Spirit”, not only pointing towards the specificity of animation but also towards young people’s states of mind, attempting to prove and express themselves. The “Living Spirit” is the young man’s active, creative energy, a wish to change the world and the common order of things. It is connected with the fragile and potent formation of relationships among human beings. Animation is an appropriate mean to express interpretations of “Living Spirit” in the work of art - it not only includes both realist and abstract formal solutions but also provides options to use movement and sound. It may include both fortuitous, spontaneous discoveries of form and considered, patiently drawn or shaped visual representation of artistic imagination, wittiness or a philosophical idea. It is a topical way of creative expression, reflecting the spirit of the time (moving, changing and combining).
Participants of the exhibition are artists who have proved their professionalism in different art projects – Ieva Arāja, Liene Drāzniece, Ieva Jerohina and Kristaps Epners, Renārs Krūmiņš, Oskars Poikāns, Mārtiņš Ratniks and Krišs Salmanis.
Exhibition designer – Krišs Salmanis.
Exhibition curator – Anda Boluža (creative group “x13”).
Exposition features not only works intended for this show in particular but also animations that had been made earlier as some authors’ initiatives – Pēteris Līdaka’s animation “Masterly Donkey” (1st, 2nd, 3rd picture; winner of the 1st prize at the video festival “Ūdensgabali” in 2003; demonstrated as part of the show “New Video. New Europe” at the Art Centre “The Renaissance Society” in Chicago, at Contemporary Art Museum in Sent Luis and Tate Modern in London), Reinis Pētersons’ video with animated elements “War and Peace inside My Soul”, Maija Līduma’s animation “Seven Days” and Nils Jakrins’ work “Waffle Brothers”.
Exhibition is supported by the State Culture Capital Foundation, Latvian Contemporary Art Centre, Riga Gallery, Visual Arts Magazine “Studija”, “Radio Naba”, creative group “x13” and Sony Centre at Kr. Barona Str. 125.
