Close Your Eyes and Smile

Solo show at kim? Contemporary Art Center
Riga, Latvia, August - October, 2019

At the center of the exhibition Close Your Eyes and Smile is an exploration of the individual and group responsibility. It also looks at the structure of game shows and similarities between how these and election processes are organized whilst upholding the myth of luck alive. Staged sculptural gestures interact with visitors' viewpoints, questioning when the moment to step up on the stage will come? 

The performance made together with: Arta Kauliņa, Baiba Vanaga, Janīna Guterman
Close Your Eyes and Smile hosted a video work by artist Mirko Podkowik.
Finnisage of the show hosted edible intervention by artist Niels Albers.

Photo documentation: Pēteris Vīksna, Filips Šmits, Ansis Starks

Jelly Coasts and Milk Rivers

Jelly Coasts and Milk Rivers is an expression used in Latvian language to describe a fictional place of wealth and happiness. Growing up in Latvia where society shifted from a communist past towards a capitalist future, I wonder how the idea of Jelly Coasts and Milk Rivers is represented in these regimes and how narratives of past and present are created, whilst directed and hosted within the Urban Stage.

Exhibited at Studio for Immediate spaces graduation show Event Horizon at Klaproos Amsterdam
Amsterdam, Netherlands, June, 2018

Performed by: Elisabeth Mesnier, Mathilde Stubmark, Elia Castino

Photo documentation: Mirko Podkowik, Francesca Lucchitta

Towards Jelly Coasts and Milk Rivers

In the Union of Equals labor law and food quality is equal  .  ? A performative action of displaying food with the same product packaging bought in The Netherlands and Latvia. The appearance of the goods are the same, ingredients may differ.

Amsterdam, Netherlands, December, 2017
Performed with: Mathilde Stubmark, Elia Castino, and Naomi Crede

Photos: Mirko Podkowik

Lounge Area Snooze

Snooze* offers the enjoyment of solitude whilst collectively listening to the calming and at the same time frustrating phone line waiting sounds. "You are very important to us. Someone will approach you shortly. Please, hold."

*To not allow oneself to wake up.

Exhibited at group show SALSA at Paleis van Mieris.
Amsterdam, Netherlands, June, 2017

The Love Song to Milk Rivers and Jelly Coasts

Amsterdam, Netherlands, January, 2018
Performed by: Mathilde Helbo, Sarah Daniel, Elia Castino

Photo documentation: Mirko Podkowik

Private Within Communal

Audio guided and narrated performance where spectators become actors. Starting with creating floor plans from all of the places where I have ever lived, I wonder how larger scale politics have influenced my personal paths. How much am I guided and where lies the choice? Narrative constructed around property law, its changes during the time and looking into my personal and my family history. 

Sandberg Institute Assembly Hall, Amsterdam, Netherlands, January, 2017