Since the start of public activity in 2009 Who? has maintained the status of an important platform in the art developments of the region, consistently making thoughtful contributions to contemporary art programs. Celebrating the anniversary and considering future directions, Who? expands the physical and content scope by applying and warming up the future new premises – a historical building before reconstruction and the adjacent courtyard at Hanzas Street 22, marking a festive moment not only for the institution, but also for the Latvian and Baltic art scene as a whole.
Around the time when Who? opened its doors in the then creative quarter Spīķeris, American art historian David Joselits (David Joselit) in the edition Gray Room published an article Institutional Responsibility: The Short Life of Orchardwhich was dedicated to an artist-run space that did not exist in the big city at that time Orchard. Although at a great distance and functioning according to other conditions, the fragility of the existence of such countless spaces in the infrastructure of the art-saturated industry is no less relevant here and today. EDEN and especially Who? in the context of the question contained in the title, we gratefully address the hundreds of individuals without whose help our institutional or architectural outlines would not have been provided and, what is important, would not have been continued. This continuity in its various manifestations and the engine of (un)limitable operation EDEN within tends to bring more blurred forms to the foreground, which this time is not supported by the protective but equally restrictive frame of the white cube. who? who are you and what’s next.
Conceptually and substantively EDEN at the new address could be considered an ephemeral, historical exhibition-performance, in which artists purposefully explore (from) sound and vibrations within the framework of social space and ways to achieve a sense of safe space in an uninhabitable interior with the help of immersive art. One of the questions when building EDEN, is related to the fear of being expelled from it, because the temptation for the sonorous, meaningful and experiencing historical relics is to replace the visual or to create its effect.
In dialogue with the authors Who? The thematic arc of the 2024 festival is marked by focusing on the illusory tools of self-representation, reflections on today’s society in its various manifestations, ruling ideologies, public and private space. Newly created sound and an installation that activates an inclusive experience (Evita Vasiļjeva), a performative capturing radio signals Eden’s Cabinet (Clean Culture)the premiere of a newly created video work containing historical references (Viktors Timofeevs), a dystopian transfer of the early architectural forms of humanity charged with audio to the present day (Jonas Wendelins and Evita Manži), large-format silent vanitas of modern society placed in interior conditions (Santa France), an installation tied to the place created as a result of the wanderings of the building (Jānis Dzirnieks), a video reflecting on image-building illusions, society, ideology and oneself (Saņa Kantarovskis), a “spooky” spatial arrangement reflecting positive-negative space (Agate Tūna), rooted in objects, language, abstract forms and routine exercises, tied to a place installation (Laura Kaminskaite), a fragile testimony containing harsh sentiments documenting long-standing regional conflicts (Nikita Kadans), a rhythmic mini-story about the spiritual consequences of colonial plunder, merged with earth, sky, sea, myth and place (Sky Hopinka), as well as deeply intimate, sexual a constellation of objects collected during a charged performance of collective energy-discovery (YBDG), while a more traditional medium – small-form painting – will be brought in by the series started by the author (Kaspars Groševs) about the old man who walked and walked and has now returned home – in Eden. The experience of the exhibition is also complemented by the office of architects Vilnis Michulis formed by the upcoming Eden a model that can be taken for a walk through the exhibition premises.
The name hints that there was a name in the beginning. New address: EDENE is a literary and imagined interplay that, on the one hand, shows the life cycle of an art institution, changing homes due to gentrification and other external considerations, deteriorating, improving and growing through it. At the same time, the title also includes a self-quoting reference to Who? in the beginning, in 2010, a happening took place in the Spīķeri quarter, when an abandoned, overgrown with trees and bushes without a roof next to Who? a group of artists and scenographers for the building (including this year’s EDEN participants) set up an improvised hotel – food, in which one can enter and leave, but cannot stay for a long time.
