Ventspils Livonian Order Castle currently has the option to “Go in an unknown direction”. That’s what artist Kaspars Zariņš named his exhibition. The artist presents the exhibition as a path to spiritual values, adding that there are no contemporary artists. There are artists who create in their era, inviting people to see what is most important to them at that time.
“Either it is, or it is not,” says the painter Kaspars Zariņš, evaluating the works on display in the ancient palace on several floors. This time it really is “Going in an unknown direction”, because in several places the latest paintings selected from the artist’s collections create an unplanned overview, fitting into the medieval interior. “An artist is alive as long as someone looks at his work. It doesn’t matter if it excites someone or makes someone angry, but the important thing is that there is an opportunity to see them. The path of the artist is always unknown, that’s why it is called “Going in an unknown direction”. I even once had a painting with that name.”
Painter and Latvian Art Academy pedagogue Kaspars Zariņš entrusted the creation of the exhibition in Ventspils to experienced project curator Ieva Rupenheitei, who added her own charm to the overall design of the Old Palace Gallery. Rupenheite: “This exhibition cycle is also called “Exhibition season in the palace galleries.” And this is the first exhibition. You have to have courage to conquer this fortress, and Kaspars Zariņš has it!”
The exhibition in Ventspils is organized with the support of the state Cultural Capital Fund. And this is not the first attempt to exhibit works in Ventspils. A few years ago, the works of Kaspars Zariņas were displayed in a compact exhibition in the small hall, but this time a rich collection has been brought to Ventspils: there are both the latest and the oldest works. Zariņš: “Those paintings and those images give the feeling that they live there, because when I look through this tunnel of light and through these open windows, I see those paintings of my own. It feels like they are moving there. But dividing art into contemporary and non-contemporary is not yet known, just like dividing artists – “contemporary or non-contemporary”, no. I think an artist is an artist, art is art. Either it is or it isn’t!”
Among the visitors of the exhibition are also artists from Ventspils, who admit that the exhibition gave emotions that are so lacking at this time.
Kaspar Zariņš exhibition should be walked slowly, not forgetting to look from one palace gallery to another, not only from the front. The artist emphasizes that here there is a feeling that the paintings in the interiors of the palace were already there before us, now they are living their own lives, which rarely happens in modern art galleries.
Ventspils Castle of the Livonian Order is a structural unit of the Ventspils Museum, so the independent exposition dedicated to the history of the city of Ventspils can also be viewed here.
