Oleg Kulik: The Red Gratitude
Press conference: Thursday, October 10, noon
at Hotel Neiburgs – 25 / 27 Jauniela, Riga, Latvia
Speech-performance: Thursday, October 10, 5:30pm
at K. Suns cinema – 83 / 85 Elizabetes street, Riga, Latvia
Institute for Contemporary Art, Riga
109-57 A. Čaka street
Riga, Latvia, LV-1011
www.ica.lv
Live streaming: www.riga2014.org
Scandalous artist Oleg Kulik to perform in Riga
The artist Oleg Kulik will perform the speech-performance The Red Gratitude at 17:30h, October 10, 2013, at K. Suns cinema in Riga. This performance is being organised as part of the international exhibition In Search of the Horizon as a creative laboratory work Peace. Admission: free of charge.
Oleg Kulik (born in 1961 in Kiev) is one of the most important representatives of Eastern European contemporary art, whose provocative performances have become classics of art history in the past 20 years and have influenced not only campaign art and its representatives, but also the general language of contemporary art on a global scale. One of Kulik’s most scandalous yet quintessential performances took place in November 1998 at the Andalūzijas suns cinema and La Cucaracha restaurant in Riga. The performance left a lasting impression on the Latvian art world. To mark the 15th anniversary of the event, Kulik has accepted curator Ieva Kalniņa’s invitation to perform once more in Riga, giving a lecture on elements of performance.
In describing the content of his upcoming lecture, Kulik has said that the event will be a speech performance “about what was going on with us, what is and what will be, about contemporary art and about the relationship between Russia and Latvia.”
The international exhibition of contemporary art In Search of the Horizon is being organised as part of the Riga 2014 European Capital of Culture “Longing for the Ocean” programme. The exhibition will focus on the searching character of art, which is associated with the essence of art: aspiring to an ideal and the desire to be located at unknown points of intersection. The exhibition’s curator is Ieva Kalniņa.
Creative laboratories for the In Search of the Horizon exhibition have taken place throughout 2012 and 2013. Various artistic ideas for the production of the exhibition have been tested and prepared in these laboratories, but the laboratories are also a platform for artists to cooperate on short-term projects and have been created to encourage a stronger link between various genres of art. Thus, the impact of art is studied, the most suitable means of exhibiting works are identified and aspects of art’s impact are sought. “Peace” is the seventh and final laboratory in this process of preparing the exhibition.
Kulik’s performance is organised by the Institute for Contemporary Art in cooperation with the Mūkusala Art Salon and the foundation “Riga 2014.” It is being supported by Monhe Negro restaurant, Neiburgs hotel-restaurant and Ulma printing house.
Curator: Ieva Kalniņa
