July 21–December 31, 2021
Kim? Contemporary Art Center in Riga and Tallinn Art Hall and Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius announce participants for the upcoming archipelago of events titled History of Joy, Part 4. Curated by Kaspars Groševs, Virginija Januškevičiūtė and Siim Preiman, this project aims to bridge communities and provide an alternative platform for employing creatives at a time of isolation and uncertainty.
Reflecting the title, History of Joy, Part 4 examines alternate forms of exhibition-making, whilst simultaneously connecting the rich Baltic art scene. “What started as a cautious intent to reflect the shift in artist relationships with the public over the last few decades, turned into a shifting sequence that proposed to open the space for the public beyond the concrete walls, stairways, and entrances,” says curator Kaspars Groševs. “By inviting through an open call a variety of cultural agents to share their creative manifestations and gestures, a kaleidoscopic reverie of concurrent streams of thought, expression, and comprehension were discovered. History of Joy, Part 4 presents itself as a virtual stage for the exchange of joyous acts of creativity that vary and morph in their movements, traces, undercurrents, and murmurs. Resonating with the fragmented history of ephemeral, oft-uncharted intimate acts of bringing joy to oneself and others, the project invites creatives to engage in distribution of personal discoveries and artistic explorations. In parallel, diagonal and circular spatial and temporal forms, the constellations of Baltic artists stretch beyond territories of land—virtual islands and (meta) physical cabins are connected in a network of inventive, glowing, curious voices that reverberate and diffuse not only by shared histories but something much greater—joy of an artistic act.”
The series of online presentations will launch gradually starting in July 2021 on a common web platform, history-joy.cc. The new video productions will stay available for viewing for the coming two years. All in all, the project consists of about 20 contributions spanning music and dance videos, dance oracles, pop-up radio streams, experimental archeology, window sculptures, collaborative drawing sessions, browser-based video games, and more.
Participating artists: Tomas Daukša (Lithuania); Dace Demir (Latvia/US); Beatrise Grudule (Latvia); Laura Kaminskaitė (Lithuania); Sandra Kosorotova & Erik Martinson (Estonia/Latvia/CA); Ieva Kabašinskaitė (Lithuania); Ieva Kraule-Kūna (Latvia); Milda Januševičiūtė & Mark Prendergast (Lithuania/Netherlands); Eva Järv, Ulla Juske & Hanna Piksarv (Estonia); Lina Lapelytė & Antanas Gerlikas (Lithuania); Camille Laurelli & Romain Sein (Estonia/France); Antanas Lučiūnas aka Ragemore (Lithuania); Eva Mustonen (Estonia); Eglė Naujokaitytė & Rogelio Serrano (Lithuania/Mexico); Eglė Nešukaitytė (Lithuania); Orbīta (Latvia); Henrik Rakitin (Latvia); Kristiāna Marija Sproģe (Latvia); Anastasia Starikova (Latvia/UK); Steve & Samantha (Lithuania/UK)
Kaspars Groševs is an artist and curator based in Riga. In 2014 he co-found 427 gallery and has been co-directing it since. In recent years he has made curatorial gestures at P/////AKT, Amsterdam, Salon de Normandy by The Community, Paris, Kim? Contemporary Art Center, Riga, Polansky Gallery, Brno among other places.
Virginija Januškevičiūtė is a curator and advisor at the Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) in Vilnius. The most recent exhibitions she curated at the CAC include solos by Yugi Agematsu (2019), Brud (2019) and Arthur Jafa (2020), and two group exhibitions: Splitting the Atom (2020) and Head With Many Thoughts (2020). The first was curated with Ele Carpenter and focused on ethics and aesthetics of nuclear culture, the second based on an open call for contributions and curated by the CAC’s entire curatorial team. She also writes, researches, interviews and is affiliated with several publishing platforms including the CAC, The Baltic Notebooks of Anthony Blunt (blunt.cc) and Lithuanian Culture Institute.
Siim Preiman is a curator at Tallinn Art Hall whose curatorial projects explore the possible role that art can play in resisting global powers, focusing on the ethics of making art and on micro-narratives circulating in society. His latest curatorial projects include galerii galerii presents: a concise anthology of mobile art platforms at 1st March Gallery, Tallinn (2021), Memory Palace by Maria Valdma at Tallinn City Gallery (2021) and Endless Story by Mihkel Ilus and Paul Kuimet at Tallinn Art Hall (2020).
The project is organized by Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius, Tallinn Art Hall Foundation and is supported by the Baltic Culture Fund.
