La Biennale di Venezia. 54th International Art Exhibition
Venēcijas biennāles 54. Starptautiskajā mākslas izstāde
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Republic of Latvia
KRISTAPS ĢELZIS. ARTIFICIAL PEACE (Contemporary Landscape)
Artist: Kristaps Ģelzis
Commissioner: Daiga Rudzāte
Curator: Astrīda Rogule
Organiser: Culture project Agency INDIE
Co-organiser: PaiviProArte.Com
Public opening hours: June 4 - November 27, 10.00-18.00 every day except for Mondays
Address: Cannaregio 4118, Palazzo Albrizzi, Venice, Italy
About the exhibition
The "Artificial Peace" strides the borderline between monumental painting and conceptualism while belonging to both. The works are in watercolour technique, using luminescent water-based acrylic paints.
The interaction between colour, light, imagination, and emotion forms the underlying concept. At the core of the exhibit is the large format watercolour cycle "Contemporary Landscape". Reflecting the most striking daily transitions, these paintings tell the story of man's relationship to the world. The gigantic, pulsating fields of colour represent a distillate of the artist's emotions whose further evolution is up to the viewer. The silhouettes of the visitors become part of the work of art: interactive images that embody the interpretation of the narrative. In the context of "Artificial Peace", light plays a special role: the fluorescent bulbs, the so-called "blue lights" help the gaze to penetrate the deepest layers of the painting. Light becomes a kind of emotional binding substance between the visitor and the work of art, throwing the formal qualities of the painting in high relief and revealing the endless depth of the painted space.
Daiga Rudzate
Artificial Peace (Contemporary Landscape)
An Essay On What Inspired The Work.
I live in Riga, in its central part, in one of its highest spots. The large windows of my flat overlook the cityscape as it spreads out toward East, South, and West.
Many centuries ago, this place was the "execution hill" with the "pariah" cemetery nearby. As the city expanded, only a few random facts remain of the historical evidence. I remember that when the construction sites for the houses in my bloc were being excavated, the heavy machinery often lifted out of the sand old human bones and damaged skulls. These, quite naturally, served as toys for us, the local children. Strange as it may seem, to us these represented just different kind of forms for a different content of play.
Even now, many years later, in a different nation and a different world, this to me is a strange and special place.
It is my "time machine". At the same time it may become the cemetery of my illusions in the future. That makes me somewhat uneasy, for the changing perspective is so obvious from above. Everything must change at some point, it's inevitable.
I often find myself in the role of a visual detective, investigating and contemplating the observed. Above and below the horizon.
The sky occupies most of the space. The city is just the foundation, the static point under the unidirectional changes in nature and time.
They are never the same.
Three most outstanding daily moments of transition:
Morning Dawn.
Once again we wake up feeling strong and sure that everything beautiful, everything we hope for is possible. It is the rhythm of nature that secures in us this fragile, just re-awakened courageous feeling.
Re-editing the synopsis of reality, weather forecast, coffee, Internet, first news of the morning.
It all looks corrigible.
Drone of Day.
Contact with the outer world. Restlessness sets in. Contact with other Capsules. An ocean of minutiae. The old ones mature. The new ones push themselves into the fragile, just systematized kaleidoscope. Unexpectedly, an energy "jet" of an unknown origin traverses the atmosphere . Astonished, the air over-resonates. Something irreversible and alien rummaging around and setting the groundwork for your future. The daily hopeful and daily unpleasant currents and drone. I wonder where this modern kind of bustle ends up in oneself, what strata does it form?
Sundown Turns to Twilight.
The moment of the day when nature reminds us of its presence. We become tense and nervous, tired and careless, susceptible to the virus of giving up and compromising with others. At any cost, we would like to snatch something outstanding and memorable out of the jaws of circumstance. Contrasts thicken around us. Dazzling hot lights and long, cool, oblique shadows. What was not done, postponed, discarded. A melancholy feeling, for the sun and the clouds just showed us how we should fight. The clouds and the mist always emerge as winners. The city sometimes works itself up to its very horizon in helping the clouds in the sky.
Night- it is self-evident, making any forced analysis irrelevant- it is the subconscious and settling down.
It is like a special break in a muddy stream- stopping and settling down. It is the moment I can begin to paint, to "reflect".
I examine the day that's coming to a close like a coin – is it genuine? -- with luminescent light. For the most part, I only see a run-down, stratified process, and a bit of sediment by the horizon. Tiny, lurid, chaotic. Like the analysis of the reflections of our time.
This is my story; this is the genuine groundwork for inspiration and evaluation when we look at large-format paintings where the medium of expression is an abstract flow of colour and texture.
There must be restlessness!
Kristaps Ģelzis