Archaeology of Kinetics

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The exhibition ‘Archeology of Kinetics’ was created as an open laboratory revealing the creation of kinetic art in Latvia during the 1960s and 1970s, accentuating its conservation issues nowadays.

Valdis Celms is one of the most outstanding representatives of kinetic art in Latvia. His oeuvre shows amazing evidence to the fact that in the soviet period too, avant-garde and visionary artwork was made in Latvia. These works of art were as convincing as their counterparts in the West and elsewhere in the world in the ‘60s and ‘70s. Unfortunately, kinetic artwork today is often rediscovered in a critical state. The nontraditional, complicated and at that time innovative solutions, which ensured the essence of the kinetic art in terms of mechanical movement, often is out of order, thus restricting the opportunities to appreciate the avant-garde means of expression in our present day. These conservation issues also delay the inclusion of the artwork in the collections of museums.

Together with Valdis Celms and Ieva Alksne we set out to present this issue to the public, while highlighting the amazing work these artists have been doing in a retrospective exhibition at the Riga Art Space.

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Exhibition Design: Rihards Funts, Toms Lucans

Curator: Ieva Astahovska

Commissioned by: Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art