Portable Landscapes: Memories and Imaginaries of Refugee Modernism

Through the story of the Latvian exile literates and artist collective Hell’s Kitchen the exhibition reveals a parallel chapter in the history of Latvian art and culture as a result of the Soviet occupation (1944) that drove many artists into exile. The resulting exile situation has been little discussed and researched, currently demanding for a broader contextualization within larger processes of migration and diasporic communities. Thus departing from the Hell’s Kitchen collective the exhibition looks at and highlights personalities and artistic phenomena that have resulted from migration – whether freely chosen or forced. It concerns the movements, individual artists and groups of artists that played supporting roles in, but also worked to diversify and challenge, the overarching art historical narrative. In addition to pursuing these stories with the help of archival material, historical works of art and artefacts, the exhibition also gathers works by contemporary artists working on the theme of migration and its attendant questions.

Exhibition artist: Daina Dagnija, Yonia Fain, Yevgeniy Fiks, Hell’s Kitchen collective, Rolands Kaņeps, Boris Lurie, Karol Radziszewski, Judy Blum Reddy, Vladimir Svetlov & Aleksandr Zapoļ (Orbita Group), Viktor Timofeev, Sigurds Vīdzirkste, Artūrs Virtmanis. Curators: Katherine Carl, Solvita Krse, Inga Lāce and Andra Silapētere.