The exhibition centres on the part of Latvian visual art of the 20th and 21st centuries where a significant role is played by text and its message. The exhibition looks at the various ways in which language is used in art – from familiar approaches, where it represents a means of self-reflection or communication, a decorative element or caption for the image, to works where text has become the most significant or even the sole means of expression.
Language is an instrument that can be used to play tricks – one may have to read between the lines, especially, if for some reason it is not possible to speak straight. Meanwhile, at a time of over-satiation with visual stimuli and advertising slogans, language, with its paradoxes as well as art's freedom to say a stronger word, is a way to awaken the viewer's intellect from its slumber.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a programme of events.
Exhibition curator: Arta Vārpa
Exhibition design: Daniela Treija
Graphic design: Madara Krieviņa
Publicity image: Kristaps Ģelzis. Cloud. 2015. Polyethylene, plastic tape, acrylic pigment. 110.5 x 128 x 10 cm. Photo Jānis Pipars.
