The creative output of several generations of Latvian artists was combined in the exhibition “Greetings Head!”. This was one of the rare occasions in Latvia when it was possible to see examples of almost all contemporary artistic media: painting, graphics, drawing, sculpture, photography, installation, objects, video, text, music, film and theatre stage design in a single setting.
The exhibition launched the Boris and Ināra Teterev arts programme and the idea behind it chimed with the name of the festival: TÊTE-À-TÊTE. The name of the festival is taken from French, in which the word la Tête means “head”.
The exhibition showcased a broad spectrum of art forms which characterise the Boris and Ināra Teterev arts programme. In the context of this exhibition, the head is not only a place for a headscarf, earrings, haircut, cosmetics, glasses and headphones, but also a complicated part of the body in which thinking does or does not take place.
Exhibited works of art were about more than thinking than about not thinking. Here, for example, even a vegetable thinks in Maija Kurseva’s drawing “Beetroot in Thought”. Once again, one is prompted to refer to our patriarch of art history Janis Borgs, who once made an unforgettable assertion in an interview most laconically: “The world will not be saved by beauty, but by thinking”.
One of the exhibition’s reference points was the head of grandma-wolf created by Liene Mackus, Krista Dzudzilo and Reinis Dzudzilo for the Latvian National Theatre’s production of “Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf” in 2013. In the end, the emerging artists’ work was not used in the play, but instead acquired the form of a sculpture for this exhibition.
Liene Mackus. Grandmother – Wolf. 2013. Mixed techniques.
Since the days of Ancient Greece, theatre has been integral to the origins of European professional art; in the context of this exhibition, this was demonstrated not only by the stage design elements, but was also accented through the performing nature of contemporary art.
Interweaving tradition and innovation, the exhibition was defined by imagery and narrative. The viewer is treated with respect; no hide-and-seek is played. Amidst this multitude of artistic voices, there is no shortage or either personal motifs or references to broader social manifestations. The artists are not afraid to be naïve or melancholy; nor do they shirk from affirming instant revelation, miracles, despair, joy and at least some understanding of the rhythms and rhymes of culture and nature.
The only small zone allocated for experiments was an interplay of works by Art Academy of Latvia Professor Ojars Petersons and his students from the Visual Communications Department exhibited under the joint title “Show”.
The origins of the exhibition’s concept date back to the spring of 2013 when works submitted for the competition “Riga Smiles” were exhibited at the Art Academy of Latvia. As the jury set to work, the philanthropists Boris and Ināra Teterev expressed their wish that the next competition exhibition should be dedicated to figural works. To a certain extent, with its imagery this project layed the ground for the latest urban environment competition exhibition, answering the question of what exactly is figural art nowadays.
Reproductions of outdoor works for the art show demonstrates that drawing and photography can also become permanent works of public art, as has often occurred in world’s biggest metropolises.
The exhibition also included some works dating back to an earlier period, in order to provide a small insight into the development of ideas within Latvian contemporary art. However, mostly the new art was exhibitied. It has never been publicly exhibited before - new works or sets of works have been created especially for the exhibition. The familiarity of the historical works is also relative – they have never been seen by several generations of students who have already graduated.
Exhibition curator - Helena Demakova.