History of Joy, Part 4

Kim? Contemporary Art Center in Riga, Tallinn Art Hall and Contemporary Art Centre in Vilnius announce participants for the upcoming archipelago of events titled History of Joy, Part 4. Curated by Kaspars Groševs, Virginija Januškevičiūtė and Siim Preiman, this project aims to bridge communities and provide an alternative platform for employing creatives at a time of isolation and uncertainty.

 

Reflecting the title, History of Joy, Part 4 examines alternate forms of exhibition-making, whilst simultaneously connecting the rich Baltic art scene. “What started as a cautious intent to reflect the shift in artist relationships with the public over the last few decades, turned into a shifting sequence that proposed to open the space for the public beyond the concrete walls, stairways, and entrances,” says curator Kaspars Groševs. “By inviting through an open call a variety of cultural agents to share their creative manifestations and gestures, a kaleidoscopic reverie of concurrent streams of thought, expression, and comprehension were discovered. History of Joy, Part 4 presents itself as a virtual stage for the exchange of joyous acts of creativity that vary and morph in their movements, traces, undercurrents, and murmurs.”

 

“What do we do when we can’t make exhibitions?” asks curator Siim Preiman. “Although there is nothing inherently new in say mail art, showcase art, window art or web art, these are some of the formats that have offered a chance of continued creative output to artists in these tricky times. Consisting of existing works and new commissions, this fourth imagined iteration of History of Joy highlights the playful (sometimes outright funny), caring (but also careful) and experimental things artists have slowly been working on in the privacy of their homes and studios for the last year.”

 

Participating artists: Tomas Daukša (Lithuania); Dace Demir (Latvia/US); Beatrise Grudule (Latvia); Laura Kaminskaitė (Lithuania); Sandra Kosorotova & Erik Martinson (Estonia/Latvia/Canada); Ieva Kabašinskaitė (Lithuania); Ieva Kraule-Kūna (Latvia); Milda Januševičiūtė & Mark Prendergast (Lithuania/Netherlands); Eva Järv, Ulla Juske & Hanna Piksarv (Estonia); Lina Lapelytė & Antanas Gerlikas (Lithuania); Camille Laurelli & Romain Sein (Estonia/France); Antanas Lučiūnas aka Ragemore (Lithuania); Eva Mustonen (Estonia); Eglė Naujokaitytė & Rogelio Serrano (Lithuania/Mexico); Eglė Nešukaitytė (Lithuania); Orbīta (Latvia); Henrik Rakitin (Estonia); Kristiāna Marija Sproģe (Latvia); Anastasia Starikova (Latvia/UK); Steve & Samantha (Lithuania/UK)

 

The series of online presentations will launch gradually starting in July 2021 on a common web platform, history-joy.cc. The new video productions will stay available for viewing for the coming two years. All in all, the project consists of about 20 contributions spanning music and dance videos, dance oracles, pop-up radio streams, experimental archeology, window sculptures, collaborative drawing sessions, browser-based video games, and more.