Beate Poikāne 'Parade of flying episodes'

02.02.-29.02.2024. 11.00 - 18.00

From February 2 to 29, the solo exhibition “Parade of flying episodes” by the scenographer and visual artist Beate Poikane will be on view at the INTRO Hall of the Riga Art Space.

Whether hovering above the ground, swimming through the air or swinging with one’s winglike arms - the dream of flight as a psychic and bodily experience can appear in different modes. Despite the everyday occurrence of human flight in aircrafts, they are unable to be as aerodynamic as birds and the fluidity of their movement remains impossible to simulate. Consequently, the dream of flight with its surreal character is by no means exhausted. Often regarded as a yearning for freedom of motion in space, the desire to conquer the air should not be misjudged as merely a rationalised experience. Rather, the dream of flight positions itself as an aesthetic sensation that seduces the dreamer with its dialectic of heaviness and lightness.

In Parade of Flying Episodes Beate Poikāne depicts the lustful, nocturnal experience in dream sequences. The performance Parade of Flying Episodes (2023), Poikāne’s Master’s research in Scenography at the Art Academy of Latvia, was the starting point for this picturesque venture. Together with Andrejs Poikāns, sound artist, and Laima Jaunzema, choreographer and performer, Poikāne took inspiration from Gaston Bachelard's essay Air and Dreams: An Essay on the Imagination of Movement (1943), mythological legends, science, art-historical discourses, but also personal dream experiences to show a series of flying episodes. In this exhibition context Poikāne extends the artistic research and translates the performative moment into space. The audience is guided through sequences of theatre situations that spotlight object-performers as active agents. A sky-like stage set, kinetic sculptures, video works and a sound installation seduce the audience into a twilight state between dreaming and waking. Hence the self-performing environment invites the audience to dream away within the liminality of fiction and reality.

Beate Poikāne | visual artist 

Andrejs Poikāns | sound artist

Viktoria Weber | curator

Beate Poikāne is latvian visual artist and scenographer, based between Riga(LV) and Bergen(NO). Currently she is pursuing a masters degree in Performing Arts at Stockholm University of the Arts, she is alumni of Scenography (MA) and Visual Communication (BA) in Latvian Art academy. Her artistic research manifests in various visual forms, mainly in theatre performance and installations that function as storytelling tools.  Her artistic pursuits revolve around decentering the human performer, introducing non- human elements into the centre of visual dramaturgy.  She explores the impact of fictional narratives on perception of contemporary surroundings, investigating their influence on information interpretation and examining the dynamic between fictional worlds and our relationship with the physical realm.

Andrejs Poikāns is an artist and researcher based between The Hague, Netherlands and Riga, Latvia. In his practice he uses new media techniques to experiment with speculative software art, computer graphics, sound installations, electroacoustic music, and sound performance. As a researcher he is fascinated by the topics of listening modes, sound perception, philosophy of language, media archeology as well as experimental computer music. He is a graduate of New Media Arts BA programme in Liepaja University (2017-2020) and holds an MA in Sonology from The Royal Conservatory The Hague (2020-2023).

Viktoria Weber is a curator and cultural scientist based in Vienna, Austria, and Riga, Latvia. Graduating with a Master’s degree in Expanded Museum Studies, University of Applied Arts Vienna, her focus lies on the spatial visualization of stories of care, healing and bodily experiences in playful and poetic ways.