I BIT THE SKIN OF A GLASS LAGOON. Laimdota Malle, Anastasia Shneps-Shneppe, Rebecca Korn.

The exhibition "I Bit the Skin of a Glass Lagoon" explores the fragile boundary between body and landscape, where the “glass lagoon” emerges as a metaphor for a world that is beautiful, delicate and intimate, while the “bite into its skin” signifies a bodily closeness to the environment – simultaniously sensual and violent.

Artists Laimdota Malle (LV), Anastasia Shneps-Shneppe (LV), and Rebecca Korn (UK) work across installation art and interdisciplinary research. Malle’s sculptural works traverse the porous line between inner and outer landscapes, balancing the organic and synthetic to reflect on posthuman ecologies. Shneppe and Korn's artistic practice examine the body as a vessel of generational memory, bringing together autoethnography, hydrofeminist theory, and material inquiry.

The exhibition is organized by the municipal institution Exhibition Hall “Riga Contemporary Art Space” and supported by the Riga City Municipality, University for the Creative Arts, NURME Brewery.

Foto: Anastasia Shneps-Shneppe, Rebecca Korn “Water blossom”, 2022

Environmental art exhibition. SHIFTS

backwards, left

downwards, upwards

forward, right

The title of the exhibition Shifts proposes a multi-layer dialogue on the concept of environmental art and its multiple interpretations. Simultaneously, ‘shifts’ describes the transformation undergone by the former Department of Interior Design and Decoration of Art Academy of Latvia founded by Voldemārs Šusts in 1964, currently known as Department of Environmental Art.

Through interaction with the ideas presented at the show, the viewer can also become acquainted with a vast range of artistic devices. While accentuating the diversity of the artistic process and exploring various methods of research, including transference of the physical to the digital environment and incorporation of virtual and enhanced realities, as well as systems created in the data realm, the artists touch upon an extensive array of personally and socially relevant subjects. The X, Y, Z parameters; time; thought: these components reveal the fluidity of the world. The existing boundaries and the currently defined space are subjected to re-examination every second. Experience serves as inspiration for an abundance of ever-new combinations, demonstrating the diverse potential of a single point of departure.

The contributing artists are lecturers and students of environmental art at the Art Academy of Latvia:

Kristaps Aizstrauts, Jānis Auniņš, Evelīna Bindere, Oto Bulats, Gints Gabrāns, Kaspars Gobiņš, Paula Ikase, Laima Kalniņa, Ļena Kiseļčuka, Raimonds Krastiņš, Katrīna Lipšāne, Alvis Misjūns, Hugo Pētersons, Anna Saprikina, Alise Sedleniece, Linda Vilka, Martins Vizbulis, Dana Vetrova, Everita Vītola, Konstantīns Višņevskis, Ērika Zābele.

The exhibition was mounted by the Department of Environmental Art of the AAL Faculty of Audio-Visual Media Art in association with Riga Contemporary Art Space, and supported by the Riga City Municipality.

Kristaps Ģelzis & Ģirts Bišs. PULPIT | Baltā nakts

Kristaps Ģelzis & Ģirts Bišs

Pulpit

2013

The nearly seven-metre object featuring a ventilation fan mounted on the top of it is a joint project between the artist Kristaps Ģelzis and the composer Ģirts Bišs. The Pulpit was

conceived as a symbol of absolution and presents a way of salvation through confessing one’s sins via mobile phone.

‘Fans are set up in stuffy and hot places. A sinner lies between sticky bedsheets and stares at the ceiling where fan blades keep rotating relentlessly like the Samsara Wheel. The Apocalypse Now epic film by Francis Ford Coppola opens with a sequence of a ceiling fan chopping air, hauntingly reminding the occupant of the bed of Vietnam War helicopters and the jungle thicket inferno he has lived through. The Christian Church has accumulated centuries’ worth of experience in tending to the human soul. Contemporary art offers a contemporary take on confession: in addition to meditation, you can also confess your sins by sending the Pulpit a text message. And receive absolution. In the words of Martin Luther, ‘where there is forgiveness of sins, there is also life and salvation’. As you listen to a vocal piece by Ģirts Bišs set to a passage from Chapter Six of Matthew’s Gospel in Latin, you may perhaps find peace of mind. The Christian Church believes that sin yearns to remain anonymous: that is when it holds power over us.’ These words were written back in 2013 by Anna Iltnere.

In 2015, the Pulpit object brought a Purvītis Prize nomination to Kristaps Ģelzis and Ģirts Bišs. The work went on show in the exhibition by the 2015 Purvītis Prize shortlisted artists at the Arsenāls Exhibition Hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art.

About the Authors

One of the most vivid and interesting figures in the Latvian contemporary art history, Kristaps Ģelzis (1962) is an artist who is known for radical shifts in his expression and an enviable knack for always keeping the artistic intrigue alive. Ģelzis has a sensitive command of the symbolic elements inherent to the local context, interpreting them expertly in his art, as well as the courage it takes to be openly ironic about current social trends. Kristaps Ģelzis won the Purvītis Prize in 2011. He represented Latvia at the 54th Venice Biennale with his Artificial Peace. Contemporary Landscape show.

Ģirts Bišs (1967), a composer, also holds a master’s degree in audiovisual arts from the Vilnius Academy of Arts (2011) and has furthered his education at various international summer schools of art and music. Focusing mostly on electroacoustic composition, Ģirts Bišs writes original scores for film soundtracks; he also works in photography and visual arts. Bišs is the winner of a number of significant awards, including the 2005 Lielais Kristaps National Film Award in the Best Composer category.

Supported by: Riga City Municipality

Improvisation. FLUIDARITIES

As part of exhibition I Bit into the Skin of a Glass Lagoon 
Multimedia performance at Riga Contemporary Art Space 
 
The concert evening Fluidarities, as part of the exhibition I Bit into the Skin of a Glass Lagoon, is conceived as a multilayered, living encounter between sound, movement, and texture. Offering a continuous, flowing improvisation where the styles of different artists meet and overlap, and various sound materialities collide, the viewer is immersed in a spatial, multisensory experience of fluidity, boundaries, and interaction. 
Sarma Gabrēna will open the evening with a sound performance joined by dancers, creating a choreographic dialogue between the voice of the cello, the body, and the space. This will be followed by musician and vocal artist Kristiāna Kārkliņa, whose work balances pure singing with experimental vocal techniques. Next will be Evija Ābrama’s noise art project R3YWYA, and the evening will conclude with Arvis Ahuns and his project EIII, which represents electronic music with an emphasis on texture, structure, and the vanishing of sound. 
Projections and visualizations will be created live by artist Laimdota Malle, using slowed-down pouring techniques and their magnifications. 
After the improvisation part, the evening will continue with a DJ set by Sarma Gabrēna and Laimdota Malle. 
 
About the artists 

Sarma Gabrēna is a Latvian cellist and sound artist who expands the expressive possibilities of the cello by combining classical performance with experimental improvisation and spatial thinking. Her works often balance between acoustic and electroacoustic, fragility and strength, creating flowing, sensuous soundscapes. Over time, Sarma has actively engaged in interdisciplinary projects, including the performance collective Grab. Her musical language emerges in process. It is multilayered — the cello becomes a breathing, textural instrument that converses with space, movement, and the listener’s inner landscape.  
https://soundcloud.com/tesarma 

Kristiāna Kārkliņa is a musician and vocal artist whose creative work focuses on exploring the contrast between pure and rough voice, balancing on the edge, and gradually dissolving it. She has worked across various genres — from the metal band Eschatos and the neoclassical project Pamirt to collaborations with the radical improvisation project DZZ, noise artists Elssa, the bands Velnezers, Black Earth Black Sky, Nekad, Holy Lamb, and experimental solo projects in sound art.  
https://soundcloud.com/kristiana-karklina 

R3YWYA is a noise art project by Evija Ābrama. Through improvisation with sound, the artist explores processes of communication and how noise becomes a part of space. Her works reveal an eco-acoustic approach — sounds are perceived not only as material but as spatial relations, where rhythm both fractures and mirrors the noises of the surrounding environment. In her practice, Evija combines the analogue and the digital — old tapes merge with contemporary synthesizers. This interplay unfolds layers of nostalgia and invites us to reflect on how our memories transform over time and how earlier sound worlds fade away. 
https://soundcloud.com/r3ywya 

Arvis Ahuns’ project EIII is an experimental electronic music project that merges everyday objects and environmental sounds with contemporary electronic music elements to create immersive sound experiences. After releasing his debut album UNDULATIONS in 2024, EIII began performing actively, giving more than 15 concerts in Latvia and Estonia, collaborating with several international artists, including new media artist Oleksandr Sirus, vocal artist Eleonora Campi, and musician Reinis Jaunais. EIII’s compositions Lateral Undulation and a nem oia received the Audience Award in the producer competitions FILTRS I (2023) and FILTRS II (2025), organized by Kinetic, Radio Naba, and Erica Synths. 
https://soundcloud.com/eiii_eiii_eiii 
 
Supported by: Riga City Municipality 

MAREUNROL’S. Invisible Sounds, Imaginary Scenes. | Baltā nakts 

Invisible Sounds, Imaginary Scenes. 2025

Sound object 

Location: Riga City Council Vestibule

In an age when the fragmented information of the virtual world has flooded the human consciousness, it is easy to forget that it is impossible to know everything. The only way to obtain absolute information is to ask all possible questions. The media now create a cacophonous parallel world in which information overload creates frustration and an inability to distinguish true knowledge from fake news.  

A press conference console, visually designed to resemble a church pulpit, serves as a metaphorical symbol of the nature of media — the work reflects on information warfare and the voice as a deliberately provocative tool that polarizes, deceives with falsehoods, and is present in global geopolitical conflicts, wars, and dishonest leaders. The imagined images of current processes encourage us to look more attentively, consciously, and responsibly, assessing with irony our relevance. This object reflects upon the human psyche's responses to the noise of the chaotic environment; it indicates a growing alienation, which in this context can be interpreted as a distancing from each other but also from us, nature, faith, and a higher truth. Is everything really as I have imagined? There are many questions, but in the meantime, the conference has only a few minutes left to run. 

Invisible Sounds, Imagined Scenes is a sound collage or poem created by the poet Marija Luīze Meļķe in the style of fragmentation. Listening to the soundtracks entering the field of consciousness, our brain perceives everything – noise, intonation, timbre of voice, words, opinions, sometimes without even realising that every nuance of what we hear is affecting the psyche and subconsciously creating an endless cacophony of sounds. 

With this object, MAREUNROL'S returns to the symbolism of birds – a metaphor for a higher power that lifts the broken and subjugated human being. Birds have historically played the role of God's messengers, connecting the temporal and the transcendent. Here it serves as a reminder of the essentials in human beings. This raises the question of whether we should continue to make noise or leave space for silence and peace. 
 
About artists 
 
MAREUNROL'S is a Riga-based artist duo – Mārīte Mastiņa-Pēterkopa and Rolands Pēterkops. Their creative work focuses on narrative and reflection on the world around them, expressed in various artistic disciplines – including fashion design, fabric and textile sculptures, fashion collections, set design, installations, video and audio works, as well as opera and theatre costume design. MAREUNROL'S simultaneously pushes and challenges the boundaries. Their works are constructions of the mind, imagination, and senses that act as sensitive antennae, picking up the vibrations of their times, deconstructing them, bringing out the essence, and expressing it through the universal language of fashion. With this approach, they continuously invite the audience to see the world from new perspectives. 
 
The duo has participated in numerous international competitions, festivals, biennales, and group exhibitions outside Latvia. In 2009, both artists won two main prizes at the 24th International Hyeres Fashion and Photography Festival, and in 2016, they were among ten European nominees for the prestigious International Woolmark Prize.  
 
In 2019, their retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts and Design became the most visited exhibition at the museum that year and was nominated for the Latvian Public Media Award in the category Best Visual Art Exhibition. MAREUNROL'S exhibition Invisible Exercises was nominated for the 2025 Purvītis Prize. The creative team will represent Latvia in the Latvian Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. 

Supported by: Riga City Municipality, Baltā nakts, Dūrmuiža, Kurzeme Planning Region, Zemlika Festival of Music, Art and Local Harvest.  
 
Thanks to:  Edgars Briedis, Gerds Lapoška, Miks Magone, Inga Mastiņa, Marija Luīze Meļķe, Olivers Tarvids. 
 

Rihards Vītols. ECOTOPIA

Rihards Vītols’ exhibition will present works created over the past ten years, tracing a creative journey where observations of nature intertwine with technological exploration and speculative future scenarios. Using sound, video, digital media and objects, Vītols examines the fragile and often contradictory relationship between the civilization and the biological systems on which humanity depends.

The exhibition invites viewers into a space of reflection, where the future is not portrayed through dystopian visions, but through an intimate engagement with the fragility of the present – revealing its deeper potential.

Artist Rihards Vītols investigates the environmental impact of the Anthropocene, creating works that reflect on the interplay between nature, environment and technology. His artistic process incorporates scientific methodologies, exploring concepts through experimentation. Using self-made speculative devices, he transforms the data and visualizations generated by these experiments into artifacts, objects, and multimedia artworks.

Rihards Vītols holds a Ph.D. in Digital Art and Experimental Media from the University of Washington (USA). He studied at the Academy of Media Arts Cologne and Bauhaus University Weimar, and earned a Master’s degree in New Media Art from Liepaja University.

Leonards Laganovskis. CLEAN CUT

The Clean Cut solo exhibition by Leonards Laganovskis comprises works from the last two years alongside art recognised as canonical in Latvian art history and exemplified by Clean Cut, a painting that came to be viewed as one of the symbols for the end of an era at the turn of the 1980s and 1990s.

As a conceptualist, Leonards Laganovskis spurns visual depiction of the reality or subjects it to a systemic reading of ideas. And yet Laganovskis’ body of work defies consolidation into a single whole; his art is too multi-layered for that, defined by profound intellectual structures encompassed by irony, and imagery in equal measure. This has prompted art critics to widen the theoretical boundaries and refer to poetic or ironic conceptualism. Certainly, Laganovskis’ way of thought has been informed by countless works by postmodern philosophers; however, the artist approaches any theory with a dose of irony, as if suspecting that it will be replaced by a new one before long.

Leonards Laganovskis (1955) graduated from Art Academy of Latvia and contributed to iconic exhibitions like Nature. Environment. Man (1984) and Riga-Lettische Avantgarde (1988), an integral part of Latvian art history. In the 1990s, Laganovskis lived in Berlin and had almost twenty solo exhibitions in Germany; he received numerous awards, also winning grants and scholarships from the Berlin Senate Department for Culture (Germany), Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity (Canada) and Künstlerhaus Bethanien (Germany). He has given talks and curated a number of art shows.

Gints Gabrāns.TRANSFORMATIONS

TRANSFORMATIONS is a five-part exhibition cycle created using Artificial Intelligence (AI). It spans the period from 2019 to 2026, culminating in an exhibition to be held in the Main Gallery of the Riga Contemporary Art Space. This cycle explores human interaction with artificial intelligence and algorithmic systems, as well as the human relationships shaped and influenced by these systems.

Gints Gabrāns is an installation and multimedia artist who has produced numerous projects in Latvia and abroad. In 2007 with his project “Paramirrors”, Gabrāns represented Latvia at the 52nd Venice Biennale.

The exhibition is organized by the municipal institution Exhibition Hall “Riga Contemporary Art Space” and supported by the Riga City Municipality