Summer photography news in the Baltics
LITHUANIA
26.06.2024 – 27.07.2024, Vilnius Photography Gallery
After declaring independence from the Soviet Union, the euphoria of a new beginning and freedom in Lithuania was soon replaced by the difficulties of economic and ideological transition. There was a pervasive feeling of being on the periphery, of the unknown, of looking to the West and struggling to reflect what was happening around. Concepts such as the state, democracy, identity, and culture were being redefined. People’s heads, stomachs, and wardrobes were being filled with little-known or unknown things.
Using photography, video, audio, archival material, and written narratives, as well as people’s experiences, dreams, and surrounding symbols, the project Regio Nubium explores the most vivid imprints left by the political transformation from communism to neoliberal capitalism. It establishes a dialogue about the human condition at the turn of the ages and the changes that accompany it. The so-called Stalin pipe of the Šalčininkai district and the satellite city of Visaginas embody social changes and the problems of migration and state borders, the promise and fragility of technological progress, the fragmentation of particles, and the transgression of personal and social memory-related internal processes.
04.07.2024 – 25.08.2024, Photography museum, Šiauliai
“One of the earliest photographs by R. Treigys, Tribune (1989), has been selected as the symbolic heart of the exhibition. It represents a venue for delivering impactful messages, reflecting the author’s current stance, marking the inception of his creative journey, and serving as a focal point for retrospective analysis. With a concise array of expressions and themes, R. Treigys has been crafting photographs that are layered and rich in meaning for several decades. He is recognized as a leading figure in the aesthetics of tedium, known for his distinct, recognizable, and adaptable style, ” says Danguolė Ruškienė, curator of the exhibition.
Remigijus Treigys (1961) is a photography artist, member of the Lithuanian Photographers Association, Creators Association and the Klaipėda County Artists’ Association. He serves as an Associate Professor at the Vilnius Academy of Arts, Klaipėda Faculty.
9.09.2024 – 15.09.2024, Nida
International photography symposium in Nida is one of the oldest professional photography events in Lithuania. The first symposium took place in 1973. With few missed years the event survived until this day. From the very beginning the event was trying to follow tendencies of festivals in the world – to meet, to exchange ideas, to create, involve local community and their cultural organizations.
Lectures, artist talks, workshops, exhibition openings, photo and film screenings, concerts will take place during the International Photography Symposium. One photographer will be awarded a Neringa Mayor’s Prize. Full program here: https://www.photography.lt/en/symposium/nida-2024_2969/program_2981.html
11.07.2024 – 17.08.2024, Kaunas Photography Gallery
The exhibition features photographs of Kaunas from the 1960s onwards, submitted to various publications by photographers of the time.
It is the first part of a forthcoming ongoing series of photography exhibitions about Kaunas in photographs, conceived and curated by Donatas Stankevičius and co-authored by Paulius Tautvydas Laurinaitis and Algirdas Šapoka.
The authors plan to continue the exhibition by inviting Kaunas residents to explore their personal archives and pull out not only what they have captured over the past two decades, but also what they see in the city today, even with the help of their smartphones. The photographs taken by the citizens will become the material for the subsequent exhibitions of the series.
20.06.2024 – 13.10.2024, Radvila Palace Museum of the Lithuanian National Museum of Art
Miami Beach, and by extension the entire Florida coast, began to change rapidly in the late 1960s. Along with social change, American photography was also undergoing significant shifts, breaking away from the previously dominant humanist documentary themes and aesthetics. These changes are also evident in the work of Andy Sweet (1953–1982), a photographer from Miami Beach: in his photographs, hidden themes emerge from behind the sun-tanned bodies in the “sun and fun capital of the world”.
In the 1960s, a new trend began to emerge in American photography known as the social landscape. This type of documentary photography observed and reflected on the ordinary phenomena of everyday life, emphasizing the expression of the subjective point of view of the individual (rather than the common human values like before). Sweet also explored everyday themes through the juxtaposition between the environment (a sunny coastline with a seemingly ever-present air of good mood and vitality) and the subjects he observed (the elderly residents of Miami Beach).
ESTONIA
- Leena Lehti, The Sun Will Rise Tomorrow
20.06.2024 — 21.07.2024, Tampere maja, Tartu
Leena Lehti took the photographs using the small pinhole cameras she made and placed them on buildings and roofs in Tampere. The exposure time used in solargraphy can range from several weeks and months to a year, during which the sun draws it’s daily trajectories in a single image as the world tilts as time passes and seasons change.
The sun’s movements are visible above the city skyline as lines of light stacked on top of each other, rising from left to right. People are not inscribed in the solargraphy images, so the city looks deserted. Lehti strives to combine documentary and lyrical pictures to portray the fascinating mystery of the passage of time.
05.07.2024 — 01.09.2024, MONA The Museum of New Art, Pärnu
Tiny bubbles are foam. They can surround you in a bath or amuse you in a champagne glass. Pleasure and beauty. But a giant bubble is akin to a fleeting glimpse of spacetime in its delicacy and transience. Or, depending on the material, it’s like a cocoon that could envelop and shield you (perhaps on the next planet).
For centuries, bubbles have captivated physicists, poets, and philosophers alike.
In the study of bubbles, man-made systems collide – optics, physics, chemistry – striving to explain the marvel. It’s akin to Alice’s wonderland, another dimension altogether. Reality undergoes metamorphosis, space contorts and twists, creating fisheye effect, where the scene expands and contracts. A bubble acts like a prism, dispersing rays into a spectrum of colours. For a fleeting moment it resembles a mirrored world, nothingness, mirage, hallucination, an ever-changing flamboyant realm beyond, a miracle for some and interference for others.
And when the bubble bursts, the two worlds merge, as if nothing has happened.
That instant between the formation and disappearance of the bubble leaves Ruth in awe, compelling her to pursue the beauty and create marvels, endeavouring to capture the miracle and wonder that the bubble embodies.
07.06.2024 – 27.10.2024, Fotografiska Tallinn
Nature is enigmatic. Strong and noble, yet fragile and fleeting. Tamed or wild, groomed or untouched, influenced and altered by humans. Bright and beautiful, yet simultaneously dark and ominous. It is a sacred refuge from which all has evolved. In the exhibition In Bloom, the awe-inspiring meets the delicate, the beautiful encounters the dangerous, and the familiar confronts the unknown.
A blend of contemporary photography, video, sculpture, and installations highlights nature’s placement in contemporary art. The beauty, richness, fragility, and diversity of nature are represented by 17 contemporary artists, all of whom are interested in understanding, discovering, and expressing themselves in this world. Together, they have created an inspiring and conceptual philosophical reflection on the cycle of life and death and the variability of time. Among the renowned international artists, acclaimed Estonian artist Heikki Leis is also represented.
The summer grand exhibition In Bloom also marks Fotografiska Tallinn’s 5th anniversary.
24.05.2024 — 08.09.2024, Fotografiska Tallinn
Rinko Kawauchi is one of the most established artists in Japan and known worldwide for her dreamy, poetic and unique imagery. The new exhibition a faraway shining star, twinkling in hand features artist’s two most recent series, M/E and An interlinking. These works include everything from photographs to video art, light boxes and photo sculptures.
The M/E series is a tribute to Mother Earth, with photos of grand natural phenomena from Kawauchi’s trip to Iceland in 2019. She planned to return to the country to finish the series but was forced to remain in Japan when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. This led to completing the second part of the series with photos from her everyday life and from winter in Hokkaido, Japan.
In the ongoing An interlinking series, Kawauchi has depicted her everyday life for 20 years, often with her daughter as her subject. Taking both a micro and macro perspective has become significant for Kawauchi’s artistry, an approach that becomes particularly apparent in the contrast of these two series: small everyday situations in the face of grand natural phenomena. The letters M/E can also be read as “me” and refer to the connection between the small individual and the massive Mother Earth.
19.04.2024 — 08.09.2024, Fotografiska Tallinn
This exhibition is a window into the world of photographer, collector and madcap Kary H. Lasch (1914–1993) and the golden years around the 1950s. The exhibition shows his classic photographs of Pablo Picasso, Sophia Loren, Salvador Dalí, Brigitte Bardot and other A-list celebrities, but the focus is perhaps more on the zeitgeist and atmosphere he so immortalized.
The exhibition features around 75 photos from Kary H. Lasch’s collection, as well as selected personal items.
27.06.2024 — 28.07.2024, Rataskaevu 6 Art Gallery, Tallinn
The exhibited photos aim to interpret the subconscious world visually, where every detail has a hidden meaning. By shedding light on the “shadow”, the artist reflects her journey to self-awareness. The exhibition consists of self-portraits that were inspired by dreams and have been created in the past few years.
Artist describes: “After journaling about my dreams for months, I noticed a pattern: many of them were about photography. It was then that I picked up a camera and became a fine art photographer. My first subject? My own dreams, and what I could learn about them in the process of creating. Using myself as the subject of my images helps to place myself back in the dreams that inspired me. With the help of Photoshop, I create surreal dreamlike landscapes.”
06.06.2024 – 30.09.2024, Museum of Photography, Gallery Seek, Tallinn
The group exhibition ‘The Body’ at the Museum of Photography brings together contemporary representations of the body by 23 artists, captured by the camera in both photography and video. In addition, the exhibition includes some installation works. Attitudes to the body are influenced by cultural, social and historical factors and a significant part of contemporary art revolves around the body. The gallery presents a multi-layered and wide-ranging picture of the meanings associated with the body. Artists have been inspired by personal or social experiences related to the body, body awareness, identity, traditions, values, etc.
LATVIA
04.07.2024 – 16.08.2024, ISSP Gallery, Riga
The task of Latvian photography researchers in the 21st century is to construct and deconstruct simultaneously – to fill extensive “blank spaces” and critically review existing narratives. The exhibition cycle highlights the subjectivity of every version of history and various facets of local photography. Contemporary artists have created new works in dialogue with photographers and phenomena from different periods. Their alternative historical interpretations illuminate the diversity of perspectives and offer a departure from a potentially didactic canonical version.
23. – 25.08.2024, Laidi manor (Laidi, Laidu pagasts, Kuldīga district)
During the workshop, participants will explore photography as a tool of creation through installation, sculpture, and performative elements. Sara Palmieri will guide the participants into a metaphorical manipulation of reality, constructing surreal scenarios as exercises to liberate the mind and vision, ultimately uncovering new questions and connections beyond our conventional perceptions of the world.
Participants will be encouraged to create an installation driven by spontaneous interaction with themselves and the space around them, starting from the found objects and materials and combining them instinctively, without a preconceived idea. We will use photography both as a tool to document the process, turning it into a performative experience where attempts and ‘errors’ are welcome, as well as the medium for the final outcome – a single image or short series.
Sara will also draw from her experience as a set and installation designer to provide visual and technical guidance in finalising participants’ work.
