“Where do poems come from?”

20/05/2018

Photo: Andris Priedīte

The members of the text-group “Orbita” (Arturs Punte, Vladimir Svetlov, Sergej Timofejev and Aleksandr Zapol) constantly are working on the border between literature and visual arts. Their new exhibition is about seeking answers to the trivial question that poets are often asked –“Where do poems come from?”

From where and how do poetic texts arise? Is it a function of mechanical design, or rather of an idiosyncratic chain of revelations? The entropy of creativity, or the rhythm of disintegration? Something in the air, or a special state that one can enter and later exit? Four poets embarked on quests for the truth and now return with their distinct versions of an answer, which have taken the form of four installations within the exhibition spaces of the floating Gallery “Noass” that is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year.

The visual design for the exhibition “Where Does Poetry Come From?” was created by artists Ilva Kļaviņa and Arnis Vatašs. The exhibition will be open until June 22, and it is included in the parallel programme of the Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art.

Here is a photo-reportage from the opening of the exhibition that took place on a nice, warm evening of the May 16 above the waves of Daugava river and on the shore next to the floating art-centre. The last but not least surprise of the opening night was a concert of the Latvian project Mionia. Should we remind one more time that each object as well as every room in the exhibition is just one of the answers (altogether four) to the main question “Where does poetry come from?” So...

FROM THE ORGANIZATION OF CHAOS. 2018 (Aleksandr Zapol). Interactive hydraulic acoustic installation. For chaos organization, the installation activates two elements: water power and collective creativity.

FROM THE WINDOW. 2018. (Sergej Timofejev). Poetry machine, combining four distinct poems, written by the four authors of the house (at their open windows), together with a single video-image—a static shot that simultaneously takes the form of a “natural montage.”

FROM PULSATION. 2018. (Artur Punte and Jekabs Voļatovskis). Electromagnetic acoustic-stringed apparatus for detection of the root musical impulse of poetry, allowing differentiation of a poem’s intonation and rhythm from the meaning of deployed words.

FROM A BURROW. 2018. (Vladimir Svetlov). Spatial composition based on the “wormhole” phenomenon. An attempt to reconstruct the situation that evokes an emotion preceding the appearance of a poem

Curator and the captain of the floating gallery “Noass” Dzintars Zilgalvis and members of “Orbita” (Vladimir Svetlov, Arturs Punte and Sergej Timofejev) are proud to announce the opening of the exhibition

Aleksandr Zapol, a member of “Orbita”, testing a poetry machine, a part of the installation "From the window”

Writer Jānis Joņevs

Artist Roman Korovin (in the center)

Artist Aleksandr Seržant and Dzintars Zilgalvis

Inese Dābola, Baltic region Press & PR of the Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art, and Solvita Krese, director of the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art