The broadest display of NSRD's work opened in Vilnius
On November 21, in Vilnius, the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (LCCA), in partnership with the Lithuanian National Museum of Art (LNMA), opened NSRD: Information About a Transformed Situation – an exhibition dedicated to the legendary Latvian avant-garde music and art group Workshop for the Restoration of Unfelt Feelings (NSRD) and their associates. This exhibition, on view at the Radvila Palace Museum of Art of the LNMA until February 23, 2025, is the broadest display of NSRD's work to be organized outside of Latvia in 35 years and provides an opportunity for international audiences to be introduced to the recent history of Latvian underground art and its continued influence today. The exhibition has been curated by Māra Traumane (Art Academy of Latvia) and Māra Žeikare (Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art).
Action 102 Years of Mies van der Rohe, 1988. Photo: Imants Žodžiks
NSRD, as an interdisciplinary group, was active in the fields of music, literature, performance and video art. The group was founded in 1982 by Juris Boiko and Hardijs Lediņš, who were joined by their long-term associates Inguna Rubene (Černova) and Imants Žodžiks. However, their projects often involved a much wider circle of participants, and not all of the projects developed by the members of this wider group – which included actions, design, architecture proposals and discotheques – can be linked to NSRD directly.
NSRD: Information About a Transformed Situation. Exhibition view. Photo: Arterritory.com
The exhibition NSRD: Information About a Transformed Situation is focused on the various models of creative collaboration seen in the work of the group from the late 1970s till 1989. Despite the restrictions of the Soviet time, these activities allowed the introduction of cutting-edge avant-garde, new wave and postmodern aesthetics into the Latvian cultural scene.
NSRD. Zū zā ti ti ti. Song lyrics. 1987. Hardijs Lediņš archive, Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art
NSRD and the activities that surrounded it hold legendary status within the history of Latvian experimental culture and have inspired many contemporary artists and musicians. In the exhibition, the continuity of the legacy of NSRD is reflected in the works of the artists Maija Kurševa, Evita Vasiļjeva, Kaspars Groševs, the text group Orbīta (Semjons Haņins, Artūrs Punte, Vladimirs Svetlovs, Sergejs Timofejevs) and the band Alejas (Kirils Ēcis, Spāre Vītola, Reinis Žodžiks).
The opening of the exhibition on November 21 featured contributions from Latvian artists and musicians, including an atmospheric video concert by Alejas, as well as live performances from the musician and performance artist Elizabete Balčus and the music project Approximate Fluctuations (Inguna Rubene and Lauris Vorslavs).
Elizabete Balčus at the Radvila Palace. Photo: Arterritory.com
For the occasion of the exhibition, a reissue of the NSRD vinyl record was released in collaboration with the Belgian music label STROOM. A bilingual publication on NSRD (LCCA, 2016) and the vinyl record will be on sale at the museum and the LCCA online shop.
Upper image: NSRD: Information About a Transformed Situation. Exhibition view. Photo: Arterritory.com
