Women's Inner Space

Today I stopped by Kr.Barona iela 2 in Riga to see the contemporary art exhibition "Women's Inner Space". The creators describe the exhibition's core idea as the world of a modern woman - a space filled with a woman's strength, wisdom, longing for love and closeness. The exhibition is conceived as a captivating journey into the worlds of various women, capturing the felt sense of life of Latvian women today. A woman's beauty, wisdom and talent to create and inspire are values that generate life and shape Latvia's present.

The exhibition features works by both established and emerging women artists - paintings, photographs, sculptures, installations and textiles. The first works in the exhibition are Liene Macke's plasticine figures, a barn, a greenhouse - as if a grown girl's play in real time and space. In the next room, Māra Brašmane's black-and-white photographs and three works by Diana Dimza-Dimme, of which "100 key words for my space" spoke to me most. The last piece resembled an improvised cabinet of folk song concepts - terms that make up a woman's world: relationships, silence, path, Latvia, truth, to be joyful, etc.

    
Ilze Avotiņa's painting "Dream of Happiness" (2009)                                                                                      "Tenderness"

Further on - paintings overflowing with bright colours; a room where you can sit on an old sofa and watch filmed footage of what girls carry in their handbags; worn cherished trinkets carefully arranged in precise squares like icons; sanitary pads levitating in the air and folk wisdom along the lines of - "if a woman has her period, she cannot plant cabbages, otherwise they will wither"; large painted ceramic vessels decorated with portraits of socially recognisable women.

An interesting and thought-provoking photography series by Monika Pormale, „Miss World", where each woman's image reflects her individuality, and each woman is beautiful and unique - each one a Miss Uniqueness.

 
Monika Pormale's photography series „Miss World" (2009)

Each visitor to the exhibition receives a rose - blue or red - and after viewing the exhibition can also choose a postcard with an image of one of the exhibited artists' works. For example, M. Pormale's "Miss Antarctica".

The exhibition runs until 30.11.2011, open on weekdays and Saturdays 12:00–19:00, and Sundays 12:00–17:00. Ticket price - Ls 1.50.