Artists: Ivars Gravelejs, Petra Pětiletá

From 28/03/2012 to 22/04/2012

Some time ago, IVARS GRAVLEJS and PETRA PĚTILETÁ decided to leave for Riga for one year. Ivars‘s origin are in Riga and he, therefore, wanted to rediscover the city of his childhood. The duo has moved into a new flat, Ivars found a job and both so became a part of this city. The result of this one year long stay is the exhibition project RIGA, which they‘re now presenting in FUTURA : KARLIN STUDIOS exhibition space.

Since 1991, in Latvia, the neoliberal reforms are in progress. The first ten years of freedom has created in here, as much as in other post Soviet republics, the new oligarchy. Latvian industry lost within this time 40% of its production capacities. The social inequalities are in a constant growth and the whole country is falling into bigger and bigger circles of unemployance : contemporary 23% of Latvians are without a job. More then 12% of the population works abroad. As the economical growth starting in the early 90‘s was based on big loans from foreign banks, the economical crisis of the last years have smashed the “baltic tiger” even stronger then other countries, and the gowernment had to ask the IMF for help.