Maya Kil in Conversation with Curator, Gallery Founder & Lecturer Auguste Petre
Auguste Petre is an independent curator, ASNI Gallery founder and an art lecturer based in Latvia. Such exhibitions as Fieldwork: Invisible exercises by MAREUNROL’S and Sologamy by Katrina Neiburga, both curated by Auguste have been nominated for the Purvitis award. During this exclusive interview with MADE IN BED, Auguste shared her perspective on Eastern European contemporary art history, ins and outs of her curatorial practice and the reality of the present and future of the art market in Latvia.
Auguste Petre. Photo Courtesy: Krista Līksane.
Maya Kil: I am very keen on learning about your academic background. What is it?
Auguste Perte: I have always studied in Latvia but my background is in languages actually. I studied Italian language and culture at the Academy of Culture of Latvia. There was also an art history course but I never wanted to study art. I come from a family of artists, of painters and I was too familiar with the society which I did not want to be a part of. I nevertheless did get ineterested in art history and studied it as my masters in the Academy of Art. That was the moment when I gained interest in how history relates to the techniques and materials of contemporary art. I was particularly interested in how contemporary artists respond to the regimes of socialism and totalitarian history. This topic is very important in Latvia and the Baltics in general. In was about the same time the curatorial program was developed so I slid into that because I was already practicing curation in one way or another before and understood how I could translate my thinking from theoretical knowledge into curation.
MK: I know you are writing a PhD at the moment. Is it art-related?
AP: I just enrolled into a PhD program in the Academy of Art. I have been developing my research for a long time before and I am a lecturer at the institution. It seemed like the right path for my academic potential and professional role. The topic will be New Materiality. One of my aims is to see if it can be integrated as a new term for artists to appropriate.
MK: How important do you think is the role of education in working with Contemporary Arts?
AP: I think it depends on a person. Depends on the way you look at learning. You have to understand what is it you aim for. For me, I know I need someone who inspires me around, someone to be in conversation with or otherwise I get very lazy. But I do know other curators who think studying is pointless because they think they can get all the knowledge through practice. I think it is very important that it is interesting for you to learn from the people who teach you. It can help you find different perspectives on the areas you are interested in. I find that it develops the way of thinking greatly and sometimes you can find out about the areas you were unfamiliar with and did not know will relate to your area of interest. For me education is very important.
MK: Contemporary art history is usually studied through its development in the Western world. In what way is Eastern European contemporary art history different?
AP:I think it is very different and the research on this topic has only now begun. Latvia gained its independence back as a country only approximately 30 years ago. And it does not only relate to the Baltic states but to Eastern Europe in general. When studying art history, we here in Latvia still exclusively study Western art history. We do not dive into our own. It is of course related to the political changes that affected the region in the 20th century when all the cultural thinking was related to political conditions. I am not sure if the contemporary artists of the region, whether they are studying at home or abroad are familiar with the history of Eastern Europe. But I do believe that knowing the history of art in your own region plays a big contextual role.
I think there should be a balance within the educational system between studying the regional and the global. My students at the academy, first and second year, are all Generation Z. I did not expect to have any difficulties in communication with them but I quickly realised that they do not know what the USSR even was. I was also born after the union has fallen apart but I do know about it from memories of my parents and grandparents. The younger generation does not. In my opinion, a good mix would be teaching the classical but also the modern interpretations and thoughts about Soviet and post-soviet times and how it is affecting contemporary art in the Baltics now because it definitely is.
A still from Sologamy (2023-2024) by Katrina Neiburga. Photo Couretsy: Katrina Neiburga.
Sologamy exhibition at Latvian Nationl Museum of Art, 2024. Photo Courtesy: Maya Kil
MK: This year you have curated a multimedia exhibition of Katrina Neiburga’s works Sologamy at the Latvian National Museum of Art. Can you tell a little about the exhibition from the curatorial perspective?
AP:The process was a journey. Katrina is a family friend of mine but she is also an internationally renowned artist and it was a great honour for me to work with her. We started talking about the possibility of the exhibition about two years ago. It was exciting for me that Katrina invited me to work with her because she is an artist who talks fearlessly about personal matters. We had to participate in a contest to earn the right to exhibit in the museum space. Katrina was very keen on the idea of exhibiting there in particular because of the architecture of the Cupola. She already had a vision for it. She as an artist is very aware of what she is doing so as a curator all I had to do was to guide her. Sometimes working with an artist you have to create their ideas for them, but it is not like that with Katrina. Still, it was a process of communication. During the creative process, the artist opened up to me that she was afraid to open the show because of how personal it is to her and her past self, the people who used to be important to her. She was afraid of the strong word Sologamy and how the audience would respond to it. My role then was in comforting her as well as being objective and rethinking the notion in a more global sense, so that it was relatable to the audience. The role of a curator is in all of those parts; communicating, comforting, contextualising the exhibition, and that is not quite the extent of it. Working with designer teams and the curatorial team of the museum is another important aspect. I have also produced the exhibition. Production is usually a separate role but in Latvia curators often have to do this themselves. Creating the budget for an exhibition this big with no sponsors is a big challenge. But all in all, it was a great experience. It reminded me that working with a good team is very important and makes life a lot easier.
MK:What was your experience in creating a new-medium installation for a historically classical institution?
AP: I think it is very important to mention that we do not have a contemporary art museum in Latvia so the National Museum of Art is trying its best to fill this gap and hold contemporary art exhibitions from time to time. So it was not the first time that a new medium exhibition took place in the venue but it was the first time there were that many videos in one show. It turned out to be difficult from the technical point of view because the museum only had three projectors at their disposal and we needed almost thirty. The museum could not just acquire projectors for us because they were concerned about the durability, and how the materials live on. I managed to convince them with the fact that all the rest of the materials used are recyclable and in the end, we got the number of projectors we needed.
Another thing about the venue is that the Cupola hall specifically is not meant for paintings. I was convinced we could bring this space to a more advanced exposition form. One of the goals of the exhibition was to show contemporary art taking the exhibition space into account. To show that we value traditions but there is no harm in adding something more related to today.
I prefer to think of the art museum as a temple and the Cupola is at the very top of the building; the head of the temple. We have intentionally put all the works up overhead so that people have to raise their heads, the movement resembling worshipping. Here they were worshipping the routine things like putting on makeup for example or taking a bath.
Sologamy, 2024. Photo Courtesy: Maya Kil.
Fieldwork: Invisible exercises by MAREUNROL'S, 2023. Photo Courtesy: Pēteris Rūcis.
MK: Which type of exhibitions do you enjoy curating the most?
AP: One of my favourites recently has been a show Fieldwork: Invisible exercises by MAREUNROL'S, who do fashion design but also create soft sculptures out of textiles. The show took place in the Riga Art Space. This exhibition and Sologamy were my favourites because they were so personal. This is what I value the most in art and its not only me, both shows got nominated for the Purvitis Award – the main art award in Latvia. Honesty is one of the most important things in art and in life in general for me. I most enjoy working with artists who are not afraid to talk about a normal routine life, and the reality of being an artist.
From a practical point of view, I most often curate solo shows, rarely working with multiple artists at the same time. Latter is of course interesting from a curatorial perspective but I do not enjoy the fact that in a group show artist has a possibility to hide, changing the subject of the work according to the title of the show.
MK: Is there anything that you wish people knew about the role of a curator?
AP: I think I know what curating is but I can not describe it with words, I can only show it through my work and my practice. There are a lot of things people should know about curating but they do not. Here in Latvia, people and most surprisingly artists do not know what that is. I, for a long time, thought producing was a part of the job but now I am not so sure anymore. When your job is so ambiguous it is very difficult not to overburden yourself and not to take on other people’s work. It is important because I need to maintain my balance but also supervise the process as a whole. Writing is also a part of the job but it is not the core, despite what some think.
I would say it is rather a craft, not so sure it is appropriate to say “the art of curation” because it is practical in fact.
In Latin, curating (Curare) means to take care of something. I do see the job of curator in taking care, but not solely. It is for me not about taking care of the artist but participating in the creation of the exhibition and contextualizing it. It is also in a way about translating the thoughts of an artist to the general public.
Fieldwork: Invisible exercises by MAREUNROL'S, 2023. Photo Courtesy: Auguste Petre.
MK: In your opinion, does response to Contemporary Art depend on the region where it is being exhibited?
AP:It very much does. It leads right back to the question of being educated. Even here in the tiny country of Latvia, the public response depends on the region. The same show in Latgale (a region in the southeast of the country) and in Riga will be perceived differently due to the cultural context. In Riga, there are a lot of museums and galleries and other general social places where you can find a specific crowd. In other places in Latvia finding cultural circles is more difficult. When people do not understand something they automatically try to reject it. A lot of art that is considered provocative here in Latvia would never be considered so in Western Europe.
At the 59th Venice Biennial Latvia was represented by an artistic duo Skuja Braden. They work in ceramics and one of the pieces that they have shown in the biennial was a ceramic chandelier of penises (Selling Water by the River, 2022). The piece instantly became very popular on the news everywhere around the world. The critique of it was very different abroad than it was in Latvia. No other country called it “dirty” or “provocative” while in Latvia it became a hot topic that was discussed even by politicians. Contemporary art culture is still very new to us while conservative thinking is still popular.
MK: Considering the globalization of the world, does Contemporary Crt change according to the region where it was created?
AP:I think it still does depend on the region. Not to dive into the sad subjects, but here in Eastern Europe we feel and see how the war in Ukraine affects the artists. For the past couple of years, a lot of art and exhibitions in the region were made in response to the situation.
I have just visited my artist friends in Paris and I can see so much difference in what issues are topical for them at the moment, their art responds to very different things.
MK: If you were answering the last two questions thirty years ago, would the answers be any different?
AP: I think I would answer the same. Because it is impossible to ignore the soviet past and the way it affects the way of thinking in my generation still. But it does depend on who surrounds you. Coming from a family of artists I would say the same things thirty years ago.
The 1990s were actually a very important time in the development of Latvian contemporary art. It was the first time the term had ever been used. I believe it was 1993 when someone used the word curator for the first time.
Of course since then the time and perception have changed but there were people back then already who were thinking about this and developing contemporary culture.
MK: Do you see any paradigms in what Latvian artists are creating at the moment?
AP:The artists born in the 1980s and 1990s think a lot about the materials they are using. They prioritize it over the concept of the work. I think it is interesting because in the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century as well everyone was all about concepts because they were afraid they would not fit into this new kind of Western trend and since we did not have our conceptual era throughout the 1960s and 1970s artists turned to that later.
Now, nevertheless, I can see that the artists are becoming more free from creating ideas that they themselves do not really understand.
Unparalleled Surrealities, ASNI Gallery. Photo Courtesy: Kristīne Madjare.
MK: As a gallery founder, can you evaluate the art market in Latvia now and compare it to the recent past?
AP:There is no art market in Latvia, this is what I can say. I do not think there has been ever. This is why me and my colleague Elina Drake opened ASNI gallery. We realized that nobody is buying art in Latvia and every artist we know has some kind of a side job. It is not good for their practice, it is not good for the community. A lot of great artists stopped creating while they were still very young because they could not survive. I consider it very important to create the art market but I do realise it will be a hard way. We opened a gallery with a perspective of working with Baltic artists, not only Latvian with a goal of not only inviting Lithuanian and Estonian artists to our space but also bringing Latvian artists outside the border. Lithuania is doing much better in that sense; they have contemporary art museums and collectors. The same in Estonia because they work with Scandinavia. There are a lot of young artists in Latvia who would do great internationally. The purpose of opening the gallery was to include Latvian contemporary art in the worldwide art market. Our target audience is not only art collectors but the new generation that is interested in the objects of luxury like fashion and cars. We want to emphasize that a gallery is not a stiff place, it is not only open to artists. We want to show that any kind of public is welcome.
MK: What do you expect in the future of the Latvian art market and the local art scene in general?
AP: It is unpredictable to me. I do not see much interest in acquiring art so far. As I mentioned before, those who do not understand instantly reject contemporary art. It is different for museums, they will always be there. A museum is a temple indeed. The audience is very used to not having to pay to see art as well, and I do see it as an issue. People are used to paying to hear music for example but are reluctant to pay for seeing art. As for the galleries, I do not know and do not want to assume. While we still depend on the capabilities of the potential buyers, it is our job to make it happen.
A fragment from works from an upcoming show Wanderers by Helēna Heinrihsone curated by Auguste Petre. Photo Courtesy: Kristīne Madjare.
Maya Kil
Interviews Co-Editor, MADE IN BED