Art Riga Fair 2018

Latvia turned 100 in 1918, and in the autumn of 2018 ART RIGA FAIR turned five. The fifth edition opened on 27 November at the Latvian Railway History Museum and ran through 2 December, and the fair built its entire social programme that year around the centennial: a hundred pairs of hand-knitted Latvian mittens, "100 cimdi Latvijai 100," installed by twelve craftswomen from a Riga seniors' centre.

The fifth edition

By 2018 ART RIGA FAIR had settled into an annual rhythm: 2014 the first year, then 2015, 2016 and 2017, and now the fifth edition, opening on 27 November. The fair described itself, across its 2018 pages, with the line it had carried since the debut:

ART RIGA was established in 2014 to mark Riga's status as European Capital of Culture, with transactions exceeding half a million euros. ART RIGA FAIR, artriga.com (2018)

and set out what it promised for the year:

Each year we offer a selection of over 1000 paintings, sculptures, graphical high quality works, covering all price segments from well-known blue-chip artists to the newest young and emerging contemporary artists. […] 500 chairs, audio, video systems, WiFi, wine café, new art bookselling. A multilingual press centre will be in operation throughout the fair, and there will be live broadcasting on the web. ART RIGA FAIR, artriga.com (2018)

"100 cimdi Latvijai 100": a hundred pairs of mittens for a hundred years

The centrepiece of the fair's social programme was a mitten installation, its own text explaining both the craft and the occasion:

RIGA ART FAIR 2018: SOCIAL PROGRAM. Centre for Opportunities for Retired People presents installation "Latvia 100." […] the installation "100" will be made using one hundred pairs of Latvian traditional mittens. It is dedicated to the centennial of the Republic of Latvia […]. For a year, experienced artisans in traditional knitwork Edite Baikovska, Edite Balode, Arija Cekule, Maiga Feldmane, Vija Jablonska, Ruta Menge, Ilze Pereira-Zheraldesa, Dzintra Petersone, Veneranda Rudzite, Dzidra Sabule, Erna Saleniece, Marite Shvarce etc. have knitted mittens using traditional ornaments and colour of different regions of Latvia. After the installation is ready, a photo session for all interested persons will take place. artriga.com, Social Programme page (2018)

The craftswomen worked out of the Centre for Opportunities for Retired People (Pensionāru iespēju centrs), Maiznīcas iela 3–4, Rīga.

The makers, twelve named on the fair's own program page: Edīte Baikovska, Edīte Balode, Ārija Cekule, Maiga Feldmane, Vija Jablonska, Ruta Meņģe, Ilze Pereira-Žeraldesa, Dzintra Pētersone, Veneranda Rudzīte, Dzidra Sabule, Erna Saleniece and Mārīte Švarce, "and others."

The fair's mission, restated for 2018

Alongside the practical pages, the site carried a mission essay titled "ART Traffic & People Traffic," reused and updated year to year. It closes on an aspiration:

We expanded the boundaries of the generally accepted, and explored the world through David Datuna's optical lenses. […] The experience of Italy and Switzerland shows how European-scale events are born from private initiatives once dismissed by skeptics: ART BOLOGNA and ART BASEL, for which the world is now too small… So why shouldn't Riga become the new Basel? ART RIGA FAIR, "ART Traffic & People Traffic," artriga.com (2018), translated from Latvian

Thanks to the ambassadors of ART RIGA's participating countries, and to the President of Latvia, Raimonds Vējonis, for his support, and to visitors for their enthusiasm! Thanks to the many participants, technical and information partners with whose help we have created ART RIGA 2018. ART RIGA FAIR, "ART Traffic & People Traffic," artriga.com (2018), translated from Latvian

A week of talks, films and stand presentations

The full day-by-day schedule is on the Program tab; a few threads are worth pulling out here.

The VIP and media preview on opening night, 27 November, was built around a live performance by Anna Kolosova, who had also shown work at the fair's first edition in 2014. The next morning brought the conference "Art Travel. Wonders of the World," followed that evening by "SLOW-MOVER," a programme of short films and video art. Its curator explained the idea:

This was an old idea, especially for art-lovers, who even in cinema want to see nothing but exhibitions and artists. […] There are a lot of movies inside contemporary art, but they are still really low-priced. The mission of "SLOW-MOVER" is to change that. And, of course, the main reason is to make a show! Lisa Plavinsky, art historian, member of AICA, artriga.com (2018)

The 2018 programme drew on video and film work by, among others, Oleg Zak Ponomariov, Sergey Shutov (a Venice Biennale 2001 participant credited as one of the fathers of Soviet video art), Andrey Yagubsky and Ulia Ovchinnikova, alongside footage of Dmitry Plavinsky.

On Thursday 29 November, Andris Teikmanis chaired the roundtable "Documento Futurae," joined by the Geneva-based art critic Simon Hewitt and Dr. Art. Aleksandrs Rapaports. Teikmanis' own project note frames the stakes:

Documento Futurae is an artistic research project conducted at the Art Academy of Latvia […], developed and elaborated as a self-sufficient approach to use artistic means to address, challenge and forecast future. […] Eight Future Art Scenarios is an example […] demonstrating how proposed political, economic and technological uncertainties should be used to forecast not only future scenarios but also future art role models. Andris Teikmanis, "Documento Futurae," artriga.com (2018)

The same afternoon brought a presentation of Paquita Escofet Miró's private collection from France; Friday 30 November paired a Krokin Gallery (Moscow) stand presentation with the roundtable "Art in the City Environment," an explicit continuation of a discussion first held at ART RIGA 2016, again moderated by Igors Vatoļins and again featuring Karavan Gallery's Shalva Khakhanashvili and Mitki founder Dmitry Shagin, this time alongside Everything Is Art curator Dmitry Goryachkin and journalist Vladimir Obrosov. The fair's public run closed on Saturday 1 December with gallery stand presentations and open conversations with artists; the fair itself stayed open through Sunday 2 December.

Galleries and artists, by country

The fair's own "Galleries" index for 2018, reproduced here by the country each name carries on the site:

Country	Galleries, artists and highlights
Latvia	host gallery Happy Art Museum; Art Embassy; Tifana; Antonia Gallery; Jēkaba Gallery; Art Gallery 19; Oforta Ģilde and its mobile etching print workshop; Rita Pranca Art; Gallery Tornis (Sigulda); Skulme Generation; Exhibition Hall Pinakotēka; Gallery Burtveidols; Portretu Galerija; Arts Studio; Birkenfelds Gallery; Egons Persevics (Liepāja); Braslins; Alesja Melentjeva; Art V International; AGNI; Yegor Buimister; Euroclub; Inner Light (Jūrmala); publisher Neputns; the "Art Therapy" strand with Motus Vita; Andris Teikmanis' "Documento Futurae" (Art Academy of Latvia); the Rothko Centre, Daugavpils; Vladislavs Lakše's "Rīgas Centrāltirgus" project
Russia	Everything Is Art Gallery; Krokin Gallery; Mitki founder Dmitry Shagin; SPBART.com (St Petersburg); Gallery Kultproekt; Gallery Fine Art; "Millenium," Viktor Krotov (Moscow); Sveta Repina (Moscow); a Pskov museum presentation by Dmitrijs Kondratjevs; a 19th-century Russian classic art collection; Galina Dulkina's porcelain
France	Karavan Gallery; Paquita Escofet Miró's private collection; Olivier de Rycke
Germany	Genia Chef; Ira Kitzki Gallery (Frankfurt); Frida Fine Arts Gallery
Switzerland	Sergey Dubroff; Modern Masters Gallery; Dalí Universe (IAR Art Resources Ltd), the touring authenticated-Dalí exhibitor already documented on this site's 2016 edition
Italy	Bora Arte
Georgia	Baratashvili; a sculpture workshop by Gocha Huskhivadze
Kazakhstan	Assol Sas
Indonesia	Bali Art
Belgium	Art Assistant
Iceland	Ulfur
Venezuela	Karim Borjas
USA	David Datuna
Belarus	DK Gallery
Ukraine	Art Ego Gallery
Poland	Van Golik Gallery
Czech Republic	Jan Saudek
Israel	Reuven Shezen
Uzbekistan	Academy of Arts of Uzbekistan

China and Mexico also appear in the fair's promotional description of the 2018 line-up.

Organized by Happy Art Museum

ART RIGA FAIR 2018 was run, as in every edition since 2014, by SIA Happy Art Museum, based at the "Galleria Riga" centre on Dzirnavu iela 67, together with Euroclub. Its organizers that year were Dags Vidulejs and Gaļina Maksimova.