Solo exhibition of Artūrs Bērziņš

CHIMERAS

20. 09. – 07.11.

The theme of the exhibition is dehumanization as the collapse of moral qualities, humanism in society, with the advent of the post-democratic era. "Chimeras" is about the creation of the so-called "new people", as has already happened in previous large social projects. For example, how a "Soviet person" was brought up with a certain value system and perception of the world.

But were the social experiments so bizarre as we are we are witnessing them now? Today's propaganda technologies in various parts of the world show fantastic results in turning people into something so grotesque. In an exaggerated-literal way, this is represented through anthropomorphic creatures that are grown or transformed in flasks and other devices under the supervision of engineers and members of an elite society. The "new people" in which admixtures of the anatomy of other creatures are visible - triton, sphinx, centaurid.

Just as in ancient mythology, Chimera was a creature that combined a lion, a goat and a snake, in biology, this word refers to organisms that consist of genetically different cells. In zoology, chimeras are organisms whose cells come from two or more zygotes. In addition to this, there is also the image of the birth of the "god from the machine". The artist likes the connotation with the more common meaning of this word - in everyday life, a chimera is called something unreasonable - a utopian, unrealizable idea, a fiction.

The exhibition will consist of assemblages, light boxes, installations and video projections.

The artist was born on April 20, 1983 in Riga. Received a master's degree at the Department of Visual Communication at LMA. Has held numerous solo exhibitions, including the exhibition "Barotava" (2017) at the Mark Rothko Art Center in Daugavpils. This is already the third solo exhibition of A. Bērziņš at the art gallery MuseumLV (2018), (2021) and (2024). Artūrs Bērziņš has participated in more than 50 group exhibitions and projects in Latvia and abroad. At the same time, the artist also works in the performance genre, between 2017 and 2021, 5 performances by the artist took place in this art gallery. In addition, Artūrs Bērziņš has created scenography for several Dž.Dž. Džillindžer directed performances in the Great Hall of the Daile Theater (2018-2019), as well as numerous videos, animations and short films, including videos for world music stars such as "Seven Lions" and "Cradle Of Filth". In 2010, the influential American Internet portal Weirdworm.com ranked Artūrs Bērziņš in the sixth place in the Top-10 of the most peculiar artists in the world. The artist's works are also used as prints on clothing, attracting the attention of representatives of the world's music and alternative fashion industries; in 2020, pop music diva Billie Eilish came to the London "NME Awards" ceremony with a print of Artūrs Bērziņš's artwork on her shirt. In 2017, Zvaigzne ABC published the artist's debut novel " Spinners of the universe", which is the first example of the weird fiction genre in contemporary Latvian literature, and Zvaigzne ABC has also published "Dialectics of the character" and " Mirror side. One crazy fairy tale ".

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