4th Latvia Ceramics Biennale Martinsons Award 2023

Martinsons Award is a sweeping international juried exhibition and the central event in the biennale calendar. From a record 685 submissions from 71 countries, an international jury selected 64 artists for the final cut, acquiring 59 exhibits for the spectacular group display. The Biennale is organised by the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Ceramics in cooperation with the Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre, curated by Valentīns Petjko and Aivars Baranovskis.

This year, the biennale theme is “Troubled Waters”. In most creation myths worldwide, water is the element that brings new life. A substance from which a divine power separates the earth, life and everything that is. The restless flow of water has become an apt, compelling metaphor for flight of thought, a fine material approximation for the physically intangible. Our archetypical perspective on ceramics is tied to reigning in the troubled waters – arresting their flow in a body of clay – which is exactly why the close relationship of water and ceramics is as old as the human ability to work this material.

Photo by Didzis Grodzs. Courtesy of Daugavpils Mark Rothko Art Centre.

Inner turbulence takes part in the Biennale. The work is composed of four wall pieces and an animation. Each piece uses replicas of pill blister packs as a construction element. Through repetition, each object loses its individual value and gets decontextualized to become a blank canvas. With this work, I invite the public to reflect on the use and abuse of medications. The mural format refers to the portrait through an image based on the human representation, which is subsequently altered and derivatives in an abstraction. This transformation reflects the acts and desires sought in our routines to achieve well-being. However, these desires can become obsessions, crossing the limits of health. The proposal tries to analyze the transformation and its consequences.⁣