Terra Incognita: Familiar Infinity
Location: Kumu courtyard
By the end of the noughties, satellite images of the Earth had become widely available. It created the illusion of a diligently mapped and archived world where exploration has been stripped from its meaning.
Where could we draw the modern boundaries of terra incognita? Cutting-edge science can bring us images of more than 13 billion-year- old galaxies. Maybe it still makes sense to search for a closer unknown. If the thoroughly mapped world becomes a museum of itself, a museum in it and its archives may become the new exotic place and a site of exploration. Terra Incognita takes the relatively unused Kumu courtyard as its starting point. Architectural garden walks and the cosmodrome-like courtyard create the feeling of a utopian way station – and the location does connect two contrasting areas: a tunnel at one end of the garden leads to a district with Soviet architecture while stairs at the other end descend to Kadrioru park from the 18th century.
The artists have turned their attention to the intriguing confluence and create new branches for exploration. The paths can also lead to terra incognita in the explorers themselves.
Works exhibited are uniting the metal from museum and of a meteorite. There will be an actual connection between Jupiter and visitors’ heartbeats. The sounds recorded in courtyard will be composed into a storm wave and thousands of blooming flowers will form a message readable by NATO pilots and a digital cavern is created in Kumu. We can witness the digital sheltering that grows over the whole courtyard.
The exhibition is a special extension of the Riga Sculpture Quadriennal 2016.
Artists:
Kasper Bosmans (BE)
Aksel Haagensen (EE)
Jacob Jessen (DK)
Marianne Jõgi (EE)
Hanna Piksarv (EE)
Kim de Ruysscher (BE)
Kati Saarits (EE)
Augustas Serapinas (LT)
Sten Saarits / Sven Sosnitski (EE)
Philippe van Wolputte (BE)
Armands Zelchs (LV)
Curator: Kirke Kangro
Supporters:
Estonian Culture Endowment, Flanders State of Art, Hasartmängumaksu Nõukogu, Latvian Culture Endowment, Flores Aed OÜ, Akukon OÜ, Chika OÜ
