Technique/Medium
Ēriks Božis’ Sheltering Sky was fist exhibited at the artist’s solo show The Manual (2008) held at the exhibition hall of the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art in Andrejsala’s building block workshop (curator Solvita Krese). The leitmotif of this exhibition was the everyday life of the public in an urban setting, for which the artist offered unexpected angles and ironic interpretations. The author himself has described the exhibition thusly: “The works on show discern the erroneous ideas of the public and demonstrate its strange chain of conclusions. I am trying to decipher and display the logic of a modern-day user, the average Latvian’s typically desperate optimism over yet another error, exemplified in the phrase, ‘we wanted the best, but it turned out like always’.” In addition to earlier work, such as Loggias and Best Before, several works made for the exhibition were also on show, with Sheltering Sky among them. It’s a fragment of a drop ceiling such as are often seen inside offices and stores.
In 2007/2008, Božis received a nomination for the Purvītis prize for the work. Later on the work was displayed in the group exhibition Alternativa at the WYSPA Institute of Art in Gdańsk, Poland.
A replica of the work is on show at Mobile Museum. The Next Season.
Ēriks Božis’ theses from the solo show The Manual
A drop ceiling, laminate flooring, plastic windows, daylight lamps – it’s a set of forgeries required to live a real life.
1. Is it a “drop” (iekarināmie) or “attachable” (piekaramie) ceiling?
2. Daylight lamps. “Daylight” is an awesome name for cold and unseemly artificial lightning that’s harmful to the eyes.
3. The title of Bertolucci’s film.
4. The affinity of the square texture to the barred cages of the loggias (cf. the work The Logic of the Loggia).
Ēriks Božis (1969) is an artist who uses different forms of visual arts. He has made installations, art for public spaces, video installations and photos. He graduated from the Restoration Department of the Liepāja Art and Design Secondary School and has participated in exhibitions since 1992. Ēriks Božis’ works have been featured at the Latvian National Museum of Art, the Latvian Museum of Photography, Stockholm’s Moderna Museet, the Manifesta 2 European Biennial for Contemporary Art, the Rauma Biennale in Finland, the 11th Venice Biennale of Architecture, the International Contemporary Art Festival Survival Kit and elsewhere. The work Wind Pavilion (2020) is among his more recent works featured at an urban setting; it was exhibited on the beach of Liepāja, western Latvia, and created as part of the Together public art programme.
The Exhibition "Mobile Museum. Next Season"
03.06.2021.-29.08.2021
Opening times:
Thursdays and Fridays: 14:00-20:00;
Saturdays 12:00-20:00
*Entry- free
Location:
Former textile factory “Boļševicka”,
Ganību dambis 30
Supported by
