Who said the party was over? It's still on the last lap

  • 2001-08-23
  • Andrea Carrasco
RIGA - The Riga 800 celebrations were long awaited and no one can deny they were a success. But just because the fireworks are over doesn't mean that the party is too.

"Metropole Riga" is an exhibition at the Riga Stock Exchange building on Dome Square. This show of sculptures, photographs, paintings and videos marks the final leg in the Riga 800 affair.

The stock exchange room is hardly recognizable. The space is broken up to represent five areas of Riga through the ages.

The show is really overwhelming when you first walk into the room. A video camera placed directly above the entrance plays an image of water repeatedly falling on the floor, so when you first walk into the building there's a sense of confusion - and an understanding that this is no ordinary exhibition.

Sounds and colors lure you from one place to another before you have a chance to take in all that one space has to offer.

The first area, "River, Bridges," has beautiful paintings like "The Daugava" (1991) by Dace Liela, which are centerpieces with authentic pictures of the makings of Riga's bridges and the river in winter filled with ice positioned carefully around them.

One work, a graphite drawing by Laime Puntule called "Untitled" (1999) might be an attempt at capturing the essence of water or might be a huge page full of scribbles. Really, it is difficult to tell.

The film "Bridges" by Ansis Epners is full of the artistic imagery of the bridges from all possible angles, even from the helm of a windsurfer. Gulls calling and fog horns blaring echoes as you watch the film then combine with the sounds of moaning and smooching as you lift the lid to the sculpture "The Great Kiss of Riga" and look into the innocent red cloth interior and wonder where the hell all the noise is coming from.

The portion of the exhibition called "Suburbs" calls attention to interesting areas outside the center like Sarkandaugava, Pardaugava and Tornakalns.

The pictures show what life was like before, during and after World War II, like the photo trilogy of the smokestack of an old subsidiary station of Riga's water supply system in the Latgale suburb before it fell, during the fall and after. The brick ruins form their own landscape of small rolling hills.

Paintings also give a clear impression of the area, but one in particular is very intriguing. An artist, Juris Putrams, has a fetus painting. It shows a rough line drawn in the shape of a fetus whose eye is an ashtray. It's called, "Homage to My Loved Ones." Words painted inside the shape are a want ad for a cleaning lady.

Across the way a sculpture from Elita Abola entitled "Reflections" allows you to think about things you have seen and what they mean to you, while you gaze tentatively at your reflection in a mirror nestled in a metal tube on the wall.

A mirror at your feet in a circle of metal reflects the shape of the glass above it and creates the image of a ball sitting in the middle. If you look closely, you can see many of the pictures from the area reflected in the mirror.

"Market" is as lovely a part of this exhibition as it is ugly. There are the requisite paintings and too-sweet drawings of market life, a smiling peddler winking from the canvas as light bounces off a gold tooth. A movie with the sights and haggling of the Riga market runs over and over while across the way the most honest sculpture looms out from a lit case.

This is an installation called "To Buy or Not to Buy" (2001) by Sarmite Malina where a grinning stuffed rat hovers near a bowl of colored glass that represents candies and all other treats.

"Street, Buildings" is another part of the show, dedicated to historic buildings and the events around them. Sketches of the president's castle from 1767 contrast with more modern takes on buildings, like "A Wall" (2001) by Sandra Krastina. Old cars parked in front of old houses and new cars parked in front of the same houses a hundred years later give you an idea of how much of Riga has changed and how much has not. At the back of the room is the area "Power," made slightly less serious by a charming puppet light show played on a screen as carnival music drones on and on. As you gaze at boots from different eras of Latvian history, from the soldier's boot of the Russian czar to German officers' footwear, the bouncy music plays on and on.

The show goes on until Sep. 17.