Ongoing

Online project: winter 2021 - spring 2022

Participating artists: Dave Greber (USA), Cristina Molina (USA), duo Anna Ihle (NO) and Addoley Dzegede (USA), Kjetil Detroit Kristensen (NO), Līga Spunde (LV), Inga Meldere (LV)

Curated by Maija Rudovska (Blind Carbon Copy) in close partnership with Amy Mackie (PARSE NOLA), Tina Rigby Hanssen (Vestfold Art Center) and Cristina Molina (Camp Street Studios, Southeastern Louisiana University Contemporary Art Gallery)

A Structure Envisioned for Changing Circumstances (ASEFCC) brings together curators from various organisations such as Blind Carbon Copy (Riga, Latvia), PARSE NOLA (New Orleans, Louisiana), Camp Street Studios (New Orleans, Louisiana), Kongsberg kunstforening (Kongsberg, Norway), and Vestfold Arts Center (Tønsberg, Norway)—and artists from the United States, Latvia, and Norway. These institutions and individuals contribute to this initiative, forming an interconnected web between the participants. This newly created website, ASEFCC.com, designed by Dave Greber, is shared by all participants. The content (images, videos, writing, a podcast, etc.) is contributed by artists, writers, and curators from the U.S., Latvia, and Norway, and specifically address issues of fragility, precariousness, impermanence, and isolation. Invited artists include Dave Greber (New Orleans), Cristina Molina (New Orleans), Addoley Dzegede (Pittsburgh/Tulsa) + Anna Ihle (Norway), Kjetil Detroit (Norway), Līga Spunde (Latvia) and Inga Meldere (Latvia).

MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT

ASEFCC embraces the unknown and considers how art workers live and produce work within/around/despite constantly shifting frameworks. It focuses on the collaborations, support, and exchange that can take place across great distances, and allows for connections between different geographical locations, while also drawing attention to the creation of sustainable and long-lasting partnerships amongst artists and institutions. The project hosted an online program between winter 2021 and spring 2022, addressing the following questions: 

How has the pandemic offered new ways to work globally across geographic boundaries? 

What have been the challenges of this dis-location? 

How can we (and have we) utilized online platforms to connect during times of forced isolation? 

Can this isolation provide space for new visions and spark additional creativity? 

Can an online platform reach larger and more diverse audiences?

BACKGROUND

In fall 2019, Maija Rudovska was hosted by the New Orleans-based art program, PARSE NOLA, for a month-long residency. This residency was supported through a CEC Artslink Fellowship and overseen by PARSE NOLA director, Amy Mackie. Rudovska is an independent curator and researcher who runs Blind Carbon Copy, an arts organization in Riga, Latvia. Her practice is shaped by independent curation, research, art criticism, and writing. The focus of her work is intermediation and stimulation of relationships and communication between different spaces, contexts, individuals, and institutions in the Baltic-Nordic region. While in New Orleans she conducted over 50 studio visits with local artists and developed ties to several artist-run spaces.

Drawing on her experiences in the city, while also reflecting on the precarity and unpredictability of living with Covid, the immediacy of climate change, and the anxiety produced by political unrest, Rudovska developed ASEFCC to bring together various arts organisations from the US, Latvia and Norway.

In the context of growing states of uncertainty, Rudovska began her research with several broad inquiries to art workers: “How can we find space for expression and creation in a world of changing circumstances?” She notably made this inquiry prior to the pandemic and now it relays an overwhelmingly apt sentiment. These issues are not only characteristic for certain places but are a global condition for many people working in the arts. Like Riga, New Orleans has few resources for the art world and its workers. New Orleans is also a disappearing city, one that is becoming increasingly vulnerable in view of climate change.

The partnership with a Norwegian organization helps to amplify these concerns  internationally--and additionally reiterates Rudovska’s ongoing interest in developing partnerships between Baltic and Scandinavian institutions. From Norway, she has selected art practices that represent the struggle to find sustainable structures within the artrealm. 

The past and current projects are showcased on projects IG account @structure.envisioned