Andris Vītoliņš. A painter. Always in motion, he states that he’s fascinated by mankind and its development. In his works we can follow the process of taking over of urbanization and the shift of the landscape. The architectonic structures, industrial patterns, machinery and objects made by man that he paints can be very well connected to his views on topics like society, politics, education, etc. – critical thinking and awareness is the key to progress.

For over a decade he has been one of the Latvian art scene&rsquo;s most recognizable figures and you can find his works in various collections here and abroad. Now, after many years of working as a Professor and the Head of the Painting department of the Art Academy of Latvia, he has been elected as the Prorector in Study and Research Work.

By Elīna Sproģe

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2019 marks the 100th anniversary of the Art Academy of Latvia. What does it mean for the institution you&rsquo;re now co-running?

Firstly, I would like to consider this question from a broader, national perspective. What does this centenary mean to the Latvian State? This brings several interesting things to mind. For example, personalities such as painter and AAL co- founder, Vilhelms Purvītis, and composer and the first rector of the Latvian Conservatory, Jāzeps Vītols played a huge role in this country&rsquo;s formation. It is no secret that politician Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics travelled to England to resolve the matter of Latvia&rsquo;s founding as a state. He took with him a so-called artists&rsquo; portfolio organized by Purvītis as a gift to British statesmen. This served as confirmation that a place existed where culture and values were something worth fighting for.

I recall reading somewhere that the AAL is considered to be the most powerful arts institution in the country. During this period of history, various institutions that used to be powerful have been liquidated and closed, while the kind that have existed from the start of the country&rsquo;s existence to the present day are a rarity.

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It turns out that we can consider the entire history of the country under the auspices of one infrastructure.

Yes, maybe this is important due to the fact that we have something to make a comparison with &ndash; the Latvian State. A large quantity of baggage has been accumulated, but I am disinclined to emphasise these hundred years as an achievement &ndash; we need to look ahead.

It transpires that the state has been occupied and destroyed to an even greater degree than the Academy. It has survived all the regimes in which various innovations continue to go on between its walls. The academy has often been of huge importance, including during the Soviet era, which has influenced Soviet design and art, as a whole.

Of course, it can be viewed from various perspectives, and the fact that there have been periods of stagnation is undeniable.

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And what is it like now?

I think I can remember the AAL&rsquo;s 80th birthday, so I&rsquo;ve been present for almost a quarter of a century. I have to say that I&rsquo;m very lucky to live at a very interesting time, because in truth a significant change of generations is taking place with this anniversary, in a purely physical sense. The academy itself, its structure and the building are being modernized and I think that its power has doubled. This is a great challenge and responsibility!

The things that survive are those that develop like trees, plants and forests. It is developing and experiencing changes and transformations. More often than not, things that stand still are swept away together with the dust of history.

Changes in the context of the academy also apply to you &ndash; from being the Head of the Painting Department, you&rsquo;ve become the AAL prorector.

One evening, British film director Peter Greenaway popped in to see us, and during the course of our conversation, sitting at the rector&rsquo;s table he announced that in art, painters are the ones who matter most. His argument was that painters have the greatest ability to catch sight of the overall picture.

In order to run an institution like the Academy of Art, in truth this is one of the most important prerequisites. Because we know that there are people who see numbers and think in terms of curves. Why do we so often hear about banks going bust ? They employ analysts and people who see numbers, but very often banks don&rsquo;t employ creative people. They think that according to their calculations everything is in proper order, but then the house of cards suddenly collapses. I associate this with vision &ndash; the ability to see things and believe or not believe things that are written on paper.

Rector Kristaps Zariņ&scaron; is like this &ndash; he sees &ldquo;the bigger picture&rdquo; and is progressively-minded. He is not a nomenclature person, but rather somebody with charisma and with character &ndash; if the situation demands it, he&rsquo;ll punch someone in the eye!

We are undeniably living in an age of calculation and bureaucratic fetishism. As a country, in a way Latvia also finds itself in a state of bureaucratic madness. Like an epidemic, it has already afflicted the so-called well-off part of the world. In this fetish all that people see is formal stuff &ndash; numbers and tables. When a painter paints he must simultaneously see the details and the entire image as a whole. He must be able to see the big relationships, the interaction of colours and spatial depth. For many people, in my opinion, this ability to see the big picture also works in other areas.

As the prorector, I cannot be loyal to just one department. I have to be equally responsible to all those under the roof of this building. This could be compared to working on a large-format painting.

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We are not just talking about one house here. The academy has taken up residence at Avotu Street, is developing the Kuga house project and Riga Makerspace, as well as actively operating in Kuldīga.

Yes, thanks to the generosity of the municipality of Riga, we have succeeded in creating modernized studios at Avotu Street 36a. It is finally possible to work with metal and clay in accordance with all the equipment and work safety standards.

This house has gone through its toddler and teething stage and has now started an independent life of its own. In a purely psychological sense, it is hard for the majority of students and lecturers to accept that the move from the temple at the Esplanāde to the studios in Avotu Street has made it less central. But now one can sense that everyone has discovered and felt the creative spirit of this place. It is no coincidence that galleries like LOW and 427 have opened

there, while bars like Bolderāja, Aleponija and Čē that are popular with artists are also located nearby. Another close neighbour currently under development is the Zuzeum Art Centre.

As you mentioned, we can reveal that with support from the European Union, renovation work has begun at the house of former academy rector Jānis Kuga, which is a unique example of the architecture of its day &ndash; a villa built during the war with a small studio. As a set designer Kuga created a kind of stage there, on which to prepare for performances. In about a year&rsquo;s time, we will be able to assess the first results in the form of a multi-functional premise that are intended for design workshops and online webinars. Conceptually, it is planned as a hive of technology and it is hoped that it will be similar to a residency which can host foreign professionals.

In turn, Riga Makerspace functions together with the Riga School of Design and Art, and it is supervised by the Head of the AAL&rsquo;s Project and Development Department Jānis Gailītis. A. Briāna Street 13, in this 19th century building, which was formerly home to light industry technicians, will now be home to a prototype centre with concept and technology-

testing workshops.

Parallel to this, Kuldīga, which we&rsquo;re familiar with because of the summer en plein airs that we&rsquo;ve held there for decades, is home to collaboration that is maintained on two sides by the Manager of the Kuldīga Artists&rsquo; Residence Ilze Supe and the Head of the AAL Master&rsquo;s Programme Antra Priede-Krievkalne. With megapower, they&rsquo;re writing projects that will help to fill the new building with content, as well as helping to attract foreign resources.

Currently, we are developing the idea of a service design education platform, which the Baltic region definitely lacks. This is an international, inter-disciplinary project between art and business &ndash; a Master&rsquo;s programme for people who have already achieved something in life and are possibly already working in a specific field, and are interested in raising its quality and effectiveness through observations of creative processes.

When a painter paints he must simultaneously see the details and the entire image as a whole. He must be able to see the big relationships, the interaction of colours and spatial depth.

One undoubtedly senses the emphasis on international scope and technological development &ndash; it seems that these too are the changes under discussion in the context of generational change. This is a great challenge to an institution that has followed traditional art education principles for decades and is quite introverted. 

We have already discussed the ability to avoid getting stuck in downtime and clearly this is always easy to accept. The world is changing; currently, there is a great deal of political pressure on universities and this will only increase. Europe is aging; people are living longer, together with the nation&rsquo;s tax burden. This means that the state will soon seek to reorganize how long, how and what people study. And we too will no longer be able to afford to meditate for six years slowly inventing and doing research. Art education in Latvia is available free of charge, but one has to remember that at some stage we could be left without this financing. Therefore, the academy has to follow current trends; we can&rsquo;t live like we&rsquo;re in an old folks&rsquo; home. We have to prove the significance of art as an integral part of life and in truth also its function &ndash; how important it is and the ways in which it can improve and augment our lives. One has to endeavour to highlight the intellectual, environmental and philosophical quality of these processes and the economic contribution of art and design.

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Likewise, it is also vital to infuse students with this &ndash; to give them the opportunity to master instruments that will allow them to function and to be competitive during their studies and after graduating from the academy.

Of course! This is a question for each of them, which of the two paths they will choose. There will always be left-wingers who don&rsquo;t want to hear a word about commercialization. Everyone has a moment when he thinks that he&rsquo;s going to be a great artist who will be able to solely concentrate on producing works. Only this morning, I told the sculptors that they have to understand that many commissions are going to be private. Maybe, it&rsquo;ll be a client who wants a sculpture for their new luxury apartment. That&rsquo;s the reality. Working with these kinds of orders you can earn your keep and maybe also afford to realise your projects. And at the same time, only one of the hundred will be able to make a work for the Venice Biennale.

I believe that it is important to take this into account and to concentrate your goal early, along with the ways how to achieve this; which of the muscle groups to develop. Every field has different preconditions &ndash; either the quality of the idea or the technical execution. Therefore, you also have to keep track of which waters you&rsquo;re swimming in; we&rsquo;ve got to keep our eyes open.

Is the meaning of this process also that which will be emphasized in the forthcoming AAL 100th anniversary exhibition projects in the MVT Summer House and at the LNMM Arsenāls Exhibition Hall?

Yes, that&rsquo;s spot on &ndash; both these projects will showcase a live process and feedback loop! Art historians have this black humour whereby it&rsquo;s easier to work with dead artists because they don&rsquo;t protest. You have to discuss current issues in the context of artistic values. As regards the Art Museum, we really are like old relatives, which we thought that this exhibition should be exported from the AAL premises.

And this MVT will move in next door to us &ndash; containers will be installed on the other side of the academy&rsquo;s fence and our lecturers and students will organize exhibitions in them. Generally, Riga has an acute shortage of properly-equipped exhibition spaces. This is also the concern of Mākslai Vajag Telpu (Art Requires Space). Unfortunately, the ABLV Charitable Foundation project has currently come to a halt, and in my opinion the absence of such a museum can be acutely felt. In order to shake up the art scene, we need to expand the infrastructure.

Our country has countless tourism offices that advertise something abstract. They should all be closed, new exhibition spaces and museums should be opened and those people should be transferred to work there. Is there any place in the world where Paris or Florence pastes ads on walls ? It is the environment that is the magnet that attracts.

Nor do people want to travel to lecture in some place where life is boring. I would say that museums are vital to the creation of such a microclimate. It&rsquo;s the same story with the aforementioned Avotu Street. I think that, for example, in future the Zuzeum Centre and its neighbours have a great opportunity to completely transform this part of town. People usually don&rsquo;t think about how much quality time you can spend when you visit a particular place. How much time can you spend like this in Riga when it&rsquo;s dark and rainy?

This is where, in my opinion, that the pointlessness of the Song and Dance Celebration advertising and Latvia&rsquo;s rural tourism pamphlets is clearly revealed. In this regard we are definitely outcompeted by Tallinn, Tartu and Vilnius. If we do not have a modern art museum as both neighbouring countries do, then we have to do the best we can on our part.

Therefore, in the context of both these institutions this is logical, both in terms of themes and format.

Exactly! For example, at Arsenāls we&rsquo;ve got quite provocative ideas about the academy&rsquo;s gardens. We&rsquo;re actively thinking about how to infuse this desire with surprise and vitality, injecting this into the set design. We need to change the spatial architecture and to create a spiritual level with the help of the second floor. We don&rsquo;t want a classic sleep-inducing chronological review exhibition. As lecturers, we try to travel a lot and to visit art universities in other countries and more often than not I end up sharing my impressions about how awful or senile approaches are still being used, even by ostensibly prestigious teaching institutions.

We must strive to achieve the goal of making the AAL the leading art university in the Baltics and Scandinavia. This is a huge opportunity for Riga. We have to break into the list of top European schools within a decade and stand alongside Central Saint Martins, for example, to which everyone wants to be admitted. We must be ambitious! Therefore, in these gardens we have no desire to extract old works from foundations; we want an open accessible exhibition format offering a view of the future. For the duration of this period, the idea is also transfer part of the teaching process from the AAL to the museum. It could host some lectures and workshops.

And after an exhibition, this construction could travel on to the academy&rsquo;s courtyard, making it possible to create pop-up exhibitions in a different form and to organize other activities, thus continuing the work begun with the MVT exhibition series.

All this creates a micro-environment; as a building, the Academy of Art should be working 24 hours a day. We need to make it a place that students want to spend time in and where they feel encouraged to execute their wildest ideas. The process must not stop for a second and its progress is already taking place with one stirring up the other. Thus, the ball will start rolling and more and more foreign students will be ready to travel here to study and lecturers will want to give lectures here.

&nbsp;

The city&rsquo;s development plan is ready!

There&rsquo;s a belief that the country is being deserted by the poorest section of the population, but in my opinion the wealthiest members of the population are suffering from a lack of opportunities. They have the money, but they&rsquo;re bored &ndash; so why not head to New York or Berlin? We have to make Riga the place to be.

As a painter you also mostly organize your exhibitions outside Latvia. Is this linked to the poverty of the environment?

The exhibitions spaces simply don&rsquo;t exist and there&rsquo;s a lack of professional service. This is what I mean by the creative microflora of a specific environment, starting from art handlers, fine art transporters, light experts, printers and framers, etc. Here, it&rsquo;s all at an unbelievably poor level. In truth, the art scene is shaped by a vast number of representatives of other professions on whom and on whose quality it is in a way dependent. We are still in children&rsquo;s nappies and I think it&rsquo;s logical that initiatives like RIBOCA (Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art) choose Riga. It is really difficult to launch something in a new place, but this has an immeasurable and positive impact on the local art scene. Once again, we&rsquo;re talking about stirring things up and getting involved. Right now, for the most part, everyone is moaning but still not taking part. Water does not flow under an embedded stone.

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It is interesting that almost everything we talk about in connection with the academy can also be deciphered in your latest exhibition Take a Deep Breath for a New Beginning, which was on view this spring in Vilnius. 

Yes, I&rsquo;ve also observed that there&rsquo;s a lot of maths in the stuff I&rsquo;m currently creating. In truth, similar to thinking about the academy, at some stage this idea about bigger and smaller structures was transformed in that I was thinking about how strong these systems are and what prompts them to collapse or to exist. How one thing multiplies, how it is fragmented, and what the idea of stability consists of. From this, one can conclude to a considerable extent that my paintings resonate with how I think as a prorector and as a bureaucrat. This is interest in the perfect organism, in the digital mind, in machinery, which when viewed historically, has deprived artists of a great deal.

There is one thing that I would really like to introduce to the Academy &ndash; digital hygiene days. For example, Fridays, when all emails and social networks would be completely ignored, and in their place we devote time to strategic thinking, arrangement of ideas and thoughts, as well as perspective. Time in which to take a deep breath.

Such is the pace of contemporary life that people no longer have the time to come up with even a single proper thought. Things cannot be revealed if one does not invest resources in them, and it is the collapse of this imaginary chess system; these big ideas and structures that are the things that strike me as being valuable and that we should be dedicating time to. Instead of tossing information back and forth by email or pushing paper from one cabinet to another, we&rsquo;ll concentrate on the big picture.

The Bigger Picture | Andris Vītoliņš

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