Deriving from the name of the exhibition (mimicry – the change of shape, color in relation to the external environment; to mimic – to imitate, reproduce the surrounding), the exposition has been created by investigating the humanity’s unstoppable urge to copy and imitate, forming new identities.
For the underage to successfully get into a night club with a falsified driver’s license is an absolute classic. The kids want to look and act like adults, it always has been and always will be so. To identify with the strongest or at least the ones who are stronger is a natural survival instinct. A powerful identity comes slowly and is formed in the same way – by layering other, more dominant effects.
“Who am I?” – the president of some country once asked himself. The answer may differ – for one you will be a fool, for another – a king, and for someone else – an empty space. All these images are true and exist simultaneously. Which one is real? All of them.
Street art and graffiti in Latvia is a relatively new construct in which countless stronger “generations” must be born and die in order to call it a culture, but the history is made right now. The facades of the buildings do not really care whether the dick on the wall was drawn by a medical examiner or a poet or both. We care. And sometimes we care a lot.
But who are we? Who is KIWIE? It is a sausage dog, a bear, a pig, a cow and many other beasts, whatever each one of us sees in it and we cannot say with any certainty that anyone is wrong. Je suis KIWIE and so on.
The funny, usually smiling, pudgy critter on the walls, in the rooms and on the streets all over the world is alive for over 10 years. Born and raised in Latvia, KIWIE, as a regular gramp has decided to celebrate this anniversary with a decent exhibition. In his retrospective KIWIE has tried to look for what has made him and those who have made him.
KIWIE – one of the first street artists in Latvia, who based his artistic style on a multiform repetition of one specific image gaining recognition among artists not only in Latvia but also abroad.
The exhibition will be opened to visitors from 12 November until 11 December in the exhibition hall “Riga Art Space” in Kungu iela 3, Riga.