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Inta Ruka’s “My Fellow Country People” in gallery Pallas
Inta Ruka’s “My Fellow Country People” in gallery Pallas
17.01. – 11.02.2023
Opening of the exhibition on 17.01.2023 at 15.00-17.00
Inta Ruka is internationally probably the most famous Latvian photographer, who throughout her life has portrayed simple people – met them for a while when wandering in the countryside or in the city, got to know each other briefly and won people’s trust. Ruka’s working method has been considered anthropological or modestly theatrical documentary, because her works are temporal, related to a specific era, place and people. As a result of her work, relatively authentically documented catalogues of residents living in different regions of Latvia during and after the Soviet era have been created.
In the gallery Pallas, visitors will have the opportunity to get a fairly extensive overview of Inta Ruka’s black and white analog photography series “My Fellow Country People” shot with a Rolleiflex, which she started in 1982. Most of the half a hundred photographs to be exhibited were taken before the rebirth of the Latvian Republic in the 1980s in rural areas of the country. Some portraits from the 1990s and 2000s have also been selected.
The photographer’s visual language can be considered romantic, with the poses, postures, glances, mood and relationship to the photographer’s presence speak of the sense of self-identity under colonial rule. In addition, Ruka’s backgrounds, in front of which he places the hero of the picture, bear the characteristics of romantic aesthetics, where, in addition to natural light, the texture of the background, the composition’s rhythms and proportions also play an important role.
Inta Ruka (1958) lives and works in Riga, Latvia. During her long and consistent international exhibition activity, she has been recognized with several scholarships (Hasselblad Foundation, 1998, etc.) and awards (Latvian Artists’ Union Annual Award, 2003), of which the highest award of the Order of the Three Stars of Latvia (2009) can be considered the greatest. In 1999, she represented Latvia at the 48th Venice Biennale. His works belong to several public art collections in Estonia, Latvia, Sweden, Germany, Denmark, Switzerland, Norway and the Netherlands.
The exhibition was prepared by Inta Ruka and Peeter Linnap.
Exhibition committee: Peeter Linnap curator, Reet Pulk-Piatkowska gallerist, Teet Papson, Andrus Kannel, Toomas Kalve.
Thank you: Inta Ruka, PallasFoto, Pallas College of Art, Piret Viirpalu, Reet Pulk Piatkowska, Zuzeum Art Center: Ingūna Ģēģere, Laura Briede, Andrus Kannel, Toomas Kalve, Rain Avarmaa, Raivo Aasna, and others.
Coverphoto: Inta Ruka. Sanita Kokareviča, Praskovja Timofejeva. 1986.
14.01.2023
