FORUM HARDIJS LEDINS (1955-2004)
MAIJA RUDOVSKA
Each month our residency guests will present their own work, a chosen theme, a current interest or present their residency project. Our August resident guest is art historian and curator Maija Rudovska.
Maija Rudovska will present her current research on the legacy of the Latvian multimedia artist Hardijs Ledins (1955-2004), a cult figure in Latvian non-conformist art history. He was trained as an architect, and held a position as a research assistant at Latvia’s Institute for Scientific and Experimental Building Technology during the Soviet Socialist Republic of Latvia in the 1970s and 80s. Ledins was also deeply engaged in local so called kitchen culture, famous for his experimental music, DJ sessions, poetry, installations and performance works.
Ledins never succeeded as an architect or in his official post, but gained fame and acclaim as a conceptual and perfomance artist, although issues relating to architecture and architecture’s connection to the human being in society at large was always present in his artistic works. Ledins´ thinking on architecture as a tool to organize ‘social ecology’ should be discussed in relation to his legacy. Rudovska’s research deals with connecting and analyzing how Ledins´ reflections on architecture are evident in his artistic works. The main aim is to investigate how his non-specific work, such as performance, happenings, poetry, music and other artistic ‘methods’, reflected architectural topics.
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Maija Rudovska (1982, Latvia) is an independent curator and art historian from Latvia, based in Riga. Her research is dealing with architecture of the Soviet era in Latvia and its relationship between stylistics, politics and social sphere. She has previously curated/co-curated Regard: Subversive Actions and Normative Space (Moderna Museet, Sockholm, 2010), Hardijs Ledins (1955-2004) - Zeitgeist and the atmosphere of a place (Riga Art Space, Riga, 2009) and Candy Bomber - Young Latvian Painting (Latvian National Art museum, Riga, 2007/2008). She completed Curatorlab at Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm this year, and started her PhD thesis at the Art Academy of Latvia. She holds an MA in Arts from the Art Academy of Latvia and a BA in pedagogy of visual art from the University of Latvia. Rudovska contributes regularly as a writer to Latvian art magazines.