'Arsenal' by Kristians Brekte at the Arsenals gallery
The Arsenāls gallery of the National Art Museum hosts an eponymous exhibition by Kristians Brekte.
The topic is death, with Brekte focusing on ways of integrating the immortal theme in the museum that once housed military equipment.
"The topic of deaths... It's always somewhere for me. All of my works are about death [he uses the diminutive form of 'death' in Latvian, ed.]. It's always beside you, it doesn't go anywhere. Why do you have to be afraid? You wouldn't want to live forever, it's boring.
You have as much time as you're given, and accordingly people have to think if they want to do something or not," Brekte told Latvian Television Thursday.
The exhibition features soldiers' photos found in antique shops; gas tanks lifted from car scrap yards, along with porcelain skulls and silk screenings featuring pupils throwing books into bonfires.
There's even a kokle - a Latvian musical instrument similar to the harp - that plays itself there.
Cheap tickets at the Mark Rothko Center
The famous Mark Rothko Center at Daugavpils will on Sunday - and on Christmas, too, incidentally - offer tickets cheaper than usual to see the moving exhibitions and the artworks by Mark Rothko, who was born in Daugavpils.
On Sunday you can see Mark Rothko's works for the affordable price of €3 or see all the art in store at the center for €4.5. This is a good reason for paying a visit to Latvia's second-largest city.
Christmas markets galore
Visiting Rīga in this wonderful time of the year? Across Old Rīga, several markets where you can buy crafted goods, mulled wine and souvenirs from Latvia are open throughout the day, with the most popular ones located on Doma square, Līvu square.
Outside the old town, the Esplanāde square is also filled with the mercantile emanations of the Christmas spirit, with Berga Bazārs in central Rīga and Kalnciema square across the river Daugava also proving to be good places to discover and obtain Christmasy things.
