The Orbīta group is embarking upon the liquid element for a journey, nay, a veritable Odyssey of discovery and reflexive revelation at the floating Gallery Noass (AB dambis 2, Rīga) for Where Does Poetry Come From?
"The members of Orbīta (Artūrs Punte, Vladimirs Svetlovs, Sergejs Timofejevs and Aleksandrs Zapoļs) have decided to seek answers to the trivial question that poets are often asked – how and where does poetry come from?" says a release about the exhibition, which then proceeds in suitably purple prose to pose:
"Is it mechanical design or rather an idiosyncratic chain of revelations? The entropy of creativity or the rhythm of disintegration? Something in the air or a special state that one can enter and later exit?"
Erm. Yes, probably one of those.
"Four poets embarked on quests for the truth and now return with their versions of the answers that have assumed the form of four installations within the exhibition spaces of the floating Gallery Noass," explain the organizers.
Orbīta is a group of poets, photographers, musicians and multimedia artists, which has actively participated in the Latvian cultural scene since 1999, creating performances and art installations, publishing bilingual literature, collections of articles, photo books and research literature. To date, Orbīta has performed in the USA, as well as in many European countries including the United Kingdom, Lithuania, Estonia, Germany, Finland, Italy Russia, Croatia, Slovakia, Ukraine and Serbia, etc.
The group was participated to great acclaim (in the form of nominations and awards) in several Latvian and international competitions and events on the visual art scene: it has been nominated for the Purvītis Prize and Kuryokhin Prize, been exhibited at the Cesis Art Festival (2012, 2014, 2016), KUMU Museum in Tallinn (2014), Survival Kit festival in Riga, Berlin Poetry Festival, as well as at the Zebra poetic video festival in Berlin. Currently, two works by Orbīta are on view at the Latvian National Museum of Art – in Portable Landscapes, an exhibition dedicated to the centenary of the Latvian State.
