Some Instances of Encounters Between Imagination and Matter

The book Some Instances of Encounters between Imagination and Matter is a case study of "Exhibition" a show by Andris Egltis (b. 1981) presented at the Latvian National Museum of Art in autumn 2024.

It collects Traces (documentation of the Exhibition by photographer Reinis Hofmanis and photos of the creative process by Egltis himself), and Reverberations (critical writing: a philosophical essay by author and curator Jonatan Habib Engquist; an interview with artist Andris Egltis by poet and performance artist Agnese Krivade; an essay contextualizing Egltis art in contemporary art discourse by art historian Santa Hira).

Seen by nearly 30,000 visitors, "Exhibition" was not only Egltis largest solo exhibition to date but also an attempt to bend, disturb, and rewrite what a museum and an exhibition can be. It reached outward from the solitary figure of the artist toward a chorus of other voices, beings, and materials.

Shaped by Egltis recent practice primarily painting, but also building, sculpture, installation, and set design "Exhibition" unfolded in dialogue with works by friends and collaborators, many linked to Savvaa, a collective project founded six years ago in his open-air studio in Drusti. Since then, Savvaa has actively influenced the contemporary art landscape of the Baltics.

"Exhibition" reimagined the post-socialist in dialogue with the post-humanist a radical form of landscape painting where the landscape itself becomes the painter, and companionship becomes an artistic method.