ABOUT - ROJA ART LAB

INTRODUCTION

ROJA ART LAB is an artist-run, non-profit initiative, which provides a creative arena for artists who are ambitious about their work and open to the challenges of an environment that demands experimentation, cooperation and exchange. We are looking for participants who will engage with local community, investigate and reflect on materials and place and utilize innovative uses of various media (installation, land art, performance, video, sound, painting, sculpture, ceramics, time-based, photography, etc.) The residency culminates in a public celebration, performances and exhibition of individual and collaborative works that have emerged over the time of interacting together for 15 days.

ROJA ART LAB removes artists geographically and conceptually from their routine studio practice and brings them together to work in a way that is mutually beneficial–contributing to developing an international dialogue that explores our cultural and parochial differences while celebrating our commonalities. We are very interested in new forms and approaches to working that could potentially change the outcome of site-specificity related to the residency.

ROJA ART LAB is organized by NGO “Art Group ROKU” – curator Māris Grosbahs.

MESSAGE FROM THE CURATOR MĀRIS GROSBAHS

Since the inception of activities in Roja, the primary objective has been to make work, get away fom the everyday and to be open to new ideas while embracing experimentation. The opportunity to exchange skills with one another while finding new ones is a major contributor to this art-camp-style-event, breaking out of the everyday routine and being with a group of individuals that essentially create the event. Be ambitious and inventive when you have limited resources, make mistakes without being judged, be more focused on the process rather the results. Our agenda is not to make our own brand but rather to help participants realize theirs.

LOCATION

Roja is located along the North Kurzeme coast of the Riga Bay and is situated at the estuary of the Roja river and the Baltic Sea (120 km from Capital City of Latvia, Riga). Presently, Roja has roughly 4500 inhabitants and the area is surrounded by a virtually untouched natural environment. The sea, dunes, beaches, pine forests and the appealing coastal village serve as the perfect setting for both working and recreation.

Tourism brochure about Roja – http://www.roja.lv/tour/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/KR341_Roja_EN_internetam.pdf

www.roja.lv

ORGANIZERS

The Art group ROKU is non-profit organization (founded in 2012). ROKU members have organized events such as International Art Laboratory ROJARAKU in Roja (1997 – 2006) ; Art Laboratory AIZ – artists residency (2009 – ) in Aizpute at SERDE workshop and residency center, www.serde.lv , www.facebook.com/smgSERDE ; Cinema, Art, Music festival Rojal (2011 – 2013 ) etc.

THE TEAM

Māris Grosbahs // Director and Founder

ROJALAB is the brainchild of artist and native of Roja, Māris Grosbahs. He has been a participant and organizer of art events in Roja since 1997. Maris holds a BA from the Art Academy of Latvia and an MFA in Spatial Arts from the California State University at San Jose. After graduating, he has worked as a multi-disciplinary artist, curator, stage designer and lecturer. He has taught at San Jose State University, the Art Academy of Latvia, l’Ecole cantonale d’art du Valais and currently is teaching at Vilnius Art Academy in Lithuania.

Through his inspiring experience of art residencies and involvement in the Latvian art scene, the ROJALAB concept emerged. The impetus for the event is based in an active, alive and constantly evolving entity that expands and evolves over time–therefore its name has changed throughout the years from the RojaRaku International Ceramics Symposium to the ROJARAKU Art Lab. At one point, a part of RojaL Cinema Arts and Music Festival–ROJAL Art Lab–following extensive research and diverse dialogues with senior contemporary arts practitioners and professionals from around the world, the work of making the concept a reality began.

Ieva Bertašiūte Grosbaha // Co-founder of ROJALAB

An artist, researcher, currently PhD student at Vilnius Art Academy, she works interdisciplinary, she is not denying her base in ceramics. She is searching for the points where different disciplines of art and science meet each other.
“ My artwork is about searching. I do not intend to find, I do not want to. The process of searching, the excitement in it, the fear, the happiness, the disappointment and the sadness, that’s what interests me most.
I’m very fond of processes and ceramics is the discipline of processes – preparing the clay, forming it, process of drying, firing – many kinds of it. I strive for changing the ordinary processes of ceramics, I want to have my role and change the predefined rules in them. That’s why I use a tree bark as a “mold” or form my pieces to look as if they are paper-made. I am exploring the possibilities of ceramics as a material, the thickness, the deformation, the cracking.”
Her work usually has two very important sides – a joke and a serious message.

Brian Benfer // Advisor

Brian Benfer is an interdisciplinary artist living and working in Southern California. His work thematically deals with the concept of residue and its implication on the psyche while utilizing an array of material considerations and processes. He holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University and has exhibited throughout the US and abroad. His work is included in copious private, academic and museum collections and he has lectured at major venues and institutions throughout his career. He has held various academic appointments at instrumental programs in the US and written reviews and articles for numerous publications. In addition, he has also curated a number of exhibitions and participated in a myriad of symposia and residencies over the last two decades. http://brianbenfer.com/

Oskars Redbergs // Advisor

Oskars Redbergs is an urban planner, architect, education innovator and curator. His main research focus is on the transformation of urban landscape of post-socialist cities. He has curated several large scale exhibtions, written a number of articles as well as been an editor for several books.

He studied Architecture and Urban planning at Riga Technical University, The Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts – School of Architecture, Danish Institute for Study Abroad (DIS) and graduated from the Staatliche Hochschule der bildenden Künste (Staedelschule) of Frankfurt am Main in 2003. In 2009 he completed the Creative Leaders Cultural Management programme at the Swedish Institute in Stockholm. Since then he have been closely collaborating with Art and Architecture center Färgfabriken for various international multidisciplinary collaboration projects focusing on cities with complex social, political and economic contexts such as Mostar, Kaliningrad, Kiev, Riga and Stockholm. In 2017 Redbergs has completed his doctoral research at Brandenburgische Technische Universität, Germany.

http://hilbig.lv/people/oskars-redbergs