CREATIVE NETWORKS
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Kristine had taken a cinema class there during her school years (Briede 2010). Although Kristine and Carl were more focused on working in cinema and TV and less interested in the new ‘techno culture’, they were always captivated by art and the new creative processes. Kaspars Vanags was Kristine’s childhood friend and in the early 1990s not long before the first Open events, they got in touch again. ‘Together with Carl we met Kaspars shortly before the Open event in Riga Old town on Miesnieku street. He was upset that LNT was charging him 800 lats77 for doing a report on this Open thing and we said (well actually Carl suggested) that we would like to do it for free’ (Briede 2010). In cooperation with TV3, who provided camera and editing equipment in exchange for producing programs, Locomotive did the first program on Open under the name of ‘Tussofka’. During the next Open event ‘Biosports’, Vanags invited Kristine and Carl to participate themselves and to exhibit their series of photo artwork. Kaspars Vanags was an excellent ‘connector’ and this way he met many of the then young journalists and as a result, the activities of Open were covered in the press and almost all the key media channels interested in culture. The first Open events such as ‘Open’ (1995) on Miesnieku street at an empty three-story warehouse and ‘Biosports’ (1996) on Lacplesa street at the former perfume factory and a five-story building ‘Dzintars’ suggested a new current in Latvian culture, in terms of both content – innovative and highly qualitative works by young artists (installations combined with alternative fashion show, DJs and techno music) and scope (each of these events had a couple of thousand visitors). It’s confusing to call it ‘subculture’ especially in today’s sense, according to art theorist Alise Tifentale, because ‘even our major art journal ‘Studija’ did an article on Open so, I think, you couldn’t call it a subculture anymore. This was [the expression of culture] that filled the ‘empty space’ [in Latvian culture]’ (Tifentale 2010). Alise, who at the time was studying journalism at University of Latvia and later took part in founding E-Lab, was producing TV shows about alternative contemporary art called ‘Raada Alise’ (Alise shows) on one of the first independent TV channels, RBS. RBS TV aired Alise’s reports on the Open events and she did many articles on Open and E-Lab events later on as well. Alise Tifentale prepared the regular reports on RBS TV in collaboration with another then contemporary art activity center – the club ‘Slepenais eksperiments’ (‘Secret Experiment’) which was the idea of architect Aigars Sparaans. This was not a nightclub for simply having a drink; it was also a novel venue in Riga for art exhibitions, performances, and concerts. For many years Latvian curator Inga Steimane worked there, organizing exhibition series of emerging contemporary artists. This place was similar to what ‘Spikeri’ in Riga is nowadays – it hosted different events and was a place for meeting people quite fast and easily. While doing TV reports on these exhibitions Alise established her own social network, which later on helped her to introduce and to involve creative people from different fields in E-Lab. In ‘Slepenais eksperiments’ Alise met Jaanis Garancs who had a particular interest and good technical knowledge about the Internet. She helped to ‘connect’ Jaanis with Raitis Smits and me – at that time we had an idea to create an electronic art center, and this is how E-Lab: the got established. In ‘Slepenais eksperiments’ Alise also met other active members of E-Lab – artist Arvids Alksnis, the today well-known photographer Arnis Balcus and many others (Tifentale 2010). Given the development of the alternative culture network in Latvia during the 1990s, another perspective reveals a new aspect – this was one of the precedents in Latvia’s culture and society
77. 800 LVL (lats) = about 1126 EUR.