STILL

Krišs Salmanis is a Latvian conceptual artist with a very multifaceted production. Photography, video, body art, sculpture and installation are all mediums that he invests a lot in with poetry and humor. Through the diversity of techniques, materials, and themes he explores, it is often the method that forms the common thread of his creations. The artworks gathered for Art au Centre #7 are notably the result of a meticulous, long and sometimes tedious work that records the passage of time in a repetitive format.

02cm 02.02.02. is a functional and scalable tattoo made in 2002, the day of the artist’s 25th birthday. Placed on his stomach, it includes the date as well as a two-centimeter line which is measured each year and will be the subject of a growth chart until 2042. In a way, the artwork is also an amused reaction to the tattoo boom of the 1990s, with Salmanis thus becoming a part of the contemporary “ consumer tribe ”.

Dawn is an animation composed of 185 photographs of a print capturing the sunrise on the morning of a summer solstice. The summer solstice is Latvia’s most popular celebration and the event is eagerly awaited as early as Christmas, when the days grow shorter. By re-photographing the image every morning at dawn, from the 2008 winter solstice to the 2009 summer solstice, Salmanis intends to « somewhat recreate the emotion of the original morning – so full of life, anticipation and grief. »