Until January 9, the Ola Foundation arts space is hosting “The Inertia and Pull of Silence,” a jubilee exhibition by artist Roberts Koļcovs, featuring mainly works created over the past year. On the way to creating them, having a clear deadline is often important, helping him get through lazy days, the artist revealed on the Latvian Radio 3 program “Atspere.” His works also need space for silence: “It’s worth mentioning [diriģents] Sigvards Kļava (..) and what he does when a piece of music ends. (..) It’s a silence in which he breathes out before he can start [to] drawing the air back in again.”
“Music hits you straight in the brain”
In an earlier interview, Roberts Koļcovs said that music is the most influential of all media, and he hasn’t changed his mind: “I change, but music remains. (..) Music hits you straight in the brain. No filter gets in the way anymore, except deafness. All other media are secondary.”
In his latest exhibition, “The Inertia and Pull of Silence,” silence is neither emptiness nor a pause. It becomes a space in its own right, with its own intensity, movement, and inertia - an environment where form and content can emerge. One of the inspirations behind the exhibition’s title is conductor Sigvards Kļava and the special moment after the final note of a piece, when silence becomes almost tangible: “It’s worth mentioning Sigvards Kļava (..) and what he does when a piece of music ends. It’s a complete moment in which he (..) gives more than others the chance for something to happen. It’s a silence in which he breathes out before he can start [to] drawing the air back in again. There’s an almost metaphysical feeling to it.”
With a firm hand - delicately, gently, and sensitively
In structuring the exhibition, Roberts Koļcovs continues to apply a principle of polarity that is important to him - the tension between opposites, balance, and pull, which persist even as movement shifts from one pole to the other: “I’m a hundred-kilogram guy, and there’s this paradox I’ve tried to apply all my life - (..)
if you’re given a terribly firm hand, try drawing a delicate line with it.
If you push yourself to do something that’s delicate, that’s sensitive, (..) then you’re searching for balance. There’s a lot hidden in that, a lot of reasons to live.”
Read more: lsm.lv
