Ivars Grāvlejs

Ivars Grāvlejs (1979) began his career as a photojournalist at the newspaper “Spogulis”, and later studied photography at the FAMU academy in Prague, increasingly engaging in conceptual projects. He has been called a hooligan, an interventionist and a provocateur, and he has been accused of having a thematic programme and a social strategy. But Grāvlejs does not conceptualise his works, remaining faithful to his spontaneous, playful perception of life and art, which enables him to find new elements of visual experience in each project. Grāvlejs strives to avoid the generally accepted system of values of art photography. For most of his projects, he has assumed a sort of photographic amateur’s role, employing childhood photographs and photos from the internet, often mocking photography as a medium.

A photo collection “The Nineties“ consists of small black and white and colour photographs, which tell the story of everyday events in the life of a teenager and his friends at a secondary school in the Riga suburb of Iļģuciems. These photographs can be divided into two categories – artistic (realisation of ideas and experimentation) and documentary (recording school routine – fights with classmates, teachers etc.). The photographs contain historical documentation and the artist’s experiences, which conjure up personal feelings of that time in the memories of contemporaries.

In the video work "Mobile" (2007), the artist attempts to convince visitors to art exhibitions that watching pornographic videos on a mobile phone is much more interesting than wasting time viewing boring and inexpressive exhibitions. "Porridge" (2011) documents a domestic dispute over a seemingly banal question – how to cook porridge correctly. The work violates the boundaries between private and public space, prompting a discussion about authenticity and forcing us to think about what is considered "sufficiently significant" content for a work of art. "Territory War" (2012) is part of the project "RIGA" (in collaboration with Czech artist Petra Petilet), which was created with the aim of studying the transitional period of Latvia after the restoration of independence, when social inequality and economic problems rapidly increased.

16 photographs from the series “Happenings and Performances” // photo collection “The Nineties“ 1987–1997.

15 photographs from the series "Scream and flash" // photo collection “The Nineties“ 1987–1997.

Mobile. 2007.

Porridge. 2011.

Territory War. 2012.