Things We Make. In Search of Intersections Between Artist-Curator Work and Networks as a Form of Immaterial Labor in 1980s Latvia

Abstract

This paper examines the intersection between the practice of artist-curator and networking as forms of immaterial labor in 1980s Latvia, using the houses of creativity and the exhibition series Gadījums (Happenstance, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988) as a point of departure. It focuses on the artist-curator as a pivotal figure in shaping artistic processes during the late Soviet era. Their labor contributed to new forms of exhibiting, staging, and representing art in Latvia, while also engaging with the broader socio-political transition in the 1980s. As a case study, the Gadījums exhibition series is analyzed within the context of networks cultivated in the houses of creativity (jaunrades nams). To illustrate the specific nature of a house of creativity in Latvia, the paper examines the Dzintari House of Creativity in Jūrmala. The aim is to explore how artists engaged with and utilized networks and other creative strategies that led to the development of curatorial approaches and methods in the 1980s Latvia.