EXHIBITION | IVETA ŠMITA | FOREST DICHOTOMY

From 24 August to 30 October, the exhibition by artist Iveta Šmita, “FOREST* DICHOTOMY**,” will be on view in the Exhibition Halls of the Ziemeļblāzma Culture Palace.

“We live in countries that present themselves as green and full of large forested areas, yet for 30 years they have been consumed irresponsibly.

A forest is a living organism that lives and exists according to the laws of nature. It is an organism with a diversity of plant, fungi, lichen, and animal species, and with a varied presence of trees of different ages. This living organism, rich in diversity, ‘Forest,’ is becoming less and less accessible in Latvia, because areas with selectively created young stands or the emptiness left behind by the need for resource consumption are growing larger and larger by the day. Skidder tracks left behind, which over time fill with water and turn into marshland, and cleared areas with a few trees left standing, which break like matchsticks in the first strong wind. All of this is the result of a voracious consumer attitude, which we still call a forest.”

The different color fields that appear in the works are exactly the same as those used to mark bundles of small change, whose total amounts range from 2.50 to 50 euros. With these fields of colored lines, the artist raises the question: is turning the forest into small change worth empty landscapes?

• •A forest is an ecosystem in which the dominant plant form is trees, forming a stand. It includes stands in their various stages of development, within one overall area (trees are at least 5 m tall and have at least 20% crown cover).

** Dichotomy is a set of two mutually exclusive properties or traits.

N.B. The exhibition is FREE OF CHARGE and can be viewed every day from 09:00 to 20:00 at the Ziemeļblāzma Culture Palace.