Opening of the Exhibition “Mycelium. Organic Compounds.”

The artists’ group “Mycelia” brings together women artists from Germany and Latvia who have been collaborating for a long time, jointly creating exhibitions, workshops, and other creative projects. The group’s work is rooted in the principles of sisterhood and mutual support, which make it possible to realize one’s potential in forms of collaboration and interaction, from co-creation and dialogue to process-based, performative, and sensitive individual solutions. Since 2020, mycelium, an invisible underground network, has served as a metaphor for this collaboration between Latvian and German women artists: solidarity instead of competition, diversity, change, and crossing boundaries. The composition of the participants may change, but the shared principles continue. “Mycelia” is a creative ecosystem in which ideas, experiences, and materials resonate and complement one another (mycelia.jimdosite.com

The exhibition “Mycelium. Organic Compounds” is created by 10 women artists: Karina Frēliha (DE), Patrīcija Linke (DE), Penelope Ričardsone (DE/AU), Sabīne Šlunka (DE), Silke Bahmane (DE) from Germany and Laura Feldberga (LV), Ingrīda Pičukāne (LV), Sandra Strēle (LV), Izolde Cēsniece (LV), Anna Auziņa (LV) from Latvia.

All objects and installations in this exhibition are new works. They are united by the desire to make the world larger by first asking questions of themselves and then of the viewers. The works in the exhibition are linked by materials and techniques, as well as by a special attitude toward the world in which listening, exploration, and giving attention are important. In fact, the artists’ own presence plays a major role in almost all the works in the exhibition, their bodies having directly or indirectly shaped the content and form of the work. In social terms, the exhibition models an inclusive world of human scale in which openness, tolerance, and an inexhaustible joy in what is shared are values. The exhibition is like a community in which the different participants collaborate, influence one another, and help reveal each other’s talents without losing their own identity.

If choosing just one, the network metaphor is the one that feels most important as the exhibition’s common denominator. Network, web, system, weave, conversation, and spacetime.